Upper Perk Schools, MontCo, Lincoln Center Win Grants

WASHINGTON DC – Three Montgomery County-based organizations – the Upper Perkiomen School District in Pennsburg, the county Health and Human Services Department in Norristown, and the Lincoln Center for Family and Youth in Audubon – recently were awarded a combined value of more than $2 million in grants intended for programs to increase safety and stop violence in area schools.

County department offices separately dealing with drugs and alcohol, and mental health, are getting funds “to allow the county to build upon its successful violence reduction programs already being delivered in Montgomery County public schools,” according to a media release issued Tuesday (Feb. 1, 2022). Its total amount, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, will be $999,040.

The county said its “grant team is in the initial planning phases and expect(s) all grant-funded activities to begin in the 2022-23 school year.”

The Justice Department also said it was presenting grants of $1 million to the Lincoln Center in Audubon under a proposal it submitted for similar purposes; and $60,110 to the Upper Perkiomen district to pay for “a variety of school safety equipment and programs that will help ensure student success in supportive and safe environments.”

Upper Perkiomen’s grant comes from Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Grants for the county and Lincoln Center, a non-profit that offers alternative education, coaching, and counseling services, are supplied by Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. Nationwide, the Justice Department said it presented “nearly $126 million” to 231 recipients under the federal STOP School Violence Act of 2018.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne via Unsplash, used under license