Allentown, PA – Three afterschool and summer camp programs in the Lehigh Valley will be able to expand, helping to keep kids safe and providing them with enrichment opportunities, thanks to new state funding from the Shapiro-Davis Administration.
State and local officials visited the Casa Guadalupe Center in Allentown today to celebrate the new “Building Opportunity through Out-of-School Time” (BOOST) initiative, which is providing $11.6 million in grants to 46 programs (44 local and two statewide) across the Commonwealth.
“Investing in afterschool programs isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s the smart thing to do,” said Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, who leads the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). “The return on investment for these types of programs is somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 for every dollar invested. In addition, there’s huge demand – for every kid who is enrolled in an afterschool program, there are four more waiting to get into one.”
Earlier this month PCCD approved the BOOST grant awards, as well as $45 million in Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) grants.
BOOST grantees in the Lehigh Valley include:
- Casa Guadalupe Center (Lehigh County) – $250,000
- Fine Feather Foundation (Lehigh County) – $97,074
- Easton Area Community Center (Northampton County) – $182,206
Casa provides a comprehensive, culturally appropriate, bilingual program during the school year and summer. They will use their grant funding to serve approximately 25 percent more students and support two new teachers and two teacher assistants.
Fine Feather provides creative arts-based initiatives through their Excelsior Afterschool Program, and they will use their grant to expand to two more schools, serving 50 additional at-risk students.
Easton Area Community Center provides afterschool and summer programs, and they will use their grant to provide transportation, increase their capacity and add new programs.
In addition, Lehigh Valley Hospital, in coordination with Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, received a $950,000 VIP grant to continue their Cure Violence partnership in Allentown and other communities in central eastern Pennsylvania.
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“The BOOST program represents a significant investment in students’ afterschool opportunities – providing critical homework support, fostering new skills, and building peer connections,” said state Sen. Nick Miller. “I strongly supported this initiative in last year’s budget and joined Lieutenant Governor Davis in Allentown to announce the funding last July. Now, as a member of the School Safety and Security Committee of PCCD, I’m honored to help announce these impactful investments in the Lehigh Valley and across the Commonwealth. This program exemplifies our commitment to creating safe, supportive environments for students, and I look forward to working with Lieutenant Governor Davis and my colleagues to further strengthen resources that protect and empower our communities.”
“BOOST was designed to do something we desperately needed: Give kids better opportunities to get supervised care, instruction and play,” said state Rep. Mike Schlossberg. “Now – more than ever – we need to invest in the chance for our kids to interact face-to-face, learn new skills and just be kids. I’m proud to have written the law that funded BOOST to begin with and to partner with the Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Investing in our kids is an investment in our future.”
“I am proud to have voted for the Shapiro-Davis budgets,” said state Rep. Josh Siegel. “Together we have