LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville has received a multi-million dollar federal grant to support a pilot program addressing gun violence in the Newburg neighborhood.
Mayor Craig Greenberg said the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN) was awarded $2 million from the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the "Newburg Gun Violence Reduction Project."
The three-year program will focus on a geographical approach to identify and implement neighborhood-specific solutions, officials said on Thursday.
"Louisvillians deserve to live without the fear that gun would cut their life--or the life of a loved one--short," Greenberg said.
The DOJ's funding will be used by OSHN to create a collaborative system between residents, community leaders, nonprofit organizations and city and state agencies to strengthen violence intervention efforts, the mayor added.
Paul Callanan, director of OSHN, said the program is a true "grassroots" operation with the goal of identifying solutions at the micro level which can help an individual neighborhood's needs.
"This pilot will give us valuable insight," Callanan said. "It will help us discover how well all stakeholders work collectively as we use Newburg's social dynamic and neighborhood characteristics."
OSHN will open an interrupter sit in Newburg as part of the program, according to officials. There are five other interrupter sites in various other neighborhoods including Portland, Shawnee, Russell, Smoketown and California.
The city also plans to hire an additional outreach case coordinator and program manager for the Newburg area.
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