MACON, Bibb County — After two years of drops in violent crime, Macon Violence Prevention is getting ready to hand out hundreds of thousands in grant money to programs aimed at tackling the problem.
The county said since the initiative started, homicides have dropped 43% and teen offense have decreased by 67%. To keep the momentum going, Macon-Bibb County Commissions and Mayor Lester Miller approved an additional $500,000 to support the funding pool.
In the two years, MVP poured more than $1.6 million into 56 non-profits committed to curbing violent crime. Some are two-time recipients.
The Central Georgia Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) is one of the MVP Grant recipients to receive funding twice. Central Georgia CASA Director Susanna Patterson said they struggled to serve the older population of foster kids in Bibb, Crawford and Peach County but the money from MVP helped fill that gap.
"We were already kind of on a trajectory of growing that number but I realized there was a significant gap in the number of older youth we were serving," Patterson said.
She said they brought in 27 more volunteers and went from serving less than 50% of children in care to nearly 60% of children in care since getting the grant.
"We were able to double the percentage of twelve year old plus youth that we were serving," Patterson said. "By increasing the number of volunteers that we have, we've been able to increase the number of older youth that have a volunteer."
MVP Coordinator Jeremy Grissom said the drop in crime is thanks to the help of programs like CASA, so he's excited the program is able to move into a new grant cycle.
"I wanted to give the opportunity to those who have been working in the community on new projects have success to actually help us," Grissom said.
Along with providing money to the organizations, MVP aims to help these programs grow and survive through grant writing and interview help, in an effort to encourage them to apply for grant outside of MVP.
"Wer'e building their organization as a whole so that they know how to request funds," Grissom said.
Patterson said MVP also helped build a community of organizations.
"It's a blessing to get to know other non-profit directors and other non-profit like employees and programs and all the things that are going on in our community," Patterson said.
Patterson adds she's keeping her fingers crossed that CASA receives a third grant.
The Community Foundation of Central Georgia will announce the round three grant recipients Wednesday, July 31.