OCSO awards more than $200,000 to Community Crime Prevention Program recipients
Groups within Orange County’s Crime Prevention Program received much-needed funding Friday.
▶ WATCH CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS
Those groups offer a wide range of resources to the community. From helping teens get their barbering licenses to suicide prevention, or drug abuse education, they all want to promote a better and safer Central Florida.
“The work that you do in our community helps us,” Orange County Sheriff John Mina said. “If you’re successful, we’re successful keeping this community safe.”
Since 2020, OCSO’s Crime Prevention Program has provided more than $600,000 in funding.
The funding comes from law enforcement trust fund money which is confiscated from drug dealers.
Read: ‘I miss her so much’: Madeline Soto’s biological father speaks out about death, disappearance
“We do our best to put them in prison but what we also do is seize their profits, we seize their drug money,” Sheriff Mina said. “We are using that money to help our community.”
$220,000 was awarded to this year’s recipients.
The United Foundation of Central Florida is one of the non-profits working to better the community and was one of the recipients of this funding.
Its CEO and Executive Director, Sandra Fatmi-Hall, said their check will go to Future Leaders United which is the foundation’s after school program at Evans High School.
Read: Sheriff: Man dies after accidental shooting in Brevard County school pickup line
“If we’re not having our young people do something productive with themselves, then they’re becoming a nuisance,” Fatmi-Hall said.
The money allows program leaders to rent two busses to take students on college tours to UCF, Rollins, and Bethune Cookman.
“Young people take our college tour opportunities to get a feel of whether they see themselves on a college campus, that particular one, and where it will go from there,” Fatmi-Hall said.
Stay up to date with OCSO’s Community Crime Prevention Award opportunities here: Orange County Sheriff’s Office > Awards (ocso.com)
Read: Man found guilty of second-degree murder of his stepmother and her unborn child
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
