By State Representative Marvin Lim (D-Norcross)
(878 words)
In the last couple of weeks, my nonprofit’s competitively-won Department of Justice (DOJ) grant was terminated. It was designed not only to assist Latinos and all others who live in Gwinnett or DeKalb counties who are possible victims of hate crimes, but also to create school and neighborhood-level conflict resolution interventions. These interventions prevent low-level resentment and disputes (e.g., noise, property) from erupting into violence and crime, ultimately increasing trust among neighbors to lead to safer outcomes. It was among roughly 365 Department of Justice grants – including several in Georgia – just terminated grants to help prevent crime and/or help crime victims.
Beyond my nonprofit, I’m also a state representative for House District 98, or most of unincorporated Norcross in Gwinnett County. But even many colleagues don’t know that I started my nonprofit, Lucky Shoals Community Association, after entering office in 2021. I did so because I wanted my area to have a greater share of critical funding opportunities, such as CARES ($2.2 trillion under the first Trump administration) and American Rescue Plan (under the Biden administration, which also ultimately awarded our DOJ grant). I do everything I can in my capacity as a state representative, in which I serve conscientiously as a Democrat. But I knew I could do even more for my community, especially with my previous nonprofit experience. After all, this community is one that I hear repeatedly from residents feels like it’s been ignored and, by the statistics, likelier not to vote at all than to choose between parties.
And that’s why I especially feel like we’ve lost something greater here with the loss of this grant: a way to address conflicts I hear arising all the time from my community, stemming from the fact that, while our society is the most diverse it’s ever been, we feel more disconnected than ever – even from our own neighbors. Which leads to questions I get from community members like: “There’s loud noise from the unit next to me. It’s disturbing my peace and quiet, but I’m also worried it is domestic violence. I don’t know my neighbor and don’t speak Spanish – what do I do?” This grant, which we were working on with fellow nonprofit Latino Community Fund, was designed to come up with better solutions for this and countless other scenarios that without being addressed, build resentment and ultimately hate.
Indeed, this work was an outgrowth of our work from the last several years. For example, this grant had a law enforcement training and engagement component, inspired by the work I did in my official capacity to co-create a course with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center on how police interact with local communities, a course that thousands of law enforcement in the state have taken. Also, in my official capacity in past years, and this year with fellow State Representative Karen Lupton in the form of HB 915, I have written bills to increase the ability of civilians to address low-level disputes and infractions. Doing so helps our neighborhoods trust one another enough to keep each other safe, especially to report to or, in best cases, in lieu of having to call in law enforcement. And, of course, Republicans and Democrats in Georgia, just in the past few years, have successfully passed hate crimes laws, too.
Which just goes to show – disappointment aside, we’ve come too far, and the need is too great, both in terms of stopping very palpable hate and making our neighborhoods truly safer, for us to stop our grant work. We’ll pursue appeals. At worst, we will do this work in smaller-scale fashion (for most of my nonprofit’s life, I’ve taken one dollar a year as salary anyways to make things work). We’ll also tell our story, like right now, but it also doesn’t take a grant to show we care by reaching out to our own neighbors. To that end, I’ve also offered support to the other affected grantees in Georgia.
All of this motivates me – and hopefully motivates you – to continue pushing, through words and actual, achievable action alike, for the change that our communities need.
Part of that change must be to stem the tide of cuts to federal funding. Most all of us, of any political stripe, believe government can be more efficient. If we built a system over from scratch, what similarities and dissimilarities might it have compared to this administration? But we’re not starting from scratch. These grants – given only after competitive processes and with extensive oversight during their duration – were in the middle of work. Americans generally find honoring contracts to be a good thing, for a reason. And while you personally might object to some of them, American nonprofits as a whole – often more so than government – are the ones doing real, honest work for their communities and paying dividends right back to the taxpayer, across race, class and rural-urban divides.
Like nonprofits working to assist victims of crime – something that impacts all groups – there are Georgians working toward real solutions for public safety. This work is not just for Latinos or immigrants like myself, but for all Americans, who must work together in our neighborhoods to achieve true security. In all our diversity and division, I still believe we can do better.
Representative Marvin Lim represents the citizens of District 98, which includes a portion of Gwinnett County. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 and currently serves on the Agriculture & Consume Affairs, Appropriations, Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety, Health and Retirement committees.
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