U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

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 government1 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

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

May 2001 #19

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 government 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.
PRESORTED STANDARD

POSTAGE & FEES PAID

DOJ/OJJDP

PERMIT NO. G–91

FS–200119 Fact Sheet

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Washington, DC 20531

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use $300

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:

◆ Sixteen States reported that they had integrated risk-focused

prevention planning into their State-level prevention strategies. 

◆ 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. 

◆ 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:

◆ 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.

◆ Community-level systems changes have reduced gaps and

duplication in services, enhanced communication between key

community agencies and systems, and increased sharing of

resources.

◆ 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 longterm, 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/. 

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