By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//October 4, 2019//
By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//October 4, 2019//
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office and the city of Milwaukee will receive more than $300,000 worth of grants to fight gun violence in the city. The Eastern District of Wisconsin District Attorney’s Office announced the two-year grant on Thursday.
The $317,422 grant comes from the U.S. Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative. The money will be used to set up a Community Victim Witness Program to provide services to victims of gun violence who live in, or are hurt in, one of the six neighborhoods with high rates of homicides and shootings in Milwaukee.
The Community Victim Witness program will work with divisions of the Milwaukee Police Department that investigate non-fatal shootings to provide various sorts of support to victims. Employees will offer interventions, make referrals to the Office of Violence Prevention and other social-service agencies, and serve as a liaison between the victim and investigators.
The program’s goals are to help victims recover from violent crimes, help with police investigations, identify risks for violent retaliations and reduce violence in the city through engagement. Follow @WLJReporter