MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Neighborhood groups across Memphis are getting some help to stop the spread of drugs and gangs thanks to money available from those red light tickets you pay.
The crime prevention grant is helping people keep their neighborhood safe.
The money from this grant helps pay for light bulbs outside your home, even street lighting, something people in a Hickory Hill neighborhood say can go a long way.
Joann Hill says she isn’t going to tolerate some of the crime problems she’s used to seeing in her neighborhood.
“Break-ins, walking down the streets, we don’t know what they were doing but they walked the streets, but they no longer walk the streets because we call the police,” she said.
Hill is over the neighborhood watch group in her Hickory Hill neighborhood, so she applied for a crime prevention grant the first time the money was available.
“It’s important because we have a crime infested city and if we can keep our neighborhood, another neighborhood can follow,” she said.
Judy McEwen, the manager of the Memphis Area Neighborhood Watch programs, says a lot of people don’t know there’s money out there.
Groups who want to apply for the second round of grants must attend workshops this month.
“We’re not writing the grants for them but the neighborhoods tell us what their needs are and then we help them put together the grant so that we can get these funds to help,” she said.
This program also helps get more teens in the neighborhood involved.
“If you can find more programs to make the young people feel accountable, make them feel a part of, they may even do a better job of protecting the neighborhood and, let’s face it, they’re the future,” McEwen said.
The workshops are:
February 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Feb. 12 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m
February 17 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
February 19 from 5:30 to 6:30
To register, call (901)636-6628 or email neighborhood.watch@memphistn.gov.