MLIVE: Saginaw youth anti-violence group HELP receives $700K in federal funding

SAGINAW, MI — A Saginaw-based group formed to curb youth violence will receive $700,000 in federal funding.

Formed in 2023, HELP — an acronym for Healing. Love. Engagement. Presence. — will use the funds to expand programming focused on mentorship, including in schools, officials said.

The funding was one of Congresswoman Kristen McDonald Rivet’s community project funding proposals included in the Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act of 2026. The bill was signed into law in January 2026.

“We’re in a moment where we can ask ourselves, ‘Are we going to shrug our shoulders and walk away from our children and let them gut it out on their own, or are we going to double down on things like HELP that make differences, both in the right-now and down the road?,’” said Rivet, a Democrat from Bay City.

“This is a community project we were able to get funding for as crime prevention. This is what works.”

HELP was formed by Kareem Bowen, Terry Reed and four other core members in 2023 in part as a response to Saginaw youths whose lives were derailed or ended altogether because of violence. They were prompted in part by calls for action against violence by Saginaw Mayor Brenda Moore.

While their primary objective involves course-correcting and protecting youths vulnerable to dangerous elements in Saginaw neighborhoods, HELP’s core group also provides support for the families of those children as well as families outside of the city.