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Crime fighting grants announced

Details

By Jill Dempsey

Thursday, September 13, 2012

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The Greater Flint Health Coalition (GFHC) the city of Flint, Commit to Fit! and the city's Blue Badge Community Policing Program announce the awardees for the 2012 Health and Safety Mini-Grant Program. The program is designed to increase community-based safety initiatives that have a positive impact on the health and safety of local residents.

The violent crime rate is more than 400 percent of the national average in Flint. Safety remains an issue for many individuals and families.

The goals of this program are to improve safety by activating residents' ability to work together on efforts to improve neighborhood environments and create safer places for residents to be physically and socially active. Program goals will be achieved through supporting neighborhood groups, block clubs, local associations, security watches and nonprofit organizations which will use mini-grant funds to create environmental changes that promote safety.

The projects of grant awardees, that will be completed from August through December, are described below.

• Second Chance Church and New Jerusalem Full Gospel Baptist Church will complete the Choose Life for a Healthy and Safe Community Project to improve safety by redeveloping an unsafe, vacant lot with both beautification and better lighting. This project will be on the border of Flint and Flint Township near Flushing and Ballenger roads.
• The OWIR Block Club will complete the Light the Night Project that installs lighting throughout neighborhood sites to increase safety. Neighborhood residents and block club members will assist with installation and maintenance to continue use of lights after the grant is completed. This project will be in Flint near Hamilton and Dupont streets.
• University Park Association will complete a Neighborhood Security Watch Project that will provide a safer neighborhood for residents by increasing visibility, resources and activities of an existing neighborhood security watch. This project will be located in the University Park area near Saginaw Street.
• The East Bishop and East Flint Park Block Club will complete Project Lights that installs lighting at the homes of neighborhood residents to increase safety. Residents have agreed to pay for electricity and maintain use of lights after the grant is completed. This project will be in blocks between North Saginaw Street and Martin Luther King Avenue.
• The College Cultural Neighborhood Association will complete the Neighborhood Watch Mini-Station Project to increase community empowerment and safety by supporting an office and using it as a place for operations of a neighborhood watch. This project is in the area bounded by Dort Highway, Interstate 69, Gilkey Creek and Longway Boulevard.
• The Rollingwood Watch Group will complete the Security Needs Project that uses security signs to raise awareness of the neighborhood's crime watch program. This project is just east of Dort Highway near the intersection of East Pierson and Branch roads.
• The Genesee Township North Beecher Neighborhood Watch will complete the North Beecher Flight from Blight Project to improve neighborhood safety through beautification activities. The project will purchase trimmers, mowers, rakes and shovels to be used by the Neighborhood Watch program to clean up and repurpose multiple neighborhood sites. This project will work in the areas near Beecher and Genesee.
• The Max Brandon Park Block Club will complete the Neighborhood Safety Project that increases safety through the purchasing, installation and maintenance of lighting and surveillance systems for neighborhood streets. It will use solar units that will continue to be used beyond the grant period. This project is near Max Brandon Park.
• Don't Dump on Me Community Gardens will complete a Community Garden Project that uses a multigenerational engagement approach to expand the safe environment of a community garden and teach healthy eating habits. This project will be in Beecher, just north of Carpenter Road.

After the grant program is completed the GFHC and the city of Flint will hold a meeting of all grantees to discuss these efforts in improving community safety. All grants are provided by the Greater Flint Health Coalition, which is supporting this initiative as a component of the GFHC's County Health Rankings Action Plan, a 10-year effort launched in April, 2011 to strategically improve the health of Flint area residents.

In addition to the grant program, the action plan also includes the Commit to Fit! campaign to promote health behavior improvement among residents. The Commit to Fit! Smoke-free Toolkit will encourage the creation of smoke-free environments and additional efforts will focus on improving health behaviors through schools, youth programs, businesses and health care providers.

The Greater Flint Health Coalition (GFHC) is a Flint-based nonprofit health coalition. Its two-fold mission is to improve the health status of Genesee County residents and the quality and cost-effectiveness of the health care delivery system in the community. Visit www.gfhc.org for more information on the GFHC.

Plan Commit to Fit! is an ongoing initiative of the Greater Flint Health Coalition focused on improving the health and health behaviors of Genesee County residents. It is one component of the GFHC's County Health Rankings Action Plan, an eight-point strategic plan developed collaboratively by the GFHC that outlines multiple activities to improve the health of local residents. This includes improvements in public safety and the physical environment. Visit www.commit-2-fit.org for more information on Commit to Fit! and the County Health Rankings Action Plan.

The Blue Badge Program assists government and residents to work together to have a positive impact on reducing neighborhood crime, improving safety and enhancing the quality of life in the community. It is the umbrella for all Flint crime-fighting initiatives that involve active participation from residents, block clubs, crime watches, ministations and police volunteers.

(Note: This report is provided as a service to our readers and a service to the group or individual mentioned in the release. Usually, only minor editing is done. The group or individual is responsible for all information provided.)

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