GOVERNOR'S CRIME COMMISSION ANNOUNCES GRANT AVAILABILITY
Workshops to be Held in Pitt, Lee and Catawba Counties

RALEIGH – District Attorney Scott Thomas, chair of the Governor's Crime Commission, today announced the start of the annual grant application process that is open to non-profits and governmental agencies. Grant applications will be accepted until Jan. 29, 2010 and grants will be awarded next summer.

To assist agencies in preparing applications, GCC will hold the following three grant writing workshops:

Oct. 13 in Pitt County, Goess Student Center, Pitt Community College, Winterville Oct. 16 in Lee County, Dennis A. Wicker Civic Center, Sanford Oct. 20 in Catawba County, Hickory Metro Convention Center, Hickory

The grants will be awarded for innovative programs and to agencies that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the justice system, provide services to juveniles, and enhance the quality of service to crime victims in North Carolina.

“Many successful criminal justice programs in place today are a result of these types of federal grants,” Thomas said. “These initiatives are helping to address and reduce crime in North Carolina.”

Since 1990, the violent crime rate has dropped statewide by 24 percent, and property crime rates by 15 percent.

School resource officers, structured day programs, the crime-stoppers program, Community Watch and the Statewide Automated Victims Assistance Network, are a few specific programs that were initially funded through the GCC. Grants have gone toward drug trafficking interdiction, child abuse and neglect prevention, gang prevention, community domestic violence shelters and juvenile justice reform.

Next year, the U.S. Department of Justice will announce the funding levels for the federal block grants that will be awarded to North Carolina.