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Pleasantville, PA -- Congressman John E. Peterson (PA-05) announced this afternoon that the Lycoming-Clinton Counties Commission for Community Action, a non-profit organization known locally as STEP, Inc., will soon receive a $300,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help the agency address the spread of gang-related activity among the area’s youth population.
“The growing enrollment and influence of youth gangs in communities across our nation is a problem of national significance, requiring a coordinated, well thought-out national strategy,” said Peterson. “It seems to me, though, that the first and most important step in addressing the pervasiveness of gang-related activity is to provide our law enforcement officials, teachers, and community leaders with the support they need to keep our youth safe from gangs and provide them with better, more productive alternatives to joining one. Today’s grant from HHS will help do precisely that, and I was proud to lend my support to it.”
According to Janet Alling, executive director of STEP, Inc., the federal grant money will be used to strengthen and support community institutions charged with dealing firsthand with area youth, such as the Campbell Street Family, Youth, and Community Association, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Lycoming County.
“This federal grant will help our local faith-based and community organizations increase their combined capacity to strengthen young people’s ties to family, school and community,” said Alling. “Our objective is to move the community toward positive action, which will help our younger residents root their search for identity in family, school and community, rather than in negative associations such as youth gangs.
“I look forward to working closely with local leaders and area organizations to strengthen our community,” added Alling.
Other local partners included in the project, according to Alling, are the Salvation Army and the Williamsport Crime Commission.
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