MACON, Ga. — After seeing a drop in homicides so far this year, Bibb County Commissioners decided to give another $1 million to "violence interruption" groups. It's part of the county's larger Macon Violence Prevention plan.
The funding has only been designated right now, and the county will decide which organizations will receive funds later next year.
Dominique Johnson manages one of those violence interruption groups in Macon called Cure Violence. Cure Violence is a national organization with local chapters, like the one in Pleasant Hill.
"We detect the violence, we interrupt and we change the cultural norms," Johnson said. "We deal with high-risk individuals."
The work they do is important, but it is not always the safest. That's why he said he's thankful for the $800,000 in funding Cure Violence received in the past from the county.
"It pays the salaries of my team who goes out and risks their lives every day," Johnson said.
Johnson said his team stays plugged into everything happening in Pleasant Hill, so they can catch violence before it gets out of hand.
"Perpetrators will do the crime, someone then wants to retaliate. What we do, we come in and mitigate the retaliation," Johnson said.
Jeremy Grisson is the Macon Violence Prevention Coordinator and said they decided to provide additional funding to groups like Cure Violence because squashing out violence isn't a short-term solution.
"We've seen a downward trend in violence, and that's what we wanna see," Grisson said. "But we still have a lot of work to do. We know that crime is a big risk, but it doesn't happen in a funnel."
On top of funding violence interruption groups, they also fund other groups that tackle violence from different angles.
CASA of Central Georgia is one of those groups. In the past, they've been funded twice by the county to help them advocate through the courts for abused or neglected children.
"It has been tremendous. I mean, I struggle to find words appropriate to say how meaningful that funding has been," Executive Director Susanna Patterson said.
Through help from funding, they've been able to increase the amount of children helped by the organization. Now they're looking for more volunteers, to help with the additional workload they have.
CASA is holding a volunteer training Oct. 16 for anyone interested in becoming a volunteer.