In July 2021, Mayor Kenney and City Council announced a $22 million investment in Anti-Violence Community Partnership Grants, including $13.5 for Community Expansion Grant awards. This is a major piece of the historic $155.7 million investment in a wide array of violence prevention programming and services that contribute to the City’s violence prevention and reduction goals.
To achieve and sustain a reduction in gun violence and improve the quality of life in communities most affected by gun violence, the City is investing in organizations with proven track records of delivering quality anti-violence interventions to help them expand and strengthen their efforts. A key step in this effort is the Anti-Violence Community Expansion Grants.
Awardees
Applications for the Anti-Violence Community Expansion Grants were considered and awarded on a rolling basis and the final award announcement was made on December 8, 2021.
Below is a list of final Community Expansion Grant awardees.
Last updated: Wednesday, December 8, 2021
| Grant Applicant | Grant Award Amount | Proposal Summary | Organization description |
| Put It Down Philly | $729,696 | Through the CEG award, Put It Down Philly will expand its Gun Violence Intervention and Prevention Program, which: interrupts violence to de-escalate active conflicts and prevent future conflicts; provides trauma-informed case management to support participants and break the cycle of violence; mobilizes the community to denormalize community violence. | Put It Down’s mission is to break the cycle of community violence by providing men aged 18 – 30 who are most at risk of victimization or perpetuation of gun violence with the tools and resources required to heal, peacefully navigate conflict, and overcome systemic and structural barriers to success. Put It Down’s leaders have been interrupting violence in their communities since 2005. |
| Unity in the Community | $417,900 | Through the CEG award, Unity in the Community will expand its Carpentry Academy to additional young men. The Carpentry Academy is a 20-week apprenticeship program that deters its participants from engaging in gun violence by providing a safe haven, mentorship, counseling, and job skills training. | Unity in the Community is a South Philadelphia-based organization that changes the lives of Philadelphians through mentoring, employment opportunities, scholarships, housing and utility relief, and community organizing. |
| Men Who Care of Germantown | $328,669 | Through the CEG award, Men Who Care of Germantown will expand their Real Talk session, which encourage peer-to-peer communication and conflict resolution; expand its basketball program, which is centered around ideals of positive conflict resolution and gun violence reduction; enroll additional participants in the Workforce Development Program that teaches trades and supports GED and trade unions tests; and expand its community engagement activities. | Men Who Care of Germantown is a grassroots community organization that has been serving Germantown for 10 years. Men Who Care of Germantown works to reduce gun violence through prevention, intervention, and outreach. |
| Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia | $500,000 | Through the CEG award, the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia will expand the capacity of their Counseling Center and Youth Violence Outreach program to provide evidence-based, trauma-informed mental health services to interrupt the cycle of violence, with a focus on men and boys ages 16 – 34. This funding will provide cognitive behavioral therapy, evidence-based psychoeducational groups, and restorative justice programs to more Philadelphians. | The Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia (AVP) reduces the cycle of violence by providing a wide range of intervention, prevention, and support services to children, youth, and adults traumatized by exposure to violence, to help them rebuild their lives in the aftermath of violence. AVP’s three main programs are Youth Violence Outreach, Counseling Center, and Victim/Witness Services, which is the designated victim services agency for the 12th, 16th, 18th, and 19th Police Districts in West and Southwest Philadelphia. |
| Guns Down, Gloves Up – Epiphany Fellowship Church | $392,313 | Through the CEG award, Guns Down Gloves, Up will expand its recruitment, engagement, and retention of 16 – 24 year-old men and boys. Guns Down, Gloves Up will also train its boxing coaches in Youth Mental First Aid to better prepare coaches to respond to the challenges boxing participants share during training sessions and work with Community Behavioral Health to connect participants to behavioral health services. | Located in North Philadelphia, Epiphany Fellowship Church provides innovative activities for community members who are most likely to be involved in or impacted by gun violence. Guns Down, Gloves Up is a Boxing Program launched in partnership with the 22nd police district that provides a safe haven and mentorships to its participants. |
| 100 Black Men Philly in partnership with Father’s Day Rally Committee | $480,923 | Through the CEG award, this project will expand mentorship programs by expanding:
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100 Black Men of America is the leading mentoring organization for Black youth in the nation. 100 Black Men of Philadelphia currently operates 12 mentoring programs in Philadelphia, including their flagship program, Saturday Leadership Academy that operates from Vaux Big Picture High School. This project is in partnership with Father’s Day Rally Committee, a comprehensive education, employment, and violence intervention program that is designed to reduce violence in the City of Philadelphia among Black/Latino boys and men and members of their families. |
