FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2021 

School Safety and Security Committee Approves $7.5 Million
in Community Violence Grants

Harrisburg, PA. — The School Safety and Security Committee (Committee) established within the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) by Act 44 of 2018 approved today $7.5 million in community violence prevention/reduction grants to 30 organizations located throughout the Commonwealth. 

Municipalities, counties, institutions of higher education and community-based organizations were eligible to apply for up to $300,000 for a two-year project for programs designed to reduce community violence, including increasing access to trauma-informed support services and behavioral health care, providing health services and intervention strategies, providing mentoring and other intervention models, and fostering communication between school entities, their community and law enforcement. 

Historically, these grants have supported a wide variety of violence prevention and intervention programs, including mentoring; educational campaigns; dating, interpersonal and sexual violence prevention programs; trauma-informed care and service delivery; and school violence and bullying prevention. 

For FY 20-21, the SSSC prioritized applications that intend to utilize evidence-based or evidence-informed programs to reduce or prevent community-based violence (e.g., gun violence, gang violence, etc.) in areas identified with high-violent crime rates using Uniform Crime Report offense data or similar local crime statistics. Eleven applicants with projects totaling $3.2 million specifically address gun violence.

A full listing of the approved applicants is attached below.

For more information about the Committee, the Community Violence Prevention/Reduction program, and PCCD's school safety initiatives in general, please see PCCD's School Safety and Security webpage.    

MEDIA CONTACT: Kirsten Kenyon, (717) 265-8505

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2021 Community Violence Prevention/Reduction Grants