JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AWARDS NEARLY $2 MILLION
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, the Department of Justice?s Office of Justice Programs announced that Weed and Seed sites in California, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina and Utah will receive awards totaling $1,840,000 to implement their comprehensive strategies to root out crime and seed economic development and community revitalization. The awards are administered by OJP?s Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS). "Through its Weed and Seed strategy, these communities will continue to reduce drug trafficking and drug crimes, strengthen community policing activities, and improve and augment crime prevention," said Deborah J. Daniels, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs. "This effort addresses specific neighborhood crime problems, and improves the quality of life for all residents." Today?s awards for $225,000 go to Compton, CA; Wilmington, DE; Louisville, KY, Thibodaux, LA; Brunswick, ME; Egg Harbor Township, NJ; High Point, NC; and Ogden, UT. An additional $40,000 went to Compton for anti-gang initiatives. Initiatives which will be supported with continuation of funding include the following:
Operation Weed and Seed, administered by the Office of Justice Programs? Executive Office for Weed and Seed, is foremost a strategy-rather than a grant program-that aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods across the country. Under the leadership of U.S. Attorneys, the strategy brings together federal, state, and local crime-fighting agencies, social service providers, representatives of public and private sectors, business owners, and neighborhood residents and links them in a shared goal of weeding out violent crime and gang activity while seeding the community with social services and economic revitalization. The Office of Justice Programs provides federal leadership in developing the nation?s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP is headed by an Assistant Attorney General and comprises 5 component bureaus and 2 offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime, as well as the Executive Office for Weed and Seed, and the Office of Police Corps and Law Enforcement Education. Information about OJP programs, publications and conferences is available on the OJP Website, www.ojp.usdoj.gov. ### EOWS03150 |