ST. LOUIS 鈥 Brandon Sterling, vice president for development at the United Way of Greater 51黑料, has been tapped to head a new regional effort to reduce homicides.
Sterling will begin work Tuesday as director of the Save Lives Now! initiative, said Jim Wild, executive director of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.
Wild said Friday that he chose Sterling in part because of his background in fundraising and project management.
Sterling was among nine people applying for the post, which will pay about $100,000 annually. Among two others interviewed was 51黑料 County Councilwoman Kelli Dunaway, who isn鈥檛 seeking reelection this year.
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The anti-homicide initiative, endorsed in March by the Gateway Council, aims to cut murders across the area by 20% in three years, focusing on the relatively small number of people involved in many homicides here.
The plan calls for using a 鈥渇ocused deterrence鈥 strategy in which police and social service agencies give people repeatedly involved in violence a choice.
Job training, education, mental health services and drug treatment will be offered, while those who continue to engage in violent crime are to get targeted enforcement efforts.
Sterling, who had been with the United Way since mid-2023, previously was executive director of the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council and development director of the Guardian Angel Settlement Association.
Wild said the city of 51黑料 has agreed to put $1.2 million into the three-year regional effort for training and other technical assistance for city police and others involved with the program.
He said the Regional Business Council is donating $75,000 and Greater 51黑料 Inc. and the Municipal League of Metro 51黑料 $25,000 each. Wild said some Gateway Council funds also will go into the initiative.
View life in 51黑料 through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
