USDOJ Awards City Program $500,000 to Prevent Youth Violence

PORTLAND, Maine -- The City of Portland and Maine Behavioral Healthcare are pleased to announce that the Portland Defending Childhood (PDC) program has been awarded $500,000 by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) under OJJDP’s Youth Violence Prevention Expansion and Enhancement Project (YVP Project). PDC currently works to build resilience in children exposed to violence through prevention, intervention, services, and supports. Co-led by the City of Portland Public Health Division and Maine Behavioral Healthcare, PDC provides prevention training and education in schools and places of work, as well as treatment and services for those who have experienced violence. Under the YVP Project, PDC will focus on preventing youth violence by raising community awareness, reducing risk factors, and promoting policy change. The anticipated start date of the project is October 2016.

Barrett Wilkinson, PDC Prevention Coordinator, notes that PDC’s success depends on “a
collaborative approach to solving health and social problems, and preventing conditions that put children at risk for poor outcomes.” According to PDC Project Coordinator Aurora Smaldone, “Portland represents great promise as the setting for violence intervention innovation precisely because the problem is surmountable. Portland can serve as a model for other small cities across the U.S. facing similar issues of community violence.”

Portland is one of eleven communities around the country selected by OJJDP as part of the YVP Project cohort. Other grantees include New Orleans, Chippewa Cree Tribe, New York City, Oakland, and Denver. Anticipated benefits of the YVP project in Portland include increased violence prevention resources, heightened community awareness of youth violence prevention strategies, and a coordinated community response to youth violence.

The City of Portland Public Health Division has provided population-based health programs in Portland for more than a century. Its mission is to improve the health of individuals, families, and the community through disease prevention, health promotion, and protection from environmental threats. The Division promotes strong collaborative relationships with community-based organizations and implements a range of community-based programs including, but not limited to, nurse home visiting services, school-based clinics, and minority health initiatives.

Maine Behavioral Healthcare was created in 2014 to provide an integrated continuum of comprehensive, coordinated behavioral healthcare for Maine residents of all ages by merging Spring Harbor Hospital (a nonprofit psychiatric hospital) with three nonprofit community mental health agencies – Community Counseling Center, Counseling Services, Inc., and Mid-Coast Mental Health Center – into a single, unified organization with multiple locations throughout southern, western and mid-coast Maine.

To learn more about Portland Defending Childhood, visit www.portlanddefendingchildhood.org.