South Charlotte Today

The City of Charlotte on Thursday announced the four community-based organizations that will receive up to $400,000 each through the city's SAFE Charlotte program. The grants will help the community organizations create stable, supportive environments that mitigate the underlying causes of violence and promote economic mobility.

In October 2020, Charlotte City Council adopted the SAFE Charlotte plan, which includes recommendations to re-imagine policing and make the city safer. The first recommendation in the SAFE Charlotte report is to provide funding to community organizations to address violent crime in Charlotte.

The grant recipients are:

Lead Organization

Partner Organizations

Service Areas

CARE Ring

Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO)

Mental health, workforce development

Communities in Schools

Lakeview Neighborhood Alliance

Youth services, housing stability

MeckEd

Heal Charlotte, Digi-Bridge

Youth services, workforce development

Rebuilding Together of Greater Charlotte

Digi-Bridge, She Built This City

Housing stability, youth services, workforce development

As part of the round two funding, the city and United Way developed the following program guidelines:

1. Fund up to four collaboratives comprised of a lead agency and one or two grassroots organizations.
2. Lead agencies must have demonstrated experience managing federal funding and managing two grassroots community organizations.
3. Each collaborative must address at least two of the following issues:
   • Youth services.
   • Mental health.
   • Workforce development.
   • Housing stability.
   • Domestic violence.
4. Collaboratives should be place-based with priority given to areas in or adjacent to the city's Corridors of Opportunity.

Grants are reimbursement based and funds are not provided in advance. The grant term runs from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024. During the next two months, the collaboratives will engage in capacity building to:

• Develop programming guidelines.
• Understand data requirements and build data infrastructure.
• Connect with other grantees to problem solve in a group setting.

At the conclusion of the capacity building period, each collaborative will be eligible for up to $400,000 in programmatic support.

Funding for the SAFE Charlotte grant program is made possible to the City of Charlotte in part through the federal Community Development Block Grant program.

Original source can be found here.