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CHICAGO (CBS) —<\/strong> Medical expenses, lost work, funerals; there are a lot of costs that follow gun violence, and now the city of Chicago has a program that could help some shooting victims cover the gap.<\/p>\n Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently announced a new pilot program, called the Emergency Supplemental Victims’ Service Fund, offering victims of gun violence anywhere from a $1,000 to $1,500.<\/p>\n The city could expand the $275,000 program if it proves successful. It began last month, and money has already started going to the people who need it.<\/p>\n When bullets flew through the air outside a gas station in the Austin neighborhood last week, the violence ended with three people shot, another injured by glass, and big bullet holes in the window. A team from the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago responded \u2013 their office on the same street less than a mile away. That’s where you’ll find Samuel Castro \u2013 fielding calls and giving good news.<\/p>\n “It is amazing, because in our line of business we want to over-deliver and under-promise. So when this is happening so fast for us, it was like this is lightning,” said Castro, director of community violence intervention at Institute for Nonviolence Chicago.<\/p>\n Castro’s organization is one of four processing applications for the Emergency Supplemental Victims Service Fund, a program the city hopes will “ease the financial burden and trauma inflicted on those directly impacted by gun violence.” <\/p>\n The program started in December in five neighborhoods \u2013 East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, Englewood, West Englewood, and New City.<\/p>\n The idea is to give financial assistance \u2013 up to $1,500 \u2013 for people who are shot, or their surviving family members; money that can be used on medical costs, lost wages, relocation, and funeral expenses.<\/p>\n “Being able to say, ‘Hey, I got the money, let’s make the move,’ so it brings the opportunities and safer opportunities to our people,” Castro said.<\/p>\n So far, Institute for Nonviolence Chicago has helped 17 people apply for grants; 16 of those applications have been approved.<\/p>\n Castro’s team is used to responding to crime scenes and hospitals, calling the program a game changer.<\/p>\n “For a lot of us, we know where our next meal is, and how we’re going to pay for rent. For a lot of these guys, they didn’t know where it was going to come from, right? So it became a normal to them to just being shot, being on the corner trying to survive,” Castro said.<\/p>\n The funding for the pilot program amounts to only half of one percent of the $52 million the city says is spent every year on violence intervention efforts.<\/p>\n If successful, the program could expand into more neighborhoods.<\/p>\n