The Wichita City Council has approved a three-year, $1.5 million plan to help curb violence in the city.
The Wichita State Community Engagement Institute will open violence interrupter sites: one in northeast Wichita east of I-135 and another in south Wichita, in the area of Pawnee and Broadway.
The institute will recruit and hire in January and begin training in February. Their violence interruption and intervention program will be targeted at high-risk youth.
Council member Bryan Frye wants the community to get involved in helping solve this issue, which he says is not getting better. The city says 74% of homicides in 2021 were committed with the use of a firearm.
The program will be funded through ARPA dollars.