§ 35-25 — Integrated violence prevention and other services

(a) Subject to appropriation, for municipalities with 1,000,000 or more residents, the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention shall make grants to violence prevention organizations for evidence-based violence prevention services. Approved technical assistance and training providers shall create learning communities for the exchange of information between community-based organizations in the same or similar fields. Firearm violence prevention organizations shall prioritize individuals at the highest risk of firearm violence victimization and provide these individuals with evidence-based comprehensive services that reduce their exposure to chronic firearm violence. (a-5) Grants may be awarded under this Act to Reimagine Public Safety grantees or their subgrantees to provide any one or more of the following services to Reimagine Public Safety program participants or credible messengers: (1) Behavioral health services, including clinical interventions, crisis interventions, and group counseling supports, such as peer support groups, social-emotional learning supports, including skill building for anger management, de-escalation, sensory stabilization, coping strategies, and thoughtful decision-making, short-term clinical individual sessions, psycho-social assessments, and motivational interviewing. (A) Funds awarded under this paragraph may be used for behavioral health services until July 1, 2026. (B) Any community violence prevention service provider being reimbursed from funds awarded under this paragraph for behavioral health services must also file a plan to become Medicaid certified for violence prevention-community support team services under the Illinois Medicaid program on or before July 1, 2026. (2) Capacity-building services, including administrative and programmatic support, services, and resources, such as subcontract development, budget development, grant monitoring and reporting, and fiscal sponsorship. Capacity-building services financed with grants awarded under this Act may also include intensive training and technical assistance focused on Community Violence Intervention (CVI) not-for-profit business operations, best practice delivery of firearm violence prevention services, and assistance with administering and meeting fiscal reporting or auditing requirements. Capacity-building services financed with grants awarded under this Act must be directed to a current or potential Reimagine Public Safety firearm violence prevention provider and cannot exceed 20% of potential funds awarded to the relevant provider or future provider. (3) Legal aid services, including funding for staff attorneys and paralegals to provide education, training, legal services, and advocacy for program recipients. Legal aid services that may be provided with grant funds awarded under this Act include "Know Your Rights" clinics, trainings targeting returning citizens and families impacted by incarceration, and long-term legal efforts addressing expungement, civil rights, family law, housing, employment, and victim rights. Legal aid services provided with grant funds awarded under this Act shall not be directed toward criminal justice issues. (4) Housing services, including grants for emergency and temporary housing for individuals at immediate risk of firearm violence, except that grant funding provided under this paragraph must be directed only toward Reimagine Public Safety program participants. (5) Workforce development services, including grants for job coaching, intensive case management, employment training and placement, and retention services, including the provision of transitional job placements and access to basic certificate training for industry-specific jobs. Training also includes the provision of education-related content, such as financial literacy training, GED preparation, and academic coaching. (6) Re-entry services for individuals exiting the State or county criminal justice systems, if those individuals are either eligible for services under this Act as participants or are individuals who can make an immediate contribution to mediate neighborhood conflicts if they receive stabilizing services. Re-entry services financed with grants awarded under this Act include all services authorized under this Act, including services listed in this subsection. (7) Victim services, including assessments and screening of victim needs, planning sessions related to assessments, service planning and goal setting, assessing intervention needs, notifying and navigating participants through public agency processes for victim compensation, crisis intervention, emergency financial assistance, transportation, medical care, stable housing, and shelter, assessment and linkage to public benefits, and relocation services. (b) In the geographic areas they serve, violence prevention organizations shall develop expertise in: (1) Analyzing and leveraging data to identify the individuals who will most benefit from evidence-based violence prevention services in their geographic areas. (2) Identifying the conflicts that are responsible for recurring violence. (3) Having relationships with individuals who are most able to reduce conflicts. (4) Addressing the stabilization and trauma recovery needs of individuals impacted by violence by providing direct services for their unmet needs or referring them to other qualified service providers. (5) Having and building relationships with community members and community organizations that provide evidence-based violence prevention services and get referrals of people who will most benefit from evidence-based violence prevention services in their geographic areas. (6) Providing training and technical assistance to local law enforcement agencies to improve their effectiveness without having any role, requirement, or mandate to participate in the policing, enforcement, or prosecution of any