Sheriff ’s office gives over $100K to community
The Orange County Sheriff ’s Office this month divvied up more than $100,000 of forfeiture funds to 15 community programs or nonprofits dedicated to crime prevention, through a new micro-grant program.
Sheriff John Mina provided checks to many of the organizations Thursday at a ceremony, where he pledged to continue to increase the amount of funds the Sheriff ’s Office gives back to the community each year.
“I want to try to give back, the Sheriff ’s Office wants to try to give back, to as many of these type of programs in our community as possible,” Mina said. “Thank you for what you do, we appreciate all of you.”
The grants ranged from $3,800 to $10,000, with two organizations receiving that highest amount: the United Foundation of Central Florida, Inc., which provides an afterschool program in Pine Hills, and Butterfly Transformation Outreach, Inc., which runs a girls mentoring program.
The grants included other mentoring organizations — $9,000 to MAN UP Mentoring and $5,000 to the Florida Songwriter’s Association arts-focused youth program — as well as community groups focused on vulnerable populations and community health, like Hope City Refuge, which helps people transition from prison, and the drunk driving prevention group The Keri Anne DeMott Foundation, both of which got $5,000.
The money for the program comes from seized money or property from criminal investigations. State law requires that a law enforcement agency receiving more than $15,000 in forfeiture funds donate at least 25% of the money to community crime prevention, safety or drug education programs.
This was the first time OCSO used the grant application process to allocate community funds.