Senator Hughes Announces Over $24M for Gun Violence Prevention in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties

Senator Hughes Announces Over $24M for Gun Violence Prevention in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties

March 28, 2024 − Today, Senator Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia/Montgomery) announced over $24 million dollars in Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) grants for community violence prevention groups and initiatives across Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties.

"This is money that's going directly into communities to prevent gun violence and support important programs that will provide young people with more spaces, education, and opportunities to deter them from any type of crime," said Senator Hughes. "We created this program in 2018 to make sure the people and organizations who want to step up for their neighborhoods and change lives and minds have the resources they need. If we want community safety, we must invest in the people and programs that are making change at a local level."

PCCD awarded a total of $40 million in grants to support gun violence intervention and prevention work throughout the Commonwealth. Community-based organizations, institutions of higher education, municipalities, district attorneys, and counties were eligible to apply.

Organizations awarded grants in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties include:

PHILADELPHIA

• Achieve Now- $242,150 to implement the final two years of a 30-month literacy pilot to increase the number of children that experience academic success from two of Philadelphia's low-income communities.
• Albert Einstein Healthcare Network- $946,242 to support the expansion of their Trauma Intervention Program (TIP).
• Brazo de Oro Foundation- $943,536 to support a community violence prevention program that will serve up to 250 middle and high school youth and their families from the Kensington and Frankford neighborhoods of Philadelphia by providing after-school and weekend activities and programming targeting the underserved Latino community
• Congresso de Latinos Unidos, Inc.- $950,000 to support the expansion of their crime victim services to provide victims with therapeutic services to address trauma.
• Council for Relationships- $663,089 for violence prevention strategies centered on trauma-informed mental health care.
• Cranaleith Spiritual Center- $343,750 to support Track 1 and Track 2 of the Women Promoting Transformation and Healing Initiative, a collaboration between Cranaleith Spiritual Center and Women Empowered International.
• Ed Snider Youth Hockey & Education- $900,000 to support the enhancement of its out-of-school time programming to incorporate anti-violence and prevention lessons into existing life-skill lessons.
• Episcopal Community Services- $874,042 to launch a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization project focused on violence prevention through residential block cleaning in West Philadelphia.
• Fab Youth Philly- $412,290 for a 36-month project to support the implementation and expansion of their newest workforce development program: the Lifeguard Certification Training Program.
• Hand2Paw- $250,000 to support the expansion of their Unleashing Opportunities (UO) program, an intensive six-month paid internship for eight young adults (18-24 years old) from marginalized communities who want to work with animals.
• Heights Philadelphia- $950,000 to sustain and expand its advising programming, which supports low-income, Black and Brown middle and high school students in Philadelphia to achieve economic mobility through college and workforce success.
• Jewish Family and Children's Services of Greater Philadelphia- $949,854 to implement an Alternative to Violence (A to V) education, prevention, and intervention program focusing on providing programs and services to youth from under-resourced Philadelphia neighborhoods.
• Launch of Philadelphia, Inc.- $906,820 to provide trauma-informed counseling, prosocial activities, and career education opportunities to at-risk middle school youth in Southwest Philadelphia who have been exposed to trauma (e.g., loss of a loved one due to violence, homicide, or incarceration).
• Mighty Writers- $800,000 to support ongoing core anti-violence prevention after-school programs in four Philadelphia locations disproportionately impacted by systemic poverty and gun violence.
• Mothers in Charge- $905,190 to address the need for trauma-informed healing and restorative practices in Philadelphia by expanding the organization's Prevention, Intervention, and Education (PIE) programs.
• Movement Alliance (Youth Art & Self-Empowerment Project)- $949,910 to provide Restorative Justice Diversion (RJD) facilitation for system-involved youth and their families referred by the District Attorney's Office (DAO) of Philadelphia, and to expand the availability of Restorative Justice Diversion programming in the City by increasing the capacity of victim services organizations.
