Queens Daily Eagle: DA launches grants for youth services, crime prevention

Queens Daily Eagle: DA launches grants for youth services, crime prevention | November 2021: Nearly 30 organizations in Queens have been named as recipients of a new grant from the Queens district attorney’s office designed to fund youth development and crime prevention programs.

District Attorney Melinda Katz named 28 Queens organizations last week that will each be the recipient of a $50,000 grant to help implement Katz’s Community Youth Development and Crime Prevention Project.

The program, which will be administered by the grant winners, aims to provide youth activities and wrap around services in an effort to keep kids out of the criminal justice system, according to Katz.

“Providing meaningful opportunities for our youth is a keen investment in public safety and the future of Queens County,” Katz said in a statement. “We have to do all we can to make sure that our kids are equipped to make good choices and empowered to steer clear of gangs, guns and crime.”

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The Queens Community House will use some of its funds to support programming that connects young people with local law enforcement.

“We're really excited about all of this – we feel that this will put us in a position to strengthen relationships in the community between youth and institutions like law enforcement,” said Patrick Pinchinat, the community center director at Queens Community House. “Very often, young people just do not have opportunities to engage in the right way, so, they're the street, they're involved in different things that may not always be positive and may lead to crime and violence and things like that.”

“But we know that if young people are engaged, and we support them around all their needs, and kind of guide and facilitate that process, then there's more of a chance that they're going to be successful.”

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