Changes in funding could affect public safety - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

They are not hard to miss dressed in neon yellow, with Ten Point Coalition printed on the back. On the front line of a pseudo demonstration along 38th street is Byron Austin, an outreach worker for the Ten Point Coalition. Standing next to him is Reverend Horatio Luster.

Both were some of the first hired by the Coalition in the late 1990's. "Your heart can be as pure as can be, but it cost money, it takes funding to get certain things done." says Luster about his motivation to work the streets.

But there is a concern about funding. In the past, two prominent African American groups, The Ten Point Coalition and Young Men, Inc. have received funding for their work via a city crime prevention grant. Both have lost those grants ever since the city farmed out crime prevention grant responsibility to the Indianapolis Park Foundation.

The Ten Point Coalition is most commonly known to those outside of Center Township as a group of ministers patrolling the canal and helping police during Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration. But their adopted charter is crime prevention, education, and job training.

"The first year we did that in two of the neighborhoods, we reduced homicides by 40 percent," Reverend Charles Harrison told Eyewitness News.

 Keeping guys like Austin and Luster out in the street takes money. The Ten Point Coalition had planned to add two additional outreach workers with the grant money. But a shift in policy and focus by the Park Foundation changed their plans.

"Why have they shifted from front line groups to more established white groups?  And race is a concern and you hear that being talked about it the community that race has become an issue with how the parks department is handing out these grants," said Reverend Harrison.

He says, when the grant was denied it was signal to the Ten Point Coalition Leadership that their work had not been appreciated.