Halifax County, through an application by North Carolina Wesleyan University, is the recipient of nearly $500,000 out of $3.5 million in grants to provide violence intervention programs.
The Governor's Crime Commission Thursday voted to approve the grants. Halifax County’s share will be for treatment courts. The exact funding to Halifax County is $499,999.99, according to the state.
In all, the Commission plans to award 18 grants for Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program funding.
The funding will support violence intervention programs across the state, including treatment courts, domestic violence intervention programs, violence intervention programs and behavioral health services. Recipients include community-based organizations, hospitals, and government organizations.
These programs are aligned with the public health approach to violence prevention championed by Governor Roy Cooper and by the state’s first Office of Violence Prevention, established within the Department of Public Safety in 2023.
“We are pleased to approve funding for innovative programs that will help our state advance a public health, whole-of-community approach to gun violence prevention in our communities,” said Caroline Farmer, executive director of the Governor’s Crime Commission. “At the same time, our focus remains on ensuring critical services for victims of crime in the face of declining VOCA funding. And the results of the law enforcement survey are a stark reminder of the growing challenges within the profession. All of these issues are interconnected and will define funding decisions in the coming months.”
Halifax County Superior Court Judge Brenda G. Branch said the road to the funding began when she and Melinda Hardy, the initial recovery court coordinator, and both graduates of NCWU were seeking funds and establishing the Halifax Accountability and Recovery Court. “We received state funding from the NC General Assembly, and we were in need of an evaluator to serve on our core team for HARC. The administrators at Wesleyan readily responded to our request for assistance, as they have consistently been known to support their alumni.”
Branch said when the second grant opportunity through the Governor’s Crime Commission presented itself, “We were able to build upon the relationship that was already established with Wesleyan and once again, their administrators answered our call for assistance by agreeing to serve as fiscal agent to assist with the distribution of the grant funds.”
The judge said she is thankful for the strong leadership of Judge Teresa R. Freeman in guiding the HARC Core Team.
The team also consists of the court coordinator, sheriff, district attorney, public defender, private defense counsel, substance abuse/ mental health provider, probation, and a member of the Wesleyan staff.
“With our team in place, we were very fortunate to welcome Mr. Victor Marrow to the team as our recovery court coordinator,” Branch said. “He has spent years understanding and working with the state and other agencies to receive grant funding for many long-standing initiatives throughout the county.”
The judge said Marrow is relentless in his efforts in his role as current coordinator. “We are grateful for his expertise in grant writing and project management, which has resulted in this grant funding to improve the lives of citizens not only in Halifax County, but also throughout the entire Judicial District 7 of Northampton, Hertford and Bertie counties.”
Said Branch: “We all understand the substance abuse and mental health issues that affect many of our court-involved citizens, and the impact it has on families and other citizens in our communities.”
In fiscal year 2023, most felony convictions in the state were for either non-trafficking drug offenses or property-related crimes, many of which were committed to acquire drugs. “Drug courts help participants recover from addiction and prevent future criminal activity, while also reducing the burden and costs of repeatedly processing low‐level, non‐violent offenders through our courts, jails, and prisons.”
She said, “Therefore, we are thrilled that the state sees the need in our judicial district to provide funding for this alternative to incarceration, which combines public health and public safety approaches to connect people involved in the justice system with individualized, evidence-based treatment and recovery support services.
“Since we are all impacted by these devastating issues in our communities, we are excited to begin the journey of leading people with substance use disorders out of the justice system and into lives of health and recovery.”
