PRESS RELEASE DETAIL
For release: IMMEDIATELY
Release Date: 06/08/2016
With grants expiring, BRAVE looks to nonprofit to maintain its anti-crime operations
With its federal funding expiring, City-Parish officials are taking steps to preserve the highly successful Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination (BRAVE) Project through a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation that can accept tax-deductible donations..
BRAVE, Inc. recently held its first fundraiser, and officials are making a major push to solicit donations to maintain the program that targets gang-related violence in criminal hotspots.
“BRAVE is one of the biggest success stories to come out of East Baton Rouge Parish in recent years,” said Mayor-President Melvin L. “Kip” Holden. “This move to establish a nonprofit funding mechanism will hopefully help to ensure funding is in place so BRAVE can continue providing services to youth that opt out of gang and group-related crimes.“
The program invites gang leaders to a "call in" meeting while assuring them they will not be arrested. At the meeting, they are told that the next time a murder occurs and a member of their group is responsible, whatever warrants or indictments are outstanding on all the members of their group will become top priority and they will all be jailed.
The BRAVE program also gives criminals an opportunity to escape a life of crime through education, substance abuse treatment, workforce development, mentoring and mental health counseling.
In the first full year of the BRAVE program, homicides in East Baton Rouge Parish dropped from 83 to 66, a decrease of 20 percent.
BRAVE has also participated in other educational and anti-crime programs, including the highly successful Gas for Guns that gets firearms off the streets by offering gasoline coupons in exchange for them.
BRAVE was actually launched in May 2012 with $150,000 in city-parish funding that was used primarily to pay for the services of BRAVE Director Herbert “Tweety” Anny and consultant Jim Fealy, who provided technical assistance for the violence reduction
program.
A few months later, Mayor Holden and East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore announced that the BRAVE program had received a $1.5 million federal grant that was spread over a three-year period. The program initially targeted known violent and drug-trade offenders in criminal hotspots, beginning with zip code 70805 in North Baton Rouge.
A year later, the Parish was awarded an additional $1-million in federal grant money to build upon the BRAVE effort by creating and implementing a comprehensive, place-based plan to address community crime issues in the four interconnected neighborhoods bordering 70805 and 70802.
BRAVE has been so successful that officials in Jackson, Miss., established their own version of the program.
For more information, visit the BRAVE website at www.bravebtr.com or call (225) 239-7835.