Morris Pearson, a criminal justice coordinator who lives in Utica and works in Albany,
brought his colleagues to Watson-Williams Elementary School on a listening tour to
discuss ways to design programs that would alleviate violence and take guns off the
street.
The program Is called Project RISE, and the acronym stands for Respond, Invest,
Sustain, and Empower. About $500,000 would be distributed from Governor Hochul’s
initiatives.
They were asking folks that were interested in trying to resolve some of these issues to
sign up for the steering committee.
Unlike most grants, they were willing to provide seed money and some technical
expertise to organizations that did not have the 501c credential but had been working
on youth issues, providing that they had someone that would be responsible for the
fiduciary aspects.
Some of the groups that came out were:
– Black Leadership Coalition
– HMJ Consultants
– Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency
– Mohawk Valley Latino Association
– Utica Royalties
– I Can Snub Program
– Rebuilding the Village
– On Point for College
One of the attributes of the program, if you were afforded money, they would provide
you with technical assistance and they would be auditing the program on a regular
basis.
Money would be dispersed July 1 st .
So all of those interested organizations that want to know how to stem the flow of
violence and guns in our community and provide safe passage should probably contact Morris or ICAN.
