Council committee backs effort to curb gun violence
KINGSTON, N.Y. » City lawmakers are considering investing $20,000 in a community outreach program aimed at disrupting the cycle of gun violence in Kingston.
During an online meeting Wednesday, the Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee endorsed a resolution authorizing Mayor Steve Noble to use $20,000 from the city’s contingency fund to help start a SNUG program in Kingston.
Voting against the budget transfer was Alderwoman Michele Hirsch, DWard 9, who said she needed more information before deciding whether to fund the request.
Alderwoman Rita Worthington, D-Ward 4, who brought forward the funding request, said she would work to answer her colleagues’ questions by the time the council holds its monthly caucus meeting on May 3.
Worthington said any funding would be contingent on SNUG providing the city with a budget and cost analysis.
SNUG, which is “guns” spelled backward, is an “evidence-based street outreach program” based on an initiative in Chicago that treats gun violence as a disease, Worthington said. She said the initiative aims to find the causes of the violence and interrupt the transmission of guns.
“I don’t have to tell you all what’s going on here in our city,” Worthington said. “Gun violence is rampant.”
Worthington said SNUG collaborators would work with the Samadhi Recovery Community Outreach Center in Kingston to develop risk-reduction strategies to reduce gun violence in the city. She said the effort would target people between the ages of 14 and 24.
Worthington said the $20,000 would be an initial investment in getting the program running locally. She said the program is coming to Kingston regardless of whether the city helps fund it, but helping to fund it and seeking state and federal aid to keep it going would show the city’s commitment to ending gun violence.
People doing outreach through SNUG would work with the community, knock on doors and be in people’s homes and at hospitals when there are incidents of gun violence, Worthington said.
Noble said he would like the funding to be used to pay the outreach workers. He said the goal is to get the program running as soon as possible.
Hirsch said she had several questions, including how much the program would cost the city and how the training of the outreach workers would occur. She also asked about supervision of the program and wanted clarification that it was sanctioned by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.