PERTH
AMBOY, NJ – Attorney General Anne Milgram
today visited students at the William C. McGinnis
Middle School in Perth Amboy to announce the
awarding of $2.8 million in new crime and
gang prevention awards. The grants are part
of Governor Jon S. Corzine’s Strategy
for Safe Streets & Neighborhoods.
Milgram
also thanked PSEG for its corporate stewardship
in committing $1.5 million this year to leverage
state support for gang and crime prevention
after school programs such as New Jersey After
3, Inc. and Gang Prevention Through Targeted
Outreach (GPTTO).
Milgram
was joined in Perth Amboy by government, community
and business leaders, including Ed Selover,
executive vice president and general counsel
of PSEG. Last year, PSEG was the first corporation
to provide significant funding to support
the Strategy for Safe Streets & Neighborhoods
by providing $50,000 in funding to Boys &
Girls Clubs for gang prevention programs.
This year, the company has given an additional
$75,000 to sustain and expand the effort and
committed $450,000 to New Jersey After3 in
a challenge grant to expand programming. In
total, the company has committed more than
$1.5 million this year in support of programs
that keep kids safe after school.
“The
new programs being supported through our Neighborhood
Crime Prevention & Intervention Initiative
represent the cutting edge of best practices
when it comes to ensuring that we are keeping
our young people safely in school and positively
engaged,” Milgram said.
“At
the heart of this Initiative is a commitment
to fostering effective community collaboration
to keep kids safe from gangs and gun violence.
PSEG’s commitment to prevention programs
serves as a statewide and national model for
a community-business partnership,” she
added. “The company’s contribution
significantly leverages funding from the state
and will enable us, collectively, to reach
more than 3,500 young people in positive and
meaningful ways.”
The
Attorney General announced 14 new grant awards
over the next two years as part of the Neighborhood
Crime Prevention & Intervention Initiative,
which is administered by the Department of
Law and Public Safety’s Division of
Criminal Justice.
The
Neighborhood Crime Prevention & Intervention
Initiative supports evidence-based prevention
programs designed to keep kids in school and
positively engaged. It also seeks to foster
strategic collaborations between community
stakeholders, especially non-profit youth
serving agencies, schools, law enforcement
officials, and municipal governments.
The
14 new grantees were selected through a competitive
process administered by the Division of Criminal
Justice. The new programs are in 13 different
counties, representing all regions of New
Jersey. Grant amounts range from $55,000 to
$140,000, depending on the type of program
proposed by each applicant. A list of the
grant recipients is attached.
The
grantees reflect a diverse range of prevention
strategies led by youth-serving non-profit
agencies such as the Boys & Girls Clubs
in Perth Amboy (in partnership with the Jewish
Renaissance Foundation). Agencies in Hackensack,
Camden County, Vineland, Trenton, Newark,
Phillipsburg, Asbury Park, Roselle, Hillside,
and Pleasantville were also awarded grants.
Several law enforcement agencies are also
represented in municipalities such as Salem
City, Burlington City, West New York, and
Hamilton Township in Atlantic County.
PSEG’s
$1.5 million commitment will support the efforts
of leading nonprofits including New Jersey
After3, Inc., Boys & Girls Clubs, and
United Way, and support initiatives championed
by the Boys Scouts, Girls Scouts and the Council
of New Jersey Grantmakers.
"It
is important that young people have a safe
and positive place to go after school,”
said PSEG’s Selover. “We’re
proud of our work to help kids and support
working families, and to align our giving
priorities with the Governor’s crime
prevention plan.”
The
$450,000 challenge grants PSEG awarded New
Jersey After 3 will fund two new comprehensive
after school programs: the Educational &
Information Resource Center in Gloucester
City and the Boys & Girls Club of Camden
at the Catto Elementary School in Camden.
Each program will serve 100 children in grades
Kindergarten through 8th grade.
Mark
Valli, New Jersey After 3’s chief executive
officer, said, "We applaud the Governor’s
Prevention Strategy for Safe Streets &
Neighborhoods and Attorney General Milgram
for recognizing the vital role of after school
programs in keeping our children and neighborhoods
safe. We are extremely grateful to PSEG for
its leadership in supporting the collaborative
work of non-profit organizations that are
working together to ensure positive alternatives
and opportunities for New Jersey’s youth."
New
Jersey After 3 is a private, non-profit organization
dedicated to expanding and improving after-school
opportunities for New Jersey’s students.
It serves more than 14,000 students in more
than 100 schools statewide through public-private
partnerships with schools and groups such
as Boys & Girls Clubs, YM/YWCAs, faith-based
groups, and other non-profit youth-serving
organizations.
In
less than five years since its inception,
New Jersey After3 has established its core
program as a national model with an evidence-based
and proven approach to achieving lasting outcomes.
For example, in a three-year longitudinal
evaluation recently conducted by Policy Studies
Associates of Washington D.C., New Jersey
After 3 students demonstrated gains in language
arts skills among student participants as
well as significant increases in daily program
attendance, enrollment, and key academic and
behavioral measures that national studies
have linked to on-time high school graduation.
The prevention component of the Governor’s
anti-crime strategy focuses on addressing
root causes of crime by providing positive
alternatives to prevent juvenile delinquency
and gang involvement.
“We
can't arrest our way out of the problem of
violent street gangs and gun violence,"
Attorney General Milgram said. "That
is why proven and evidence-based prevention
programs aimed at keeping kids in school and
in safe places like the Boys & Girls Clubs
are so important. We must make kids who are
at risk more resilient to the pressures of
gangs.’’
A
list of the grant recipients follows.
Neighborhood
Crime Prevention/Intervention Initiative Grant
Recipients
May 21, 2009
Grant
awards were announced to the following organizations
and police departments.
- NORWESCAP
(Phillipsburg), Hunterdon County
NCPI Award Amount: $111,510 per year for
two years
- Hamilton
Township Police Department, Atlantic County
NCPI Award Amount: $55,177 per year for
two years
-
Prevention First (Asbury Park), Monmouth
County
NCPI Award Amount: $61,730 per year for
two years
- Prevention
Links (Hillside & Roselle), Union
County
NCPI Award Amount: $80,825 per year for
two years
-
City of Burlington (Police Department),
Burlington County
NCPI Award Amount: $72,110 per year for
two years
-
Jewish Renaissance Foundation/Boys &
Girls Club of Perth Amboy, Middlesex County
NCPI Award Amount: $140,492 per year for
two years
- The
Boys and Girls Club of Lodi/Hackensack,
Bergen County
NCPI Award Amount: $93,255 per year for
two years
- Boys
and Girls Club of Camden County, Camden
County
NCPI Award Amount: $93,255 per year for
two years
- Boys
and Girls Club of Vineland, Cumberland
County
NCPI Award Amount: $93,255 per year for
two years
- Boys
and Girls Club of Trenton and Mercer County,
Mercer County
NCPI Award Amount: $119,244 per year for
two years
- Family
Service Association (Pleasantville), Atlantic
County
NCPI Award Amount: $93,250 per year for
two years
- City
of Salem Police Department, Salem County
NCPI Award Amount: $135,700 per year for
two years
- Town
of West New York Police Department, Hudson
County
NCPI Award Amount: $62,800 per year for
two years
- Salvation
Army/Ironbound Boys & Girls Club (Newark),
Essex County
NCPI Award Amount: $93,255 per year for
two years
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