The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention announced $8 million in grants to five cities and one state for community-based violence prevention and gang reduction programs. The recipients are:
- Camden, N.J., $1.4 million for the Collaboration to End Youth Violence Planning Initiative
- East Baton Rouge, La., $1.5 million for the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination (BRAVE) program
- Kansas City, Mo., $1.3 million for the Missouri Health Department’s Aim4Peace Violence Prevention Project
- Newport News, Va., $870,000, for the Teamwork, Options and Pathways for Success (TOP) program
- Syracuse, N.Y., $1.5 million, for a comprehensive gang model
- Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention, $1.5 million for the Safe Streets Initiative in Baltimore and in Prince George’s County.
The grants represent a near doubling of this OJJDP program from fiscal 2012, when $4.5 million for programs in Los Angeles, Detroit and Philadelphia. An additional $1.8 million last year went to evaluations and research related to community violence-prevention programs.
The account started in 2010, a project championed by Attorney General Eric Holder.