crime. (c) Violence prevention organizations receiving grants under this Act shall coordinate services with other violence prevention organizations in their area. (d) The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention shall identify, for each separate eligible service area under this Act, an experienced violence prevention organization to serve as the Lead Violence Prevention Convener for that area and provide each Lead Violence Prevention Convener with a grant to coordinate monthly meetings between violence prevention organizations and youth development organizations under this Act. The Lead Violence Prevention Convener may also receive, from the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, technical assistance or training through approved providers when needs are jointly identified. The Lead Violence Prevention Convener shall: (1) provide the convened organizations with summary notes recommendations made at the monthly meetings to improve the effectiveness of evidence-based violence prevention services based on review of timely data on shootings and homicides in his or her relevant neighborhood; (2) attend monthly meetings where the cause of violence and other neighborhood disputes is discussed and strategize on how to resolve ongoing conflicts and execute on agreed plans; (3) (blank); (4) on behalf of the convened organizations, make consensus recommendations to the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention and local law enforcement on how to reduce violent conflict in his or her neighborhood; (5) meet on an emergency basis when conflicts that need immediate attention and resolution arise; (6) share knowledge and strategies of the community violence dynamic in monthly meetings with local youth development specialists receiving grants under this Act; (7) select when and where needed an approved Office of Violence Prevention-funded technical assistance and training service provider to receive agreed upon services; and (8) after meeting with community residents and other community organizations that have expertise in housing, mental health, economic development, education, and social services, make recommendations to the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention on how to target community revitalization resources available from federal and State funding sources. The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention shall compile recommendations from all Lead Violence Prevention Conveners and report to the General Assembly annually on these funding recommendations. The Lead Violence Prevention Convener may also serve as a violence prevention or youth development provider. (e) The Illinois Office of Firearm Violence Prevention shall select, when possible and appropriate, no more than 3 approved technical assistance and training providers to deliver technical assistance and training to the violence prevention organizations that request to receive approved technical assistance and training. Violence prevention organizations shall have the opportunity to select among the approved technical assistance services providers funded by the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, as long as the technical assistance provider has the capacity to effectively serve the grantees that have selected them. The Department shall make best efforts to accommodate second choices of violence prevention organizations when the violence prevention organizations' first choice does not have capacity to provide technical assistance. (f) Approved technical assistance and training providers may: (1) provide training and certification to violence prevention professionals on how to perform violence prevention services and other professional development to violence prevention professionals. (2) provide management training on how to manage violence prevention professionals; (3) provide training and assistance on how to develop memorandum of understanding for referral services or create approved provider lists for these referral services, or both; (4) share lessons learned among violence prevention professionals and service providers in their network; and (5) provide technical assistance and training on human resources, grants management, capacity building, and fiscal management strategies. (g) Approved technical assistance and training providers shall: (1) provide additional services identified as necessary by the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention and service providers in their network; and (2) receive a base grant of up to $250,000 plus negotiated service rates to provide group and individualized services to participating violence prevention organizations. (h) (Blank). (i) The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention shall issue grants, when possible and appropriate, to violence prevention organizations in each of the eligible service areas and no more than 6 organizations. When possible, the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention shall work, subject to eligible applications received, to ensure that grant resources are equitably distributed across eligible service areas. The Office of Firearm Violence Prevention may establish grant award ranges to ensure grants will have the potential to reduce violence in each neighborhood. (j) No violence prevention organization can serve more than 3 eligible service areas unless the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention is unable to identify violence prevention organizations to provide adequate coverage. (k) No approved technical assistance and training provider shall provide evidence-based violence prevention services in an eligible service area under this Act unless the Office of Firearm Violence Prevention is unable to identify qualified violence prevention organizations to provide adequate coverage.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 103-8, eff. 6-7-23; 103-1059, eff. 12-20-24; 104-140, eff. 1-1-26 .)