WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)—The Violence Interrupters Program will recieve the money it requested after an hours-long discussion at the Wichita City Council meeting on Tuesday. The program is a joint effort between Wichita State University and Cure Violence Global. It aims to prevent violence before it happens through mediation intervention and social services. Two sites in northeast and south-central Wichita became fully operational in September. Since then, the program has helped dozens of families. One of them is the family of a 14-year-old boy who was shot and killed at Towne East Mall in 2022. "Since they've been in my life, I've been more in-tune with what's going on. When stuff happens, they call and check up on my son," said Trentasia Hutton, the mother of TrenJ’vious Hutton. City staff recommended that council members give the program another $1.6 million in ARPA money to keep it open through September 2026. After some contention, it passed 4-3 with Dalton Glasscock, J.V. Johnston, and Mayor Lily Wu opposed. "The program may be great, and I'm so excited that Cure Violence Wichita is off to a great start and I hope that it is successful I just want to make sure that we're prioritizing and spending money wisely especially when we're facing a budget deficit," said Mayor Wu. "Our role is not necessarily to do it ourselves. It's to put the money out there for the folks who have the expertise to do it, which is what we're talking about today. Crime prevention, intervention, folks who have lived experience, folks who know how to reach these young people," said Wichita City Councilmember Brandon Johnson. Community gathers to remember 13-year-old boy fatally shot on Halloween "Crime prevention and violence prevention was one of the things that our community said was the most important thing to them they didn't think we were doing it very well," said Wichita City Councilmember Becky Tuttle. "Because I believe in your potential that you can't fully depend on the city and you cannot fully depend on city support, we should help guide you on a sustainable funding model when we move forward," said Glasscock. Now that the Violence Interrupters Program is funded through September 2026, it must develop a sustainability plan because the city does not promise money beyond that year.