An Overview of the Title V Community Prevention Grants Program

• NCJ Number: 188258
• Author(s): Heidi M. Hsia
• Date Published: May 2001
• Length: 2 pages
• Agencies: OJJDP
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description

Annotation

This fact sheet provides an overview of the amended Title V Community Prevention Grants Program under the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), that focused on reducing risks and enhancing protective factors to prevent youth from entering the juvenile justice system.

Abstract

In 1992, the newly amended Title V of the Juvenile Justice and Prevention Act of 1974 established the Community Prevention Grants program. The program offers funding incentive to encourage community leaders to initiate multidisciplinary assessments of risks and resources unique to their communities and develop comprehensive, collaborative plans to prevent delinquency. The program requires communities to form multidisciplinary Prevention Policy Boards (PPB). To encourage collaboration, the program stipulates that States and communities must provide matching funds. States award Community Prevention Grant funds to qualified units of local government through a competitive process. Each program is funded in 12-month increments for up to 3 years. By the end of 2000, nearly 1,100 communities had received Grant awards from States having implemented a range of prevention programs, from early child development activities to youth development initiatives. In addition, by the end of 2000, 16 States integrated risk-focused prevention planning into their State-level prevention strategies, 13 States changed their juvenile justice policies since the inception of the grants program, increasing the emphasis on prevention, and 16 States supplemented these funds by increasing funding for prevention beyond funds from the Federal government. The program has produced significant community change by enhancing prevention activity support, improving access to resources, reducing gaps and duplication in services, enhancing communication between key community agencies and systems, and a community’s ability to secure other Federal, State, and local public and private funds. To help improve the Community Prevention Grants program, OJJDP is conducting a national evaluation of its effectiveness.