Arlington County has received a federal grant of more than $170,000 to fund a new anti-gang initiative in the county.
The county’s “Attention to Prevention” program kicks off Monday, using money from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., secured the money for the county.
A formal announcement of the new program is expected Monday. The program is aimed primarily at preventing at-risk youths from entering Hispanic gangs, such as MS-13, which have surfaced around Northern Virginia.
The county is partnering with the Hispanic Committee of Virginia, the Greenbrier Learning Center and Barrios Unidos to run the program. The new endeavor will feature a teen-prevention effort,
after-school programs and an internship program that will allow at-risk teens to work in county government.
County Board Member Walter Tejada, an advocate for immigrant rights in Arlington, championed the formation of the program.
Tejada said he wants “funding of grassroots organizations. They have worked in the community and can get state funding for prevention before kids get in trouble.”
Greenbrier Executive Director Erin Kliewer said her group tries to engage at-risk youths through numerous after-school programs. She said she has high hopes for the internship component of the new program.
“We have two different tracks they can take,” she said. “There’s the civic engagement track, where they attend government meetings, and the school track, where they develop their own anti-gang presentation for elementary school students.”