| Black Muslim Men United for a Better Philadelphia | $502,827 | Through the CEG award, this project will provide crisis interventions at key hot spots in West, Southwest, and Northwest Philadelphia, and it will provide individualized, intensive mentoring to people with a focus on education, entrepreneurship, and community strengthening services. | Black Muslim Men United for a Better Philadelphia has a track record for successfully intervening in the lives of young men. Its leadership has successfully resolved major disputes through conflict resolution for the last 40 years. |
| Nicetown CDC | $677,721 | Through the CEG award, Nicetown CDC will expand capacity to offer supportive services to individuals at high-risk of gun violence, including individuals on probation/parole. Supportive services include individualized workforce development training, behavioral health, civic engagement opportunities, and wrap-around supports. | Nicetown Community Development Corporation (CDC) improves the quality of life in the Nicetown neighborhood and surrounding communities. Nicetown CDC fulfills its mission with a holistic approach that focuses on supportive services; commercial corridor revitalization; public health and safety; education and training; affordable housing development; land care; and arts and culture. |
| Mercy Neighborhood Ministries | $221,346 | Through the CEG award, and in partnership with Called to Serve, Mercy Neighborhood Ministries will extend its hours to operate the Mercy Family Center as a job training facility along with providing additional night hours during the hours that gun violence is most prevalent. This funding for this project will serve an additional Adult Education students between the ages of 18 – 34. | Mercy Neighborhood Ministries improves the quality of life for its neighbors in Nicetown-Tioga and Germantown by establishing a strong academic and economic foundation for future success. |
| Youth Outreach Adolescent Community Awareness Program (YOACAP) | $540,713 | Through the CEG award, YOACAP will connect individuals at high-risk of gun violence to resources using trusted community figures: Barbers. YOACAP will train barbers in West, Southwest, and North Philadelphia to identify their clients who are at-risk of gun violence and have conversations with and connect them to YOACAP case management or other services. In addition, YOACAP will expand slots in their building trades pre-apprenticeship program for individuals highly at-risk of engaging in gun violence. | YOACAP enhances the quality of life and health for Philadelphians through community-based and culturally competent interventions. YOACAP has an over 30-year history of providing supportive youth development services and works with youth and communities to encourage increased civic engagement among people of color. |
| Impact Services | $456,600 | Through the CEG grant award, Impact Services will expand services and programming to reduce violence and directly engage people at-risk of gun violence between the ages 18 – 34 with a strong focus on peer support. This funding will support:
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Impact Services is a community action organization mobilizing people and resources to create connected, resilient, thriving communities. By assisting with re-entry, improving pathways for career development, increasing affordable housing, and investing in community development, Impact Services helps advance equity in Kensington and across Philadelphia. |
| Restorative Justice Guild Program, Mural Arts Philadelphia | $300,000 | Through the CEG award, the Guild will recruit and serve additional participants and complete revitalization projects in communities impacted by gun violence. Guild participants will engage and inspire community members via public art projects and other programming, community outreach, and mentoring at these neighborhood sites. | A program of Mural Arts Philadelphia, Restorative Justice Guild Program (The Guild) is a paid apprenticeship that gives justice-impacted young people ages 18 – 24 the opportunity to develop marketable job skills and reconnect with their community. The Guild furthers individual development by incorporating important restorative justice concepts of healing, community, and individual restoration throughout the program. |
| Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity | $250,000 | Through the CEG award, Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity will double the number of clients accepted for expungement and pardon services through the creation of hubs in a high-arrest neighborhood, with an emphasis on providing services to Black men. | Founded a decade ago, Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity provides free legal advice and representation to low-income Philadelphia residents whose criminal records are holding them back from achieving their social and career potentials. |
| New Leash on Life | $135,000 | Through the CEG award, New Leash on Life will expand its young adult reentry and diversion program. The six-month program will use a combination of human-animal bond and cognitive behavioral therapy groups in conjunction with individual counseling using motivational interviewing to motivate and create changes in thinking patterns. | The New Leash on Life USA program is focused on reducing recidivism and increasing the adoptability of the at-risk shelter dogs. They accomplish this with an innovative reform model that leverages the powerful bond between dogs and humans for long-term success. |
| Educators 4 Education | $187,000 | Through the CEG award, Educators 4 Education will expand its Keys to Success program to at-risk young men in West and Southwest Philadelphia. The program offers mentoring and case management services that will help participants gain conflict resolution, mediation, and positive decision-making skills with a focus on academic achievement and workforce development. | Educators 4 Education offers a variety of skill building group sessions, seminar, training, professional development workshops and webinars for youth, parents, teachers and youth development professionals and provides academic and social support programming for community agencies, child care centers, and in-school & out of school time programs. |
