LCSO's Men and Boys council gets $1.4M federal grant for staffing

Karl Etters, Tallahassee Democrat
·2 min read

A $1.4 million federal grant awarded to the Leon County Sheriff’s Office will help the agency staff the newly created Council on the Status of Men and Boys.

The U.S. Department of Justice funding will allow LCSO to hire three direct support and subject matter experts: a community-based navigator, a school-based navigator and a life coach navigator. The funding will also go toward recruitment as well as research and evaluation of the program by Florida State University’s College of Criminology & Criminal Justice.

Established in August with funding from the city of Tallahassee, Leon County Commission, Leon County Schools, Tallahassee Police Department and LCSO, the Council is aimed at reducing and intervening in gun violence in Tallahassee.

As of Wednesday, there have been at least 90 serious shootings in Tallahassee this year, resulting in at least 64 injuries and 15 deaths, according to an analysis of gun violence by the Tallahassee Democrat.

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Council on the Status of Men and Boys Director Royle King said the federal funding would allow the group to tap into staffing and resources to continue the push to stem gun violence.

“We are truly grateful to the Justice Department for the funding to help us reduce gun violence in Leon County,” King said in a statement. “This grant will help ensure that, for the next three years, the council has the staffing and research needed to better understand what works to reduce violence. However, this is only a small part of what it takes to support our efforts. We will continue to need the community’s support and additional funding to ensure we have the proper community-based programs and resources to be successful.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: LCSO Council on the Status of Men and Boys gets $1.4M grant