GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was in Flint on Monday to talk about a new office she created earlier this year called the Michigan Office of Community Violence Intervention Services.

The idea is that the new position would aim to partner with local groups to curb violence in their communities.

It was this past March when the governor created the new position in the executive branch to work with cities around the state to fight violence with cooperation from Lansing.

A release at that time from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said that $10.8 million would be allocated to the program from a supplemental passed early on in this legislative session.

That release said $8 million would go to grants for individual communities, $2 million would be used to address gun violence and $800,000 would be used to create the Office of Community Violence Services.

On Monday, the governor talked about why the new Community Violence Intervention is necessary in our current environment.

“Keeping our communities safe is a challenge. It is a collective responsibility though. Too often we ask far too much of our law enforcement. We ask them to keep our streets safe as we face deep, complex social challenges with very few tools historically. We know that law enforcement alone is not enough to make the change necessary to curb violence in communities,” she said.

The event was part of the governor’s annual pilgrimage around the state aimed at building support for the budget she laid out earlier this year.

For example, in that proposed budget, according to MDHHS, another $800,000 would go to the Office of Community Violence Services. Each year the governor, no matter who holds the office, goes out to lobby for their spending plan even as the legislature is working on the billions of dollars worth of spending that is supposed to be finalized by July 1.

There is, of course, a very significant difference for Whitmer this time around. Now she has a Democratic majority in the House and Senate which should make it easier to get her priorities passed. But with such a narrow margin in both chambers, she can only lose one vote in either, the governor may find herself having to negotiate with some of the members of her party.