‘A great, great day.’ Lexington gives 15 grants to groups focused on youth, non-violence
Elisha Mutyongwa moved to Lexington more than a decade ago from the Congo.
Three years ago he started the Marafiki Center, a center for African refugee teens and youth, because there were so many concerns African refugee teens faced Mutyongwa also struggled with as a teenager. How would he fit in? How would he keep his African identity?
“Many of these refugees are coming from African countries because of gun violence,” Mutyongwa said. “Then they come here and have also experienced gun violence.”
Mutyongwa said he recently had to help an African refugee family move after their home was shot at.
Thanks to a $2,500 grant from the city of Lexington, Mutyongwa is able to expand his programming, including adding more summer camps and adding a new youth summit. More than 150 youth attended his last summit.
Still in its infancy, the Marafiki Center doesn’t currently have a permanent space. The grant from the city is critical for Mutyongwa to help African refugee youth, he said.
The Marafiki Center was one of 15 grassroots, nonprofit organizations that received micro-grants to help address youth violence, the city announced Tuesday.
“Nonprofit organizations have been active in our community for many, many decades, working to stop violence among our youth people,” said Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton during a press conference Tuesday at city hall. “They’re involved in mentoring, art, coaching, education, wellness, counseling and more.
“As One Lexington started working with these organizations it became clear the government needs to help them grow so they can work with even more young people.”
One Lexington, the city’s violence prevention organization, has been working to expand its violence prevention programming. To do that, it depends on groups like the Marafiki Center to help it reach youth and teens.
“This is a really, really good day,” said Devine Carama, the director of One Lexington. “It’s not about re-inventing the wheel, but instead engage in partnerships with organizations on the frontlines already doing the work of prevention, intervention, enforcement and re-entry.”
Thirty-four organizations applied for the grants. Community Action Council helped develop and screen the applications. The organizations received a maximum of $7,500. Some of the organizations deal with arts programming, youth sports, mentoring and physical fitness programs.
Coach Terry Hicks of the Lexington Ravens Football organization said the grant will help the program reach more under-served populations. The program focuses on youth 6 to 12 years old.
This year, four former Ravens players graduated high school and have been awarded full scholarships to college, Hicks said. Next year the program expects 10 to 12 former Ravens players to graduate high school and also get scholarships to college, he said.
“We want to help more kids,” Hicks said.
This is the first year for the grants.
Gorton set aside $100,000 for the program.
Homicides and shootings start to decline
The announcement of the grants is part of the city’s violence prevention efforts under One Lexington.
Last year, the city reached a grim milestone — 44 homicides in one year, a new record.
Since Jan. 1, the city has had one homicide. During those same three months in 2022, there were seven.
Homicides and shootings generally dip in the colder, winter months.
Summer is typically the city’s worst time of year for homicides and shootings.
Organizations that received funding
The 15 organizations that received grants are:
- Operation Making A change
- On the Move Art Studio
- Exhilarating Inc.
- Marafiki Center
- Lexington Ravens Football
- The Black Male Working Academy
- Sisters & Supporters Working Against Gun Violence
- Legends Youth Boxing
- Voices of Youth Administering Global Education Movement
- Charlotte Court Inc.
- Lexington Stryders Club
- Kappa League
- H.E.A.R.T.S.
- Resolve Fitness
- RadioLex
This story was originally published March 14, 2023 at 2:14 PM.
