Pathway to End Gun Violence Advisory Council-7/10/2024-1:00 PM

I need to because it's important.

You gotta stop it. I'm saying you said it to me? Finance.

Finance. Finance. Thirty.

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Miguel. I'm, the chair. Welcome to, the Pathway to End Gun Violence Advisory Council.

We've got quite a longer agenda. Thank you all very much, committee members, for making the time to be here today. Welcome to our guests here that are joining us today. Obviously, our chief's office as well, our senior solicitor's office, council staff. I think we're ready for it, Raul.

Roll call.

Sheriff Preston Sanchez?

Here.

Holshare Corey Jones?

Here.

Holshare Diana Garlington?

Here.

Peturo Manocaron. Here. Allen Williams is absent. Detective David Perez.

Here.

Michael Stefan is absent. James Monteiro is absent. Lisa Pina Warren. Here. Juan Carter is absent.

Michael Hogan is absent. BJ Fox?

Here.

We have seven present, five absent. We have a

quorum. Awesome. Thank you. So first item on the agenda is welcome introductions. I think we can kinda skip over that part unless anyone else has any objections.

The only update that I would have is that... Who's stopping the line? Someone's stopping. Joe Joe Vilissen Vilissen. Is, moving on, from justice assistance.

So she recommended, as long as... Like, along with my co chairs, to have Robert Bailey from an organization, take her plate. So he will be, official member of the committee, for the next meeting, hopefully. So we'll make that formally, at the council meeting tomorrow. It's the only, committee personnel update, as you could say.

Does anyone else have anything to add on there? Alright. So we want to item two, review of previous meeting notes. These are gonna be approved? Or

Technically, and I have talked to director of policy, Aaron, mister Gardner, and I know he had a conversation with Miguel. This is something that we generally don't put on an agenda. So this is the last time we're bound by state law to put up minutes within thirty five days. And because this committee needs longer than that, these minutes have already been officially posted because we're beyond the thirty five days. So, typically, a lot of our other committees don't need to approve their minutes.

There's very few that do. So it's not a necessary thing that you have to do and probably should not be on future agendas.

Okay. Noted. Alright. So we'll move on to item number three, update on current initiatives and progress. So, I mean, obviously, as a commission, we're we're still in the very early stages on.

So, I mean, we're not very directly involved. I know, we've had a number of folks here that recently, attended a conference out in California, regarding, CVI. The Giffords conference is one of the the lead... Would you guys say it's the leading organization around community violence intervention?

Yes. Admiral Lee.

Yes. Pretty fair.

So, luckily, we have a a committee member, Juan Carter, who's not here today, who actually, is employed by said organization. So we definitely have a very efficient lineup of communication, and options, when it comes to information and resources. Lisa, do you wanna touch a little bit on on what the Nonviolence Institute has been up to this summer?

Sure. So we have a couple of initiatives going on. We have the summer jobs program in Pawtucket that is starting this coming Monday. We also have some things going on, in Providence continuing to do some work with the youth that we have previously, well, that have previously gone through the seed program. The seed program is a two week nonviolence life skills, program that we have.

They do receive a stipend. Well, this summer, we are choosing 10, youth from that... From the previous cohorts, and we will have a small, very intimate group that will work very closely, excuse me, with these 10. And, again, they are hand selected so the youth that we have seen that may need some extra support may possibly be involved or on the wrong path. And what we plan to do is continue to help them build themselves up, whether it's health, mental health, first aid.

We're also going to do CPR, some job skills training, but there's also gonna be some recreation. We plan on taking them on a couple of trips. One, at the end of the summer, we plan on taking the February to Newport, have some lunch, and things like that. So, we just actually planned it this past week, and we plan on moving forward and selecting the 10 next week. Also, as you know, we continue to do the outreach and victim services.

Had a pretty busy week since fourth of July, I will say. Actually, very busy. So we continue to do that as well, kinda just trying to get a, you know, a pulse on what's going on and trying to intervene on any anything that we can, but also continuing to support victims and families, that are impacted by the the current violence that is happening in our community.

And you guys also have, like, multi community meetings. Right?

Yeah. So we have the community conversation, and there is one coming up, sorry, that I can't remember exactly. I believe it's next week. That will be next Tuesday will be our community conversation, and it's from four to six. And it is at the Nonviolence Institute, which is 265 Oxford Street.

So that that kinda reminds me just a quick reminder. If anyone has, like, any events or anything that they wanna get out to the committee, you guys could always email it to one of our lovely clerks, and she can... They can make sure that it gets out to to the rest of us for sure. So thank you,. Thank you.

Does anyone from... Does anyone else wanna... PJ, do wanna give a

quick update? Quick update too. So the attorney general's office submitted the CVI, grant to DOJ, totaling $4,000,000. And they'll be... It's a statewide initiative, but obviously, partners that are involved, We're looking at...

I can't remember off the time ahead, but I think if we get it, it will be around... We'll be able to RFP about 1,300,000 out to community agencies. So, obviously, if we were to get that, we'll be making sure that the committee is aware of that to help disseminate that to the to the agencies and stuff. So that's exciting. We're not...

Probably won't hear anything till late September, early October, but it's a good chunk of change if we can get it.

So sure is crossed. Yeah. Has anyone in the state ever applied for a grant?

Yeah. There's been there's been several, but the... This is a state state level grant. Right. So it's really coordinating between DLT signed on.

It's really coordinating the state strategy, but we made sure that we wrote in... Can't remember off the top of my head, but a certain percentage of the funding has to go out to community agencies. So it's a significant chunk. So there's... There are partners that were written in, and then there are...

There'll be an additional one. I think it's around 1.3 that we ended up being able to segment for RFP purposes out to community agencies. So it's a three year grant, so that's good good change.

Yeah. And and right now, like, the CBI PI program has more money than ever before because of the bipartisan infrastructure... No. Bipartisan Public Safety Act, is

that what it was called.

But they put, like, 200,000,000 into the CVI program across the country. So,

yeah, we should hear hopefully hopefully late September ideally because the grant's scheduled to start October 1.

So And and just for, like, I guess, my educational purposes, we obviously know certain, funding opportunities, sometimes disappear or or move away with certain, administrations. Is that a concern if there's a change in administration that some of the CVI money, might not be available?

Yeah. So federally, if a new administration comes in, one that's not as friendly to this kind of work, Definitely. I don't know the ruling. I don't know the nuances. I mean, I don't think once contract's signed Mhmm.