Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced additional funds are going to Nashville’s communities to “support grassroots violence reduction efforts” through his Community Safety Partnership program.

In a Tuesday press release, Mayor Cooper said, “Community safety requires a community-wide effort.” He added, “This work takes all of us, supporting one another and learning from each other. And it takes Metro government, championing that response and investing in the strategies that work best for our neighborhoods.”

The Mayor’s Office added that the Community Safety Partnership has awarded $105,000 in grants to 21 local nonprofits across Davidson County since the March 2021 launch.

Additional Community Safety Partnership Fund Opportunity Grants are available under certain conditions:

In order to apply for a grant, nonprofits must be registered with the IRSs as 501(c)(3)s, 501(c)(4)s, or 501(c)(5)s and registered with the Secretary of State of the State of Tennessee. Registered nonprofits with a budget of less than $50,000 may apply for an Opportunity Grant of up to $5,000.

Nonprofits with a certified audit from their most recent fiscal year may apply for a larger Implementation Grant. Implementation grants will range from $5,000 to $250,000 (or potentially higher.)

Other requirements can be found here.

The 11 member Advisory Board of the Community Safety Partnership review the applications and make their recommendations. Previously reported are the members of the Community Safety Partnership Advisory Board: Katina Beard, chair of the mayor’s Behavior Health and Wellness Advisory Council; Christiane Buggs, chair of Metro Nashville Public School Board of Education; Sheila Calloway, judge in the Metro Nashville Juvenile Court; Jennifer Gamble, chair of the Metro Council Public Safety Committee; Dwayne Greene, deputy chief of the Metro Nashville Police Community Services Bureau; Nawzad Hawrami, public safety chair of the mayor’s New American Advisory Council; Dr. Christopher Jackson, reverend for the Pleasant Green Baptist Church; Dr. Alex Jahangir, chair of the Metro Nashville Public Health Board; Andres Martinez, chair of the Metro Community Oversight Board; and Tom Turner, president and CEO of the Nashville Downtown Partnership.

Mayor Cooper’s announcement also said that on January 4, Metro Council on voted to expand Nashville’s Cure Violence program, using federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) dollars and approved $300,000 in investment into the Napier Place and Sudekum Apartments communities.

The funds going to Napier Place and Sudekum Apartments will be spent in part on: traffic calming on Charles E. Davis Boulevard, lighting repairs, additional resources for the Pruitt branch of Nashville Public Library, and upgrades needed to reopen the pool at the Napier Community Center.

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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “John Cooper” by John Cooper