By Mekhi Abbott
Special to the AFRO
mabbott@afro.com
Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention (OGVP) recently awarded a total of $330,000 in separate grants to 31 nonprofit organizations and individuals that support community-based programs and gun violence prevention.
Bowser and the OGVP awarded organizations and individuals grants ranging from $5,000 and $15,000. The grants are intended to aid D.C. residents with the resources they need to continue to improve community relations, aid the youth, increase the access of resources for the DC public and reduce gun violence.
A total of 31 nonprofit organizations recently received funds from Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention (OGVP). The money will help with programming that provides resources to reduce crime in the D.C. area. (Photo: Unsplash / Maria Lysenko)
“It all went to the kids,” said Jasmine Goodman, a cofounder of Trapp Stars, one of the organizations that received funds. “All of the money will go to the kids. towards trips, snacks and whatever else the kids need. We are beyond grateful.”
Since 2021, the Bowser Administration has granted $2.9 million to individuals and community organizations in the greater DC-Metro area. The full list of recipients is located on the Building Blocks D.C. official website.
One of the most notable individuals to be a grant recipient is Momulo Stewart. Stewart, a Washington, D.C. native, was sentenced to life in prison back in 1997 due to his involvement in the murder of Mark Rosebure.
In 2017, the Washington D.C. Council passed the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act which allowed inmates who committed crimes as juveniles and have already served 15 years of their sentence to petition for a reduced sentence. Stewart had been sentenced as a 16 year-old and already served 23 years in jail so his lawyers filed a sentence reduction appeal on behalf of Stewart. In 2019, with the support of Kim Kardashian West, Stewart was granted early release with five years of supervised probation. Stewart now works as a multiplatform artist, a motivational speaker and a youth activist.
“We are always grateful for residents and organizations that step up and say they want to be part of the solution,” said Mayor Bowser in a statement provided by her press secretary, Daniel Gleick. “These grants are one way we support people who know our community and who know our young people and they are helping us build a safer, stronger D.C.”