Mayor Brandon Scott announced on Tuesday that Baltimore City received $750,000 in grant funding for domestic violence prevention.
The grant will aid the city in life-saving interventions, victimization, and service delivery.
Mayor Scott also recognized Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which was launched in October 1987 as a way to raise awareness and connect individuals and organizations working on domestic violence issues.
In the United States, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by a domestic partner. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence.
In Baltimore City, intimate partner violence accounted for 20 percent of all violent crime this year. That number may be as high as 30 percent in neighborhoods impacted by poverty and crime.
“We must do better,” Shantay Jackson, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said in the statement. “MONSE is committed to doing more to coordinate a sensitive and appropriate response to intimate partner violence that recognizes the importance of removing the sole responsibility of safety from the shoulders of survivors.”
Baltimore City received the funding from the Improving Criminal Justice Response to Domestic Violence Program of the United States Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. The grant was received in partnership with Mercy Medical Center’s Family Violence Response Program, House of Ruth Maryland, and the Baltimore Police Department.
