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ST. LOUIS — The U.S. Department of Justice has slashed over $1 million in grant funding for a ӣ����Ƶ nonprofit helping people recover from bullet injuries.

The nonprofit, Power4STL, operates the Bullet Related Injury Clinic on Delmar Boulevard. The federal funding the group received was to be spent in part on direct work with people who have been shot, said Dr. LJ Punch, director of Power4STL.

“We’re busier than ever,” he said in an interview Monday.

The $2 million to Power4STL was one of hundreds of competitive grants nationwide the Department of Justice cut last week. In total, the agency cut 365 grants nationwide valued at $811 million, .

In the ӣ����Ƶ area, three grants worth roughly $6.8 million were cut: the $2 million for Power4STL, part of a federal government violence prevention effort; $4 million for SoulFisher Ministries to help support reentry service providers for ex-prisoners; and an $800,000 grant to Community Lifeline Broadview in East ӣ����Ƶ for violence prevention.

Punch said of the $2 million awarded to Power4STL last year, $1.3 million remained unspent when the group received an email last Tuesday from federal officials notifying them that the grant was being terminated. The email said the grant “no longer effectuates Department priorities.”

But Punch said public safety and public health departments have identified mental health, behavioral health, violence and substance use as top issues.

“Power4STL focuses on those issues explicitly,” he said. “This federal grant included dedicated resources for our mental health care.

“It’s important for the region to know,” Punch said, “that the federal government has decided to disinvest when we are doing everything we can to address some of those most pressing and urgent issues in the region.”

Punch said Power4STL has a diverse funding portfolio and is never overreliant on any one funding source.

He said the group anticipated the funding disruption in January. After taking office, President Donald Trump’s new administration moved to pause federal grants and eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in federal government.

The three-year grant began Oct. 1 under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Punch said Power4STL was encouraged during the application process to emphasize its ties to ӣ����Ƶ’ Black community.

“We were very worried that that exact encouragement to emphasize our deep reach into the Black community in ӣ����Ƶ would be the foundation why the funding would now be taken away,” Punch said, adding “we can’t confirm that’s exactly why” the grant was cancelled.

The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs didn’t respond to an email Monday that asked for the reasoning behind the cuts.

But in a termination letter to Power4STL on April 22, the Office of Justice Programs said: “The Department has changed its priorities with respect to discretionary grant funding to focus on, among other things, more directly supporting certain law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and better coordinating law enforcement efforts at all levels of government.”

Power4STL last April announced it would convert a dilapidated medical building at 2715 Union Boulevard in north ӣ����Ƶ to its new headquarters.

Supported by $3 million in federal funds, the new building was expected to be complete within two years. Punch said Monday that is still the goal and that the $3 million was separate from the funding cancelled last week by the Justice Department.

The $800,000 grant to East ӣ����Ƶ group Community Lifeline Broadview was connected to the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program. That is a crime reduction program focused on community-led efforts, to the DOJ.

The Community Lifeline in East ӣ����Ƶ’ Life Line Interrupting Violence Through Engagement, or L.I.V.E. Project, has trained over 1,896 community members in de-escalation and conflict resolution, and mediating over 50 conflicts, according to its .

Also impacted by last week’s cuts was The SoulFisher Ministries in ӣ����Ƶ, which had a $4 million grant beginning Oct. 1 for a community-based reentry incubator initiative, Reuters reported. That grant was to last until Sept. 30, 2029.

According to its website, SoulFisher Ministries the Adult General Academic Program of Education (AGAPE) Pre- and Post Release Program, which aims to reduce recidivism among the formerly incarcerated.

Shawntelle Fisher, founder and CEO of SoulFisher, shared an email sent last Tuesday by the Office of Justice Programs announcing the termination of the grant, with wording identical to the email Power4STL received.

Fisher said the bulk of the money was to give grants to smaller groups and help train them on how to build capacity and capability. She said roughly $200,000 had been spent so far.

She said the SoulFisher still plans to move forward with its planned boot camp for reentry service providers but would have to rely on community support.

She defended reentry providers’ work to help people adapt to life outside prison.

“They need all of those supports as they transition back into the community to position them to remain a viable part of the community,” she said.

Reuters said that following its reporting, a DOJ official said that seven grants to victim services providers were being restored.

The grant terminations occurred last Tuesday and recipients were offered 30 days to appeal, Reuters . Fisher said she will appeal the decision.