As Birmingham nears the end of a historically violent year, the City Council has approved another nearly $2 million for community-focused programs to help fight the source of violent crime in the city.

“Our approach is rooted in compassion and prevention — offering tailored resource packets, access to counseling and opportunities for healing that empower victims and their families to break the cycle of harm, Councilor LaTonya Tate, chairwoman of the council’s Public Safety Committee, said during Monday’s meeting, in which the council approved the funding. “Together, with our community partners, we are committed to fostering a safer, more supportive city for everyone.”

Funds for the programs come from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which must be allocated by the end of the year. The allocations are:

• The Institute of Research for Social Justice in Action will receive $700,000 to oversee the One Hood program, which uses former violent offenders to reduce violence and organize advocacy in the community, Uche Bean, director of community safety initiatives, told council members.

• Trajectory Changing Solutions will receive $700,000 for a program in which workers also go out into the community to intervene with victims of violence, directing them to resources that could steer them away from retaliating and perpetuating a cycle of violence. Mayor Randall Woodfin told the council that these workers “have either been incarcerated, have been victims of gun violence themselves and/or (are) people who understand what’s happening in our streets.”

• The National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform will get $302,418 to design and implement a gun violence reduction strategy for Birmingham. Such plans identify the individuals and groups at most risk of gun violence to communicate with them directly and provide them with support to avoid violence, according to the institute’s website. Birmingham was also part of a study from the institute on the true cost of gun violence.

• Community Initiatives will get $130,350 to implement “an integrated violence prevention program” under the Community Safety Initiative Immediate Response Action Plan that Mayor Randall Woodfin announced in October, a little more than two weeks after a mass shooting in Five Points South killed four and injured 17.

Several council members expressed a desire to see data that would indicate whether these programs are making any headway.

“I feel like we voted on a lot of things like this, and I’m not really sure if they’re working. So, is there any way that we could get some type of metric around this to see, you know, ‘Is this $700,000 company doing what they need to do?’” Council Hunter Williams asked.

Bean said the groups named Monday will work with other local organizations to accomplish the goals for the projects.

“The goal is to build infrastructure here locally with an organization that will actually use the money for operations, so that money is assigned to them, but the goal is to essentially recycle it back into Birmingham with the local organization that will provide those services,” Bean said.

The mayor told the council that Bean and his office would be in regular contact with Tate and the public safety committee and could have an update ready for the whole council as soon as April 1.