DAYTON — For more than a year and a half, the City of Dayton has talked about starting the Violence Interruption Program.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, the city revealed it will be partnering with the “Felons with a Future” organization to implement the program.
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News Center 7 has seen deadlines Mayor Jeffrey Mims set for this program come and go.
He was voted out of office just a few weeks ago.
But, with Wednesday’s announcement, News Center 7’s John Bedell spoke with the director of the program, Greg West.
West is a native Daytonian.
“Dayton born and raised, Colonel White Cougar,” he said.
He will tell you there’s violence in his past and his criminal record.
But what sent him to prison was selling drugs.
“Which contributes to a lot of the violence, you know?” West said.
Now, he will be working to diminish Dayton’s violence.
The “Felons with a Future” group started in 2020 as a re-entry program, helping people released from prison transition to coming back home.
The missions evolved to include mental health, substance abuse, and youth program work. They have a new role in the community now.
“We’re excited to be able to get boots on the ground and start helping people understand that you don’t have to go down the road that some of us went down,” West said.
The city is spending close to half a million dollars to bring in Cure Violence Global, which will train “Felons with a Future” on ways to prevent crime.
They will focus on conflicts before they turn violent.
“We’ve been doing the work, a lot of us have been doing the work anyway, and that’s, I believe, is why we’re a good fit for this for this grant,” West said.
The organization will team up with outreach workers and “violence interrupters.”
The Greater Dayton-area Hospital Association will oversee the program.
“The module that we will be using is, is looking at violence as a public health problem,” West said.
He added that the group is excited for their work ahead.
News Center 7’s John Bedell got a sense of that during his interview.
As it ended, one of the guys in the group said, “We plan on doing a lot of interrupting.”
West said his team is going to be realistic and know they can’t stop everything that happens.
But as long as they can show people they don’t have to be stuck in the same cycle of violence and retaliation, they know they’re making a difference.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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