• New Kensington Community Development Corporation- $949,927 to expand the Cure Violence Program that they are implementing within Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood.
• New Leash on Life USA- $539,392 to support its Young Adult Reentry/Diversion (YARD) Program, a primary intervention addressing the gun violence epidemic by directly targeting the factors, behaviors, and attitudes that lead to gun violence.
• North10 Philadelphia- $826,820 to expand its out-of-school time program to provide targeted interventions for high school students in one of the highest rates of community violence in the city.
• NorthEast Treatment Centers, Inc.- $950,000 to provide anti-violence intervention strategies to youth in zip codes of Philadelphia with elevated rates of extreme poverty, gun-related crime, violence, and other indicators of community need.
• Northern Children's Services- $950,000 to sustain and expand its Youth Promoting Peace Program (YP3), a violence reduction and prevention initiative.
• People Advancing Reintegration (PAR) - Recycle Works- $721,444 for a three-year program to expand the number of individuals participating in their transitional employment program, which provides job skills training and permanent job placement for people returning to society from prison.
• Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation- $552,797 to conduct a three-year Black & Gold program to address community violence by providing a safe space for AAPI and Black youth to engage in meaningful and educational activities to keep them off the streets; provide mental health support to induce positive change on lifestyle behaviors to reduce gun violence; connect participating youth to career development resources and workshops; and build a sense of cohesion and community via various community events.
• Philadelphia Community Empowerment through Soccer/Kensington Soccer Club- $400,000 to continue and expand teen and adult youth programs in the Kensington area.
• PHILLY TRUCE Foundation- $84,219 to bring its PEACE PATROL initiative, a violence reduction program that employs justice-impacted men to provide community-led visible deterrence efforts within Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood.
• PHMC Health Center on Cedar- $950,000 to expand the role of Care Concierges within their campus in West and Southwest Philadelphia. Care Concierges help facilitate patients' access to services that address healthcare and social determinants of health needs.
• Progressive Change CDC- $126,350 to support the implementation of a partnership program developed with the Apologues and the West Philadelphia Corridor Collaborative to provide support to survivors and victims of gun violence.
• Reading Allowed- $484,919 to expand their Structured Literacy Tutoring program serving struggling readers in Philadelphia schools and communities, helping students stay engaged in school and out of the criminal justice system.
• Resolve Philly- $570,359 to enhance and expand its Equally Informed Survivors (EIS) initiative in four neighborhoods in Philadelphia most impacted by gun violence (Germantown, Kensington, Strawberry Mansion, Tioga-Nicetown).
• Rock to the Future- $500,000 to provide free music and mentoring programs in under-resourced areas of Philadelphia impacted by poverty and crime for teens and young people who are at-risk of becoming victims and/or perpetrators of violence.
• Temple University Hospital- $935,000 to support the continuation of the Trauma Victim Advocacy Program (TVAP), a hospital-based violence intervention program (HVIP) launched in 2019 that aims to mitigate the effects of community violence by supporting violently injured patients' social and emotional needs immediately following their victimization, quickly linking them to a broad network of victim service agencies, and providing timely mental health counseling
• The DREAM Program Inc.- $490,530 to launch an additional 12 DREAM sites throughout Philadelphia, in close partnership with affordable housing management agencies.
• Timoteo Philadelphia- $137,000 to enhance its "More Than Sports" initiatives by implementing a more robust mentoring program for young people in Philadelphia.
• Urban Affairs Coalition (We Embrace Fatherhood)- $25,250 on behalf of We Embrace Fatherhood to support organizational capacity building to expand its community-based programming focused on mentorship, health and well-being, and trauma-informed conversation.
• Why Not Prosper, Inc.- $536,214 to support the implementation of the Why Not Prosper Violence Prevention Program.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

• Eastern University- $949,389 to support the implementation of a mental health pipeline of counselors within the Pottstown School District by placing mental health counseling graduate students as interns in the district's schools.
• Expressive Path Inc.- $189,000 to provide interactive violence prevention education for the Norristown Area School District and the surrounding community.

A full list of grant recipients is available online.