State Awards More Than $11 Million to Prevent Youth Violence

BOSTON — The Healey-Driscoll administration recently announced funding awarded through the Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative, including new funds to support violence prevention in public housing sites. The grant program is an important tool in helping communities build collaborative programs to improve safety and reduce gang activity.

“Preventing violence among young people is critical to ensuring the future well-being of our youth and the safety of our communities,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “This work requires collaboration among law enforcement, state and local officials, youth-serving nonprofits, and research partners to help ensure funds have the greatest positive impact. The partnerships built through the Shannon Community Safety Initiative are among the strongest tools we have to prevent youth and gang-related violence in Massachusetts.”

State Sen. Adam Gomez added that “there is power in partnership. Whatever the reason may be, youth violence affects our communities and homes all the same. This grant program works within our Commonwealth’s collaborative network of law-enforcement officials and nonprofits to tackle gang-related violence.”

The FY 2025 Shannon Community Safety Initiative is a state-funded grant program that awards yearly funds to support regional, multi-disciplinary program sites that take collaborative and evidence-based approaches to reduce youth and gang violence. The funds are managed and administered by the Office of Grants and Research.

A total of 15 program sites were awarded grants totaling approximately $11,179,673. Each program site will receive support from a local action research partner (LARP), which will assist with strategic planning, critical analysis, and continuous feedback to support program operations and ensure that funded programs remain within scope, on schedule, and within budget.

Researchers interested in serving as a LARP were required to submit applications separate from the Shannon Community Safety Initiative program site applicants. The selected LARPs will share approximately $785,543 in additional funding.

This marks the first year the Shannon initiative has incorporated the new Housing Site Initiative, which allocates a portion of the program’s funds to support violence prevention in publicly funded housing. Housing sites that have been subject to enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Justice were given preference for this funding.