| Timoteo Sports | $200,000 | Through the CEG award, Timoteo Sports will expand its programming to support youth ages 16 and older through year-round sports programming, high school tutoring, career and employment workshops, and mentorship. | First started in 2005, Timoteo Sports, Inc. uses sports to engage and mentor young men in Kensington, Frankford, and Hunting Park. Every year, Timoteo Sports attracts over 300 youth with sports programs, but retains them through their ability to relate to the life experiences of youth. |
| Urban League of Philadelphia | $385,000 | Through the CEG award, the Urban League of Philadelphia will scale its violence reduction programs:
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The Urban League of Philadelphia has served Philadelphia for more than a century. Their mission is to advance the achievement of economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights for African Americans and other underserved residents. |
| Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America, Inc. (OICA) and the Careers & Academic Institute (CADI) | $300,000 | Through the CEG award, OIC CADI will expand its programming for young men. Participants will receive post-secondary education and training opportunities, as well as wrap-around services such as case management, mental health services, tutoring, and career counseling. Participants will be the creators of change in their neighborhoods as they will identify and complete projects each month that bring positive change. | OICA CADI is an alternative school for teens ages 15 – 21 in Philadelphia that provides the necessary education and resources to the over-age, under-credited population and to prepare them for a productive life after graduation. |
| African Family Health Organization | $267,628 | The African Youth Empowerment Program (AYEP) was created to empower African and Caribbean immigrants and refugee youth to improve their educational, social, health, and life outcomes. Through the CEG award, AFAHO will expand its AYEP program, specifically targeting boys and young men between the ages of 15 – 21. AFAHO will offer a safe haven at their Southwest Philadelphia location where participants will engage in academic tutoring and mentoring; counseling to build trust and understanding; life skills training; developing conflict resolution and de-escalation skills; professional foundational skills development and vocational training with tradesmen from our community who will serve as both mentors and teachers for their apprentices. | The African Family Health Organization (AFAHO) is a community-based organization that provides health, human, and educational services to African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees in the greater Philadelphia area. AFAHO works to strengthen community health culture and facilitate social integration through a unique peer support model that uses shared language, cultural expertise, advocacy, and system navigation knowledge to help individuals and families overcome social determinants, build community connections, and gain information and resources needed to thrive, improve health and educational outcomes, and support self-sufficiency. |
| Central Division Victim Services | $832,188 | Through the CEG grant award, Central Division Victim Services North Philly Crisis Response Program will increase support for victims and surviving family members focused on decreasing retaliation and increasing availability of trauma-informed counseling focused on resilience and recovery. The CEG grant award will support hospital-based emotional support for 100 percent of victims of gun violence and their families through 24-hour in-house crisis response advocates who will provide immediate emotional support aiding in their post-trauma recovery and assisting with linkages to community resources to promote community reintegration and engagement in their healing process. This grant-funded programming is in partnership with Congreso, East Division Crime Victims Program; Northwest Victim Services; and Temple University Hospital’s Trauma Program. | Central Division Victim Services is a leader that advocates for victims and witnesses of crimes in North and Central Divisions within Philadelphia. Central Division Victim Services builds bridges that create safer communities and connects crime victims to resources. |
| Mothers in Charge | $305,712 | Through the CEG award, Mothers in Charge will match young men of color who have experienced trauma and/or have been justice-involved with adult coaches with similar life experiences who will participate, together, in the 12-week Creative Healing Spaces Program. Additionally, Mothers in Charge will engage their parents/caregivers in an integrated cognitive behavioral change program. | Mothers in Charge (MIC) is a violence prevention, education, and intervention-based organization. MIC advocates and supports youth, young adults, families, and communities affected by violence. MIC’s Creative Healing Spaces Program mission is to aid in the reduction of violence, both verbally and physically, by acknowledging that young people live in persistent traumatic conditions that needs to be addressed through creating safe spaces that will allow them to develop the tools to manage the traumas and their responses and reactions and to heal the pain. |
