Baton Rouge gets $1.4 million grant for BRAVE

Mayor Kip Holden this morning announced another significant grant award for the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination Project that will help the crime-fighting initiative expand. Holden says the city-parish is receiving another $1,458,231 federal grant, with the announcement coming just two days after officials gathered to announce a $1 million grant. While the BRAVE Project has to date focused on the 70805 ZIP code in northern Baton Rouge, the two grants will help officials expand the project to the 70802 ZIP code, which includes the downtown area and portions of Old South Baton Rouge. The 70802 area is bound by Choctaw Drive to the north, Park Drive to the east, the LSU campus to the south and the Mississippi River to the east. “We are very pleased with the early success of the BRAVE project,” Holden says in a press release. “We know that a data-driven, comprehensive strategy that offers real alternatives to crime can reduce violence in our city. Being able to put an additional $2.4 million toward our current efforts will definitely make Baton Rouge safer.” District Attorney Hillar Moore III credits BRAVE with reducing the local homicide rate by 35% since last year.