TITLE II—PROMISE GRANTS 
SEC. 201. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of the grant programs established 
under this title are to— 
(1) enable local and tribal communities to as-
sess the unmet needs of youth who are involved in, 
or are at risk of involvement in, juvenile delinquency 
or criminal street gangs; 
(2) develop plans appropriate for a community 
to address those unmet needs with juvenile delin-
quency and gang prevention and intervention prac-
tices; and 
(3) implement and evaluate such plans in a 
manner consistent with this Act. 
Subtitle A—PROMISE Assessment 
and Planning Grants 
SEC. 202. PROMISE ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING GRANTS 
AUTHORIZED. 
(a) GRANTS AUTHORIZED.—The Administrator is 
authorized to award grants to units of local government 
and Indian tribes to assist PROMISE Coordinating Coun-
cils with planning and assessing evidence-based and prom-
ising practices relating to juvenile delinquency and crimi-
nal street gang activity prevention and intervention, espe-
cially for youth who are involved in, or who are at risk 
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of involvement in, juvenile delinquency and criminal street 
gang activity. Such PROMISE Coordinating Councils 
shall— 
(1) conduct an objective needs and strengths 
assessment in accordance with section 203; and 
(2) develop a PROMISE Plan in accordance 
with section 204, based on the assessment conducted 
in accordance with section 203. 
(b) GRANT
DURATION, AMOUNT, AND
ALLOCA-
TION.— 
(1) DURATION.—A grant awarded under this 
section shall be for a period not to exceed one year. 
(2) 
MAXIMUM
GRANT
AMOUNT.—A 
grant 
awarded under this section shall not exceed 
$300,000. 
(c) ALLOCATION.— 
(1) MINIMUM
ALLOCATION.—Subject to the 
availability of appropriations, the Administrator 
shall ensure that the total funds allocated under this 
section to units of local governments and Indian 
tribes in a State shall not be less than $1,000,000. 
(2) RATABLE
REDUCTION.—If the amount 
made available for grants under this section for any 
fiscal year is less than the amount required to pro-
vide the minimum allocation of funds under para-
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graph (1) to units of local government and Indian 
tribes in each State, then the amount of such min-
imum allocation shall be ratably reduced. 
SEC. 203. PROMISE COORDINATING COUNCILS. 
To be eligible to receive a grant under this subtitle, 
a unit of local government or an Indian tribe shall estab-
lish a PROMISE Coordinating Council for each commu-
nity of such unit or tribe, respectively, for which such unit 
or tribe is applying for a grant under this subtitle. Each 
such community shall include one or more designated geo-
graphic areas identified on the list required under section 
102(a)(2). The members of such a PROMISE Coordi-
nating Council shall be representatives of public and pri-
vate sector entities and individuals that— 
(1) shall include, to the extent possible, at least 
one representative from each of the following: 
(A) the local chief executive’s office; 
(B) a local educational agency; 
(C) a local health agency or provider; 
(D) a local mental health agency or pro-
vider, unless the representative under subpara-
graph (C) also meets the requirements of this 
subparagraph; 
(E) a local public housing agency; 
(F) a local law enforcement agency; 
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(G) a local child welfare agency; 
(H) a local juvenile court; 
(I) a local juvenile prosecutor’s office; 
(J) a private juvenile residential care enti-
ty; 
(K) a local juvenile public defender’s office; 
(L) a State juvenile correctional entity; 
(M) a local business community represent-
ative; and 
(N) a local faith-based community rep-
resentative; 
(2) shall include two representatives from each 
of the following: 
(A) parents who have minor children, and 
who have an interest in the local juvenile or 
criminal justice systems; 
(B) youth between the ages of 15 and 24 
who reside in the jurisdiction of the unit or 
tribe; and 
(C) members from nonprofit community- 
based organizations that provide effective delin-
quency prevention and intervention to youth in 
the jurisdiction of the unit or tribe; and 
(3) may include other members, as the unit or 
tribe determines to be appropriate. 
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SEC. 204. NEEDS AND STRENGTHS ASSESSMENT. 
(a) ASSESSMENT.—Each PROMISE Coordinating 
Council receiving funds from a unit of local government 
or Indian tribe under this subtitle shall conduct an objec-
tive strengths and needs assessment of the resources of 
the community for which such PROMISE Coordinating 
Council was established, to identify the unmet needs of 
youth in the community with respect to evidence-based 
and promising practices related to juvenile delinquency 
and criminal street gang activity prevention and interven-
tion. The PROMISE Coordinating Council shall consult 
with a research partner receiving a grant under section 
302 for assistance with such assessment. Such assessment 
shall include, with respect to the community for which 
such PROMISE Coordinating Council was established— 
(1) the number of youth who are at-risk of in-
volvement in juvenile delinquency or street gang ac-
tivity; 
(2) the number of youth who are involved in ju-
venile delinquency or criminal street gang activity, 
including the number of such youth who are at high 
risk of continued involvement; 
(3) youth unemployment rates during the sum-
mer; 
(4) the number of individuals on public finan-
cial assistance (including a breakdown of the num-
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bers of men, women, and children on such assist-
ance); 
(5) the estimated number of youth who are 
chronically truant; 
(6) the number of youth who have dropped out 
of school in the previous year; 
(7) for the year before such assessment, the es-
timated total amount expended (by the community 
and other entities) for the incarceration of offenders 
who were convicted or adjudicated delinquent for an 
offense that was committed in such community, in-
cluding amounts expended for the incarceration of 
offenders in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities that 
are located in the United States but are not located 
in such community; 
(8) a comparison of the amount under para-
graph (7) with an estimation of the amount that 
would be expended for the incarceration of offenders 
described in such paragraph if the number of offend-
ers described in such paragraph was equal to the na-
tional average incarceration rate per 100,000 popu-
lation; and 
(9) a description of evidence-based and prom-
ising practices related to juvenile delinquency and 
criminal street gang activity prevention available for 
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youth in the community, including school-based pro-
grams, after school programs (particularly programs 
that have activities available for youth between 3 
p.m. and 6 p.m. in the afternoon), weekend activi-
ties and programs, youth mentoring programs, faith 
and community-based programs, summer activities, 
and summer jobs, if any; and 
(10) a description of evidence-based and prom-
ising intervention practices available for youth in the 
community. 
