Contact: Beth Stone 508-584-8120
BROCKTON – Plymouth County has been awarded $100,000 from a grant program designed to strengthen community-based partnerships and engage at-risk youth, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has announced.
The Commonwealth’s Project Safe Neighborhood Program,operated by the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Office of Grants and Research (OGR), was introduced in the FY24 budget, making state funds available to District Attorney’s Offices and State Police to address gun crimes, gang violence, and narcotics offenses. Nine District Attorney’s Offices, including PCDAO, and the Massachusetts State Police received grant awards totaling $1.9 million. The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office will dedicate at least 25% of the funding to prevention, intervention, and/or diversion programming. Massachusetts State Police will provide youth programming through one of their funded initiatives.
The state funding was made available through a newly created grant program focused on improving quality of life issues, bolstering youth programming, reducing street violence, and preventing illegal drug distribution in communities across Massachusetts. Grant funds will support a wide range of community-based prevention, intervention, outreach, and diversion programs. Funded programs include a Young Adult Diversion Program and school-based mentorship at Brockton High School.
“Our office is dedicated to prevention efforts, including creating trauma-sensitive schools to help children who witness violence learn and succeed, partnering with mentor programs, and utilizing our diversion program to decrease youth exposure to the criminal justice system,” DA Cruz said. “We are grateful to the Administration for the opportunity to pump resources into the City of Brockton, maintain existing partnerships, infuse new ones, and build a prevention framework that will work.”