BATON ROUGE — Community leaders from across the state gathered in Downtown Baton Rouge at the River Branch Library to come up with a solution to keep the progress they've made in crime prevention from unraveling due to major cuts in the federal budget.

The Department of Justice terminated more than 350 grants worth more than $800 million in crime prevention funding. 

Equal Justice USA (EJUSA) Louisiana Strategist Josie Alexander said Louisiana lost more than 3 million dollars in grants for Community Violence Intervention (CVI) programs. 

Alexander said with funding drying up violent interrupters will not get paid, meaning fewer boots will be on the ground working in communities.

“If we take those resources away, there’s a possibility that crime and violence will increase," Alexander said.

EJUSA is a national organization. Alexander said they receive funding to help provide it to other organizations with little to no support. Here in Louisiana, their partnered with five other crime prevention organizations. One of those partners is The BRidge Agency.

The Agency was awarded $250,000 over three years. It has received $80,000 so far, but won't get any more. Program Specialist April Morrison said they depend on those tax dollars to not only pay workers, but provide mental health work, college visits for high school students, and free summer programs that help keep kids occupied and out of trouble.

"It's going to be almost a miracle to make that happen. We reached out to other entities, but honestly, it was a huge deficit to our organization," Morrison said.

Alexander said these funds are needed to help build safe communities and expand our understanding of violence through the lens of public health.

“What the public health model teaches us is that violence is only a symptom of the problem that’s happening, so we have to dig deeper and ask those more critical questions,” Alexander said.

Alexander said she and other community leaders are calling on state lawmakers to find funds for their programs.