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NORWALK, Conn. — State grants totaling $150,000 will help fund youth violence prevention initiatives at “five wonderful nonprofit organizations in our community,” State Rep. Stephanie Thomas (D-143) said Friday.

“I believe that we all benefit when government and nonprofit organizations team up to address difficult issues,” Thomas said, at City Hall. “Our nonprofit partners are closest to the problem, and they focus on database solutions that work. Given the challenges we’ve all faced over the last 18 months, this funding will help vulnerable youth move forward in a positive direction. All five of these organizations have proven strategies that will help our young people stay on a positive path throughout their lives.”

“I want to just take a moment to really thank Representative Thomas for her efforts to bring this funding to our local communities. She is in her first term in the first year of her first term,” State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D-25) said. “… It’s very hard to kind of find your way around (in your first year), whether it’s virtually or in-person and she managed to do not only that but find funding for these great organizations.”

“This grant will specifically help us to expand our Summer Run program. That’s a program that we’ve done for a number of years,” Carver Center Executive Director Novelette Peterkin said.

A Carver Facebook post explains that this summer, the program included the “new mobile L.O.V.E. Unit, an initiative that provided free basketball training and mentorship at Roodner Court and Columbus Court.”

“We actually took this on the road, which, as a result of this grant, we’re able to do that, so we’re very happy about that,” Peterkin said at Friday’s event.

Carver also offered high school students paid internships through an Earn and Learn Initiative, “as a result of this grant,” she said. “We also will add a number of family engagement at the community center. We plan to do a workshop on artificial intelligence. “There’s so many things that we want to do with families as well as with the students. So, we are grateful for this grant.”

The Carver Center, Homes for Hope, the Norwalk Housing Foundation, the Child Guidance Center of Mid-Fairfield County, and The Rowan Center are benefitting from the grant….