East Baton Rouge Parish officials are seeking to establish a nonprofit funding mechanism to keep the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination Project, or BRAVE, alive.
Based on a national crime prevention model, the BRAVE Project is being supported by federal grant funding set to expire soon.
But city-parish officials want to preserve the project, adding that in its first full year, homicides in the parish dropped by 20%, from 83 to 66.
“BRAVE is one of the biggest success stories to come out of East Baton Rouge Parish in recent years,” Mayor Kip Holden says in a statement.
BRAVE was launched in 2012 with $150,000 in city-parish funding. Federal grants—one totaling $1.5 million over a three-year period and another totaling $1 million—also have funded the project.
But now city-parish officials are soliciting tax-deductible donations to maintain the program, and BRAVE Inc. has already held its first fundraiser.
“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,” Holden says.
The project works by inviting local gang leaders to participate in a “call in” meeting where they are assured they will not be arrested if they participate. During the meeting, they are told that all members of their gang will be held responsible if one commits a murder.
Outstanding warrants and indictments against their group members will become a top priority and all will be arrested.
The program also helps people escape a life of crime through education, substance abuse treatment, mentoring, mental health counseling and workforce development. The program primarily targets crime hotspots, starting with the 70805 zip code in North Baton Rouge.
