Title: An Overview of the Title V Community Prevention Grants Program Series: Fact Sheet Author: Heidi M. Hsia Published: May 2001 Subject: Juvenile delinquency prevention 6 pages 9,000 bytes ------------------- To view this document in its entirety, download the Adobe Acrobat graphic file available from this Web site or order a print copy from NCJRS at 800-638- 8736. ------------------ An Overview of the Title V Community Prevention Grants Program by Heidi M. Hsia In 1992, the new Title V of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act of 1974, as amended (42 U.S.C. 5601 et seq.), established the Incentive Grants for Local Delinquency Prevention Programs, more commonly known as the Community Prevention Grants program. This program, working from a research-based framework, focuses on reducing risks and enhancing protective factors to prevent youth from entering the juvenile justice system. It offers a funding incentive to encourage community leaders to initiate multidisciplinary assessments of risks and resources unique to their communities and to develop comprehensive, collaborative plans to prevent delinquency. To help communities formulate, implement, and evaluate comprehensive delinquency prevention plans, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) sponsors orientation training for community leaders. The Office also offers training on collecting and analyzing community risk and resource data, helps communities choose promising strategies for their prevention plans, and provides other technical assistance. Since a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach increases the efficacy of prevention efforts while reducing duplication of services, the Community Prevention Grants program requires communities to form multidisciplinary Prevention Policy Boards (PPBs). To encourage States and communities to collaborate in developing resources, sharing information, and obtaining additional funding to sustain the long-term efforts necessary for delinquency prevention, the program stipulates that there must be a 50-percent cash or in-kind match from the State or local government. Award Process Congress appropriated $13 million to fund the Community Prevention Grants program in fiscal year (FY) 1994, $20 million annually in FYs 1995 through 1998, $45 million in FY 1999, and $42.5 million each in FYs 2000 and 2001. OJJDP allocates the majority of these funds to qualifying States based on the relative number of juveniles below the age of criminal responsibility. FY 2001 allocations range from a minimum of $100,000 to a maximum of $4,765,000 for States. The allocation for territories is $33,000 each except Puerto Rico, which receives an amount based on its juvenile population. States, in turn, award Community Prevention Grant funds to qualified units of local government[1] through a competitive process. Each local program may be funded in 12-month increments for up to 3 years. To be eligible to apply for a subgrant from the State, a unit of local government must receive State Advisory Group certification of compliance with the JJDP Act core protections; convene or designate a local PPB; submit a 3-year, comprehensive community delinquency prevention plan; and provide a 50-percent match (cash or in-kind) for the award if the State does not provide the match. Accomplishments The program is having a positive impact in communities across the country and has demonstrated many accomplishments. Approaching Nationwide Participation By the end of 2000, nearly 1,100 diverse communities (urban and rural, small and large) across the Nation had received Community Prevention Grant subawards from States. Through a data-driven assessment and planning process, interagency collaboration is filling prevention service gaps and allowing for the sharing and maximizing of resources. Communities have implemented a range of prevention programs, from early child development activities such as nurse home visitation and preschool/parent training programs to youth development initiatives involving mentoring and afterschool activities, tutoring, truancy and dropout reduction programs, substance abuse prevention activities, gang prevention outreach, and police/probation teams. Informing State Prevention Efforts The Community Prevention Grants program has become an integral part of States' comprehensive efforts to prevent delinquency, from planning to program implementation. For example, by the end of 2000: o Sixteen States reported that they had integrated risk-focused prevention planning into their State-level prevention strategies. o Thirteen States reported that they had changed their juvenile justice policies since the introduction of the Community Prevention Grants program by increasing their emphasis on prevention activities. o Sixteen States have supplemented Community Prevention Grant funds, increasing funding for prevention activities beyond that received from the Federal Government. Creating Community Change The Community Prevention Grants program has also produced significant community change: o Bringing together community leaders with diverse backgrounds and experience through community PPBs has broadened community perspective, enhanced support for prevention activities, and improved access to resources. o Community-level systems changes have reduced gaps and duplication in services, enhanced communication between key community agencies and systems, and increased sharing of resources. o Community mobilization and the comprehensive data-based planning process have enabled many communities to secure other Federal, State, and local public and private funds. National Evaluation To help improve the Community Prevention Grants program and move it toward institutionalization, OJJDP is conducting a long-term, national evaluation of its effectiveness. This evaluation has progressed from broad descriptions of the program in every Title V community to increasingly detailed investigations of program implementation and outcomes at 11 local study sites in 6 participating States. Lessons learned from the national evaluation will contribute to an understanding of how different communities can most efficiently engage in effective prevention planning and programming. Community mobilization takes time. Achieving long-term community commitment to a delinquency prevention model focused on risk and protective factors, with measurable increases in protective factors and corresponding reductions in risk factors and delinquency rates, takes even longer. By facilitating the formation of a strong Federal-State-local partnership in the Nation's effort to prevent delinquency, the Community Prevention Grants program advances these worthy ends. ------------------ For Further Information For further information about the Community Prevention Grants program and for a list of contacts within States, call OJJDP's State and Tribal Assistance Division, 202-307-5924, or visit the Title V page on OJJDP's Web site, www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/titlev/. ------------------------ 1. The 1999 Omnibus Appropriations bill, signed on October 22, 1998, amended the JJDP Act of 1974 by substituting the term "unit of local government" for "unit of general local government." A unit of local govern- ment is defined as any city, county, town, borough, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a State, or any Indian tribe, that performs law enforcement functions; and any law enforcement district or judicial enforcement district that (i) is established under applicable State law and (ii) has the authority to, in a manner independent of other State entities, establish a budget and raise revenues. Parish sheriff departments and offices of district attorneys in the State of Louisiana are therefore considered units of local government at the parish level and eligible to apply to their State agency for Title V funds. ------------------- Heidi M. Hsia, Ph.D., is the Program Manager of Title V in OJJDP's State and Tribal Assistance Division. ------------------- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ------------------- FS-200119