Cure Violence Grand Rapids

In recent years, The City of Grand Rapids has experienced significant increases in violent crime rates including both homicides and part 1 crimes.  A year-to-date comparison of 2020 with 2019 reveals that the City of Grand Rapids has seen a 5.4% increase in robberies, a 7.5% increase in burglaries, a 21.7% increase in aggravated assaults, and a 92.9% increase in homicides. In the City of Grand Rapids’ Strategic Plan, the City has committed to making Grand Rapids a place where all people “Feel Safe and Are Safe at All Times.”  The City of Grand Rapids seeks to implement an evidence-based violence reduction and intervention program that will be an additional tool in reaching that goal. According to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2017, homicide is the leading cause of death for Black males, ages 1 - 44.  Gun violence is an epidemic that disproportionately affects low-income communities and communities of color across the nation at an alarming rate.  Many of Grand Rapids’ most economically disenfranchised residents are residents of neighborhoods that continue to suffer the direct effects of repeated trauma and the indirect effects of unhealed past traumas and continue to experience a disproportionate burden of violence and its corollary effects.

The Cure Violence Program expansion will be implemented through a subaward agreement with the Grand Rapids Urban League: Cure Violence. The City of Grand Rapids, through this grant, will subaward $540,000 to The Grand Rapids Urban League to devote a low-cost, high-impact way to reduce violence in the most violent communities, paving the way for increased investment and prosperity. This approach works with local partners to take into consideration the very particular political and other considerations at play in the community.

A total of $60,000 will be retained by the City of Grand Rapids Office of Oversight and Public Accountability (OPA) for grant administration. The OPA will reimburse the Grand Rapids Urban League for costs associated with implementing the Cure Violence Program.

Cure Violence will submit quarterly performance reports to the OPA through the City’s grants management system. Specific performance outcomes outlined in the agreement with Cure Violence are anticipated to include, but are not limited to, the following:

Number of Detected Violent Conflicts
Number of Interrupted Violent Conflicts
Number of High-Risk Individuals Identified
Number of High-Risk Individuals steered away from committing violence through social support