(b) LIMITATION ON USE OF ASSESSMENT INFORMA-
TION.—Information gathered pursuant to this section may 
be used for the sole purpose of developing a PROMISE 
Plan in accordance with this subtitle. 
SEC. 205. PROMISE PLAN COMPONENTS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Each PROMISE Coordinating 
Council receiving funds from a unit of local government 
or Indian tribe under this subtitle shall develop a PROM-
ISE Plan to provide for the coordination of, and, as appro-
priate, to support the delivery of, evidence-based and 
promising practices related to juvenile delinquency and 
criminal street gang activity prevention and intervention 
to youth and families who reside in the community for 
which such PROMISE Coordinating Council was estab-
lished. Such a PROMISE Plan shall— 
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(1) include the strategy by which the PROM-
ISE Coordinating Council plans to prioritize and al-
locate resources and services toward the unmet 
needs of youth in the community, consistent with the 
needs and available resources of communities with 
the greatest need for assistance, as determined pur-
suant to section 102; 
(2) include a combination of evidence-based and 
promising prevention and intervention practices that 
are responsive to the needs of the community; and 
(3) ensure that cultural and linguistic needs of 
the community are met. 
(b) MANDATORY COMPONENTS.—Each PROMISE 
Plan shall— 
(1) include a plan to connect youth identified in 
paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 204(a) to evi-
dence-based and promising practices related to juve-
nile delinquency and criminal street gang activity 
prevention and intervention; 
(2) identify the amount or percentage of local 
funds that are available to the PROMISE Coordi-
nating Council to carry out the PROMISE Plan; 
(3) provide strategies to improve indigent de-
fense delivery systems, with particular attention 
given to groups of children who are disproportion-
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ately represented in the State delinquency system 
and Federal criminal justice system, as compared to 
the representation of such groups in the general 
population of the State; 
(4) provide for training (which complies with 
the American Bar Association Juvenile Justice 
Standards for the representation and care of youth 
in the juvenile justice system) of prosecutors, de-
fenders, probation officers, judges and other court 
personnel related to issues concerning the develop-
mental needs, challenges, and potential of youth in 
the juvenile justice system, (including training re-
lated to adolescent development and mental health 
issues, and the expected impact of evidence-based 
practices and cost reduction strategies); 
(5) ensure that the number of youth involved in 
the juvenile delinquency and criminal justice systems 
does not increase as a result of the activities under-
taken with the funds provided under this subtitle; 
(6) describe the coordinated strategy that will 
be used by the PROMISE Coordinating Council to 
provide at-risk youth with evidence-based and prom-
ising practices related to juvenile delinquency and 
criminal street gang activity prevention and inter-
vention; 
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(7) propose the performance evaluation process 
to be used to carry out section 211(d), which shall 
include performance measures to assess efforts to 
address the unmet needs of youth in the community 
with evidence-based and promising practices related 
to juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang ac-
tivity prevention and intervention; and 
(8) identify the research partner the PROMISE 
Coordinating Council will use to obtain information 
on evidence-based and promising practices related to 
juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activ-
ity prevention and intervention, and for the evalua-
tion under section 211(d) of the results of the activi-
ties carried out with funds under this subtitle. 
(c) VOLUNTARY COMPONENTS.—In addition to the 
components under subsection (b), a PROMISE Plan may 
include evidence-based or promising practices related to 
juvenile delinquency and criminal street gang activity pre-
vention and intervention in the following categories: 
(1) Early childhood development services (such 
as pre-natal and neo-natal health services), early 
childhood prevention, voluntary home visiting pro-
grams, nurse-family partnership programs, par-
enting and healthy relationship skills training, child 
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abuse prevention programs, Early Head Start, and 
Head Start. 
(2) Child protection and safety services (such as 
foster care and adoption assistance programs), fam-
ily stabilization programs, child welfare services, and 
family violence intervention programs. 
(3) Youth and adolescent development services, 
including job training and apprenticeship programs, 
job placement and retention training, education and 
after school programs (such as school programs with 
shared governance by students, teachers, and par-
ents, and activities for youth between the hours of 
3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the afternoon), mentoring pro-
grams, conflict resolution skills training, sports, 
arts, life skills, employment and recreation pro-
grams, summer jobs, and summer recreation pro-
grams, and alternative school resources for youth 
who have dropped out of school or demonstrate 
chronic truancy. 
(4) Health and mental health services, includ-
ing cognitive behavioral therapy, play therapy, and 
peer mentoring and counseling. 
(5) Substance abuse counseling and treatment 
services, including harm-reduction strategies. 
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