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$70K Could Fund Gun Violence Prevention Project In Cincinnati

Pixabay

Gun violence in Cincinnati is soaring and a group of community leaders plan to do something about it. The new Save Our Brothers and Sisters project is a collaborative effort to help at-risk youth and create more awareness about the devastating effects of gun violence.

"Be fair to the citizens, the citizens of this community, because this is the thing - it may be me and my family today but you and your family tomorrow," Candace Tubbs said at a Budget and Finance Committee meeting Monday.

Tubbs is doing outreach for the program and has worked on efforts to curb youth violence in Cincinnati. She's collaborating with Truth & Destiny Covenant Ministries UCC, House of Hope Fellowship Church, and R.E.A.L. Truth, Inc to get the project underway. The committee voted in favor of advancing the issue to City Council for a final vote to approve $70,000 of funding for it.

Organizers plan to use the funds to ID and provide mentoring to at-risk youth, provide gun safety training, and do community engagement and awareness efforts.

"We are very confident that we will address the issues as we've stated in our proposal and we look forward again, as I said, to working with the city and with the community to help reduce the incidents of gun violence in our community," Project Coordinator and Pastor Lesley Jones said.

Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac has previously said 2018 had the lowest rates of gun violence in about a decade. But by Sept. 1 this year, there were 355 gunshot victims in the city, compared to 356 for all of last year.

Jay Hanselman contributed to this reporting.

Jolene Almendarez is the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants who came to San Antonio in the 1960s. She was raised in a military family and has always called the city home. She studied journalism at San Antonio College and earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Public Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. She's been a reporter in San Antonio and Castroville, Texas, and in Syracuse and Ithaca, New York.