Orange County violence intervention program could receive $1M in additional support

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — On Monday, a local violence intervention program could get $1 million of additional support to try to make our community safer.

The money would help keep mentors in Carver Shores, Holden Heights, Parramore, Mercy Drive and Rosemont and help bring them to more neighborhoods all to keep kids from violence.

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The program hires people who have been in trouble before but turned their lives around.

Louis Catoe said a lack of guidance as a child led him to a violent lifestyle.

“My father passed at a very early age. My mom, I wasn’t with her for very long,” Catoe said. “I kind of grew up from house to house. I kind of grew up surviving, really.”

Read: Congressman Frost proposes national nonpartisan office for gun violence prevention

One of the goals of the Community Violence Intervention model is to remove shootings from the survival mode equation. Abraham Morris is its manager.

“Statistics will show that point .2 percent to .3 percent of the population accounts for most homicides and gunshot wounds,” Morris said.

CVI is targeting that .3 percent. Catoe said action made a difference for him.

Read: Harbor House to expand emergency shelter due to rise in domestic violence victims

“Seeing it, not just talking about it,” Catoe said. “I was in a program myself for 15 months, some people are telling you not really showing you because they’re not living like you.”

Raysean Brown runs the program on the ground. The mentors, called neighborhood change associates, are people who formerly lived the life they’re trying to get others to stop.

They go in their own communities and as part of the contract have to interact with those in the .3% every day and bring resources to them.

“Having someone that’s intentional really helped me,” Catoe said.

Read: Proposal in Congress increases access and funding for domestic violence survivor programs

CVI in its first 11 months, and its mentors have spent over 13,000 hours working the streets, leading to 210 conflict mediations that likely would have led to gun violence.

On Monday, CVI will learn if it’ll officially get the grant funding approval. That is an additional $1.5 million to expand to Signal Hill, Richmond Heights and Lake Mann.

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