CONTACT: Department of Human Services, Office of Community Relations
Kathleen Burk: 412-350-2777
Elaine Plunkett: 412-350-6897
PITTSBURGH—One Vision One Life (OVOL), the DHS-contracted Allegheny County Violence Prevention program, was awarded a $331,025, two-year grant through the FY09 Recovery Act – Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant program. Funding through this program, totaling $29,037,385, was shared between 20 awardees in the Comprehensive Data-Driven Approaches to Preventing and Reducing Violent Crime division. The grant will sustain and expand OVOL by providing for the compensation of three current Community Coordinators and the hiring of three additional Community Coordinators.
One Vision One Life has been active on the streets of high-risk communities in Allegheny County, doing the work of intervening in volatile situations and giving our youth positive alternatives to gang activity, for six years,” said DHS Director Marc Cherna. “The generous support from the local foundation community that One Vision has enjoyed since its inception in 2003 has suffered along with the rest of us because of the current economic downturn. These new funds, part of the federal stimulus package, will help to keep One Vision operational for the next two years. Without them, violence prevention services would be vulnerable. With them, we can continue to build on the progress we’ve made.”
One Vision One Life works in the troubled Pittsburgh neighborhoods of the Northside, the Hill District, the Southside, Homewood North and Garfield Heights as well as in several communities outside the city include McKeesport and McKees Rocks, and focuses intervention and outreach on those most at risk for participating in or falling victim to violence, young African American men.
The Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant program is through the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance. The grant will provide funding to OVOL through July of 2011.
For more information about One Vision One Life please link to www.onevisiononelife.org or contact Richard Garland at rgarland@onevisiononelife.org, 412-434-1287 x105 or 412-434-0452 (fax).
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