BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) –“27 days plus without a murder in our city. One day we saw 31 days without a homicide in our city,” Jazzika Matthews, Director of Operations, at Safe Hopeful Healthy Baton Rouge said.
A continuing decline in crime. That’s what Jazzika Matthews is hoping for. She believes that organizations providing support, it’s capable.
“This type of investment into organizations who are really doing the work is so important,” Matthews said.
The Coalition to Advance Public Safety donated four checks to four organizations that continue to meet the needs of the people. Aqeela Sherrils is the Co-founder of the Public Safety Collective. He said they help provide support, strength and enhance community-based violence intervention groups.
“When we say public safety, people say police, right. In reality, police are only one aspect of the public safety ecosystem. Safety has to be a shared strategy,” Aqeela Sherrils, Co-founder, Community Based Public Safety Collective said.
“It’s possible, 31 days can become 45 days. And it then can become 2 months. That speaks to the work that’s happening not just on the law enforcement side, but these individuals behind me,” Matthews said.
Leaders said their goal as an organization is to help make Baton Rouge the safest mid-size city in the south.
According to CAPS grants are aimed at building a safer, healthier more friendly environment for families. Grantees can use funds for capacity-building expenses, training, technology upgrades, policy development, program expansion and more.
