BALTIMORE — Baltimore City announced the initial round of funding for organizations working to reduce violence in the city.
The funding, which comes from the American Rescue Plan dollars, will support a dozen organizations and its work in the community as part of the city’s comprehensive violence prevention plan to address the root causes of violence.
One of the organizations selected was Turnaround Inc—an organization that provides services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking.,
“We’re really grateful for this,” said Jean Henningsen with Turnaround Inc.
Henningsen said the funding comes during a crucial time for the organization which has seen a surge in demand for its service since the pandemic began.
“These are things that have really surged. Our hotline call volume has doubled during the pandemic,” she said.
Turnaround Inc. serves around 3,000 survivors in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
The funding will allow the organization to expand its services.
"We are really excited about the funding but also about the fact that these are multi year commitments because these are the type of of problems that one year of funding is not going to be sufficient to address,” she said.
The organization will receive more than 600,000 dollars to enhance its wraparound services for survivors as well as its anti-human trafficking program.
“There’s a lot of that outreach that’s going to need to happen in different community over the course of the three years so that we are responding to what the residents see and what the residents need,” Henningsen said.
Henningsen believes the money provided to her organization and several others could have a meaningful impact in Baltimore.
“That collective effort to help people, number one to be safe, but also figure out how we can support them economically. I think that will be a very powerful impact across the city,” she said.
The initial round of funding was for 12 organizations, but the city continues to accept more applications.
To learn how your organization can apply, you can visit this linkhere
