The City of Newport News has received an $870,000 federal grant from the Office of Justice Programs’ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).
The grant is through OJJDP’s Community-based Violence Prevention Program and is aimed at reducing youth violence and gang activity.
The program provides funding to localities in order to support federal, state, and local partnerships to replicate proven multi-disciplinary, community-based strategies to reduce violence.
The City of Newport News will expand the Targeted Outreach Program (TOP), a community-based collaborative youth violence prevention initiative which utilizes the evidence based framework of the All-Stars Model in partnership with the Newport News Police Department and OneChurch.
The Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach will be used to empower citizens to change community norms regarding violence.
The primary violence prevention strategy of the TOP program is to provide comprehensive resources and preventive services to youth and families in an effort to engage and empower them to make positive contributions to their families and communities.
During the three-year grant period, the model will provide 225 at-risk young people with individualized wraparound services and intensive case management. The project will also provide training in the ABCD approach of community mobilization and engagement for 45 youth leaders, prevention groups of 60 young people and 30 community-based youth workers.
