4/11/00 
        Bard Announces $57,000 Grant for Abington Police Dept.

Money to fund youth crime and drug abuse prevention program

HARRISBURG—The Abington Township Police Department has been awarded a $57,000 grant from the Commonwealth to fund the implementation of a youth crime prevention program, according to Rep. Ellen Bard (R-153).

Bard said the department will use the grant, obtained through her office via an application filed with the Department of Community and Economic Development, to create and fund the Abington Care and Community Academy over a two year period.

The goals of the academy are to help students to display appropriate behavior; provide an alternative to the traditional forms of behavior intervention; provide support for students; and prevent future violence and substance abuse.

“The academy will combat juvenile crime by providing social competency skills to students who exemplify high risk behaviors,” Bard said “Studies show that crime prevention programs, such as those that will be implemented by the department, are instrumental in keeping our streets safe.”

The academy will comprise three schools, each holding 20 sessions a week with 20 students per session.  Participants will be identified by teachers and parents as being ‘at risk” for academic failure and high risk behaviors. The program will be supervised by representatives from the Abington Schoo1 District, the Abington Police Department, and the Abington Parks and Recreation Department.

Bard said research indicates that adolescents in conventional treatment and detention centers demonstrate significant learning and academic difficulties in the early years. Those youths, she added, continue to develop hostile, defensive and antisocial behavior problems.

“This project will help break that cycle by helping students learn to display appropriate behavior,” she said.