Agency Mission and Goals
The President's Crime Prevention Council, also known as the Ounce of Prevention Council, was established in September 1994 as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The Council is composed of the Attorney General; the Secretaries of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, and Treasury; and the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The Council serves as the primary vehicle for ensuring a coordinated Federal approach to promoting comprehensive, community-based crime prevention efforts. As authorized by statute, the President named the Vice President to serve on the Council and act as its Chair.
The Council's responsibilities include:
Activities and Priorities Relating to Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
The Council is involved in several activities that relate to juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.
Grant Program
The Council makes grants that support local, communitywide efforts that advance local strategies to coordinate youth crime and violence prevention programs. The grants can be used to support summer and afterschool education and recreation programs; mentoring, tutoring, and other efforts by adult role models; initiatives designed to assist and promote employability and job placement; and prevention and treatment programs to reduce substance abuse, child abuse, and adolescent pregnancy. Nine grants were awarded in FY 1996 from funds authorized in FY 1995. The grants were targeted to federally designated Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, with technical assistance provided by the Council and some of its member agencies. A current grant competition also furthers the Council's efforts to stimulate coordination and help community-based, youth-led organizations integrate and improve their efforts to combat youth substance use. The current grant program requires that young people play a key role in the management of each funded project.
Catalog of Crime Prevention Programs and Newsletter
The Council produces a catalog of Federal crime prevention programs -- a valuable resource that details funding opportunities and helps meet the needs of communities as they develop programs to address myriad community challenges, including juvenile crime and substance use. The catalog, Preventing Crime and Promoting Responsibility: 50 Programs That Help Communities Help Their Youth, is used by community groups, youth-serving organizations, school districts, law enforcement officials, and others. A Council newsletter highlights Federal substance use and crime prevention resources and grant opportunities and features examples of effective local efforts to fight crime and substance use.
Leadership/Coordination
The Council plays a critical role in bringing together the leadership of Federal agencies with juvenile crime and substance use prevention programs to share information, avoid program duplication and coordinate resources. Council staff meet biweekly with members of the Working Group, representatives of Council member agencies, to plan and direct its work. Agency representatives indicate that information shared during these meetings helps interagency coordination efforts.
Legislation authorized the Council to coordinate programs that fall under the various member agencies at their request. The Council plans to advance this process in the future by reviewing and coordinating crime prevention grant programs; compiling and synthesizing drafted information on the purpose, eligibility, application, and evaluation of new programs; and compiling information on where (e.g., States, counties, cities) current prevention efforts are funded.
Equally important to the Council is the development of more efficient ways to coordinate key department efforts that support local programs designed to deliver technical assistance and training to communities, service providers, and community organizations; develop informational materials, conferences, and electronic data bases; and evaluate programs and initiatives.
Grant Coordination
The Council previously coordinated with the Department of Housing and Urban Development a $1.2 million grant program that targeted federally designated urban and rural Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities. The nine funded grants went to communities that had identified coordination of crime prevention strategies as a top priority.
The Council's current grant competition for approximately $1 million in grants is being coordinated with the Department of Justice. Funded projects will help community-based, youth-led organizations with their efforts to combat drug and alcohol use among young people.
The Council will continue to provide national leadership for coordinating comprehensive, community-based crime prevention efforts.
The Council is spearheading efforts to simplify the grants process by developing and piloting a cross-agency, multiprogram reporting system to allow Federal grantees to submit a single compliance report. The single report will be shared throughout the Federal Government, reducing paperwork and streamlining the reporting system.
The Council was created out of the 1994 Crime Act but did not receive authorization and funding until FY 1995. Most of FY 1995 was devoted to establishing the office, hiring staff, and developing internal procedures.
The President's Crime Prevention Council was statutorily established as the Ounce of Prevention Council by section 30101 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Public Law No. 103-322, 108 Stat. 1796, 1836-38 (1994).