| Philadelphia OIC | $250,000 | Through the CEG grant award, Philadelphia OIC’s Reentry Program will serve the needs of additional justice-involved participants. These participants will receive emergency support services, GED, High School Equivalency Test, and workforce credentialing, as well as access to a licensed therapist to provide mental health counseling and support. | Philadelphia OIC’s Young Adult Reentry Program serves 18 to 24-year-olds who have had criminal justice involvement. Participants receive access to free educational and vocational training through the Community College of Philadelphia. |
| New Options More Opportunities (NoMo) | $1,000,000 | Since 2010, NoMo has provided a comprehensive anti-violence program that offers alternative education, tutoring, career readiness training, behavioral health counseling, and more. Through the CEG grant award, NoMo will open its South Philadelphia Neighborhood Service location to expand our reach and community-centered approach and increase youth participants served. The goal of the program is to reduce the factors that lead to gun violence, as well as factors that lead to poverty, and provide youth with productive avenues in which they are successful and off the streets. | New Options More Opportunities (NoMo) provides children and teens 12 -24 with prevention and early intervention services. Playing off of slang, NoMo! means no more drug abuse, no more teen pregnancy, no more illiteracy, no more violence as well as all the other negative stereotypes that plague our youth. |
| ManUpPHL | $242,768 | ManUpPHL’s mentoring program serves men between the ages of 18 and 35 who are among the most likely to be affected by gun violence. In their signature program, “Listening to the Streets,” a cohort of mentees participate in a series of listening sessions to explain street-level truth about gun violence—the causes, the effects, and the solutions. In eight sessions over a two-week period, ManUpPHL asks the hard questions, gets the real answers, and establishes a street-level agenda for saving lives. With its CEG funding, ManUpPHL will host two cohorts of six participants concurrently. Twelve participants every two weeks for a 20-week period. Each participant who successfully completes the program will receive a stipend of $240 at the end of two weeks and will be offered a job from a participating partner organization. There will be six on-site mentors hosting the cohorts. | ManUpPHL helps men find alternatives to violence by connecting mentees to resources. |
| Every Murder is Real (EMIR) | $760,001 | EMIR will maintain or reduce the 72-hour outreach time period to families and friends of homicide victims, providing trauma-informed care, and advise them of the services available during this period of intense grief. EMIR will recruit, hire, and train four family/victims advocates; provide professional development in trauma-informed care, grief and loss, and complicated grief to four family/victims advocates; expand the depth and breadth of Family Advocacy Services to pre-pandemic levels, building relationships and accompanying families through the challenges they face in the aftermath of homicide; expand Support Groups to twice weekly (one in person, one online) with each of the four support group types (men, women, teen, children), and EMIR Healing Center will provide mental health and grief counseling services to the families utilizing other EMIR Healing Center services. | Every Murder is Real (EMIR) was established after the tragic murder of its founder’s only son, Emir Greene. EMIR provides family & friends support services, grief support groups, assistance with victim’s compensation forms, criminal justice system education and navigation, in-court support and advocacy, and more. |
| Beyond the Bars | $117,150 | Beyond the Bars works to combat violence in Philadelphia by combatting several of its root causes, namely divestment and exposure to trauma. Beyond the Bars began as a music program for youth who were incarcerated and tried as adults. Beyond the Bars believes that it is pivotal to have accessible musical spaces within youth’s community that engage them within their interests and connect them to a larger supportive community. As a result, Beyond the Bars has worked to build over 11 musical labs throughout Philadelphia. Beyond the Bars will build eight full recording studios and run programs while training student leaders in neighborhoods affected by gun violence, as well as additionally fund a mobile recording studio that will engage youth who have experienced or witnessed violence. | Beyond the Bars is a music and career planning program that is dedicated to interrupting the cycles of violence and incarceration in Philadelphia. Beyond the Bars works with youth ranging from middle to high school who have been impacted by violence to help them realize the talented musicians and leaders that they are. |
| Uplift Workforce Solutions | $150,000 | Operating since 2017, Uplift Workforce Solutions has shown impressive results, with an employment guarantee for all participants who complete the program and a 2% recidivism rate for participants (compared to a 64% national average). By December 2022, Uplift Workforce Solutions will expand its program to serve an additional 300 justice-involved individuals by giving them necessary life-skills and job training, placing them into a long-term employment position, and keeping them out of the system by standing by their side for three years post-graduation. | The Uplift Workforce Solutions program is designed to provide formerly incarcerated and otherwise justice-involved individuals an opportunity to gain long-term employment through the remediation of negative thought patterns, poor decision making, and unhealthy habits, and then directly place them into the workforce with one of their employment partners. |
| Norris Square Community Alliance | $1,000,000 | Three existing Youth Empowerment Centers (YEC) located in Upper Kensington, Fairhill, and Hunting Park provide a network of community safe havens for at-risk youth and young adults, ages 13 – 24, through intentional social services designed to respond to gun violence reduction.
Through the CEG grant award, Youth Empowerment Centers will expand existing youth development programs by focusing on key anti-violence prevention programs and providing trauma-informed services, including psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. |
Norris Square Community Alliance (formerly Norris Square Civic Association) ’s mission is to empower residents to become self-reliant and to unite and build the community by developing and improving the physical, economic, social, cultural, and educational aspects of the neighborhood. NSCA provides a bi-lingual array of comprehensive services that address the impact of poverty and a pathway to economic mobility for families and its community. |
| Somerset Community Center & Lighthouse Sports Complex | $719,876 | Somerset Community Center & Lighthouse Sports Complex will enhance its space to provide a safe space for families, provide consistency and structure for local youth through programs and activities, and provide accessible organized sports to teach commitment to responsibility, grit, and teamwork. | Located at Erie & Whitaker Avenues in Feltonville, Somerset Community Center & Lighthouse Sports Complex provides educational, recreational, cultural, social, and economic improvement programs to families to improve the quality of life. |
| PowerCorps PHL | $550,000 | PowerCorps PHL’s TRUST program is an urban-farm-based healing initiative exclusively for returning residents and young people vulnerable to gun violence that offers immediate enrollment and income while engaging in work-readiness skill-building and therapeutic supports
Through the CEG grant award, PowerCorps PHL will deepen recruitment and outreach efforts in communities vulnerable to gun violence; increase compensation for participants and expand transportation supports; expand the integration of healing and therapeutic supports across all workforce development programming and through employment; increase support of green space projects in priority zip codes; and build out community-based and community-facing fellowships in schools, community organizations, and green spaces in priority zip codes. |
PowerCorps PHL is a cross-sector collaborative model that engages disconnected young adults and returning citizens to enter and succeed in career pathways by using service as the strategy. |
| YouthBuild Philadelphia | $298,967 | Through the CEG grant award, YouthBuild Philly will expand the number of students receiving intensive support and engagement programming to ensure they are engaged, supported, mentally healthy, and prepared for (and transitioned into) meaningful employment. This includes an expansion of Intensive support and engagement (counseling, case management); Service learning (service to and with the community, leadership development, after-school activities); and paid vocational internships (prepare young people for meaningful jobs in high-demand industries). | YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School is a unique, alternative education program that offers an opportunity for young adults, ages 18 – 21, to earn their high school diplomas, develop vital job skills, and transition into postsecondary employment, training, and/or education. Since 1992, YouthBuild Philadelphia has helped former high school dropouts reclaim their education and build a brighter future for themselves through education, job training, and service. |
Total Grant Awards (as of December 8, 2021): $13,500,000
About the Anti-Violence Community Expansion Grant Program
The Anti-Violence Community Expansion Grant Program directly funds and supports community-based organizations that are focused on reducing violence through trauma-informed healing and restorative practices and safe havens and mentorship.
The City provides grants ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000 to community-based organizations that have annual operating budgets below $15,000,000 and a proven track record working in neighborhoods vulnerable to gun violence. By targeting funding towards proven community-based organizations, the City is putting this money in the hands of organizations with a proven track record of delivering quality, culturally relevant services while making sure those applying already have the infrastructure in place to be successful.
The focus of the Community Expansion Grants is to provide direct trauma-informed healing and restorative practices or safe havens and mentorship programs. Funded projects supporting those focus areas must take place between fall 2021 and summer 2022.
The deadline for applications closed on September 17, 2021.
