Since the Peoria City Council has opted not to fund a $25,000 Cure Violence Assessment, the Peoria City/County Health Department will pick up the tab.
That's according to Health Department Administrator Monica Hendrickson.
"With the assessment, which I think is the first step, we wanted to make sure that we had the ability to move forward, regardless of how the city's funding streams ended up being," she said.
Hendrickson said the health department already has dollars set aside for its strategic priorities that include tackling gun violence as a public health issue.
She said the department will release a finished assessment to the public. From there, a large entity like the city, health department, or a nonprofit could implement the plan.
Peoria Mayor Rita Ali said she considers the assessment a dead issue before the council, but she hopes the council will still be willing to pay for the implementation of Cure Violence's recommendations.
Hendrickson said there are other options if that doesn't happen.
"You'd have to be looking for grant opportunities and partnerships to fund implementation, if the city doesn't do their RFP process, not fund an implementation of the program," she said.
Hendrickson said a program like Cure Violence has a large upfront cost, but she hopes there will be money available to reinforce it once people see the program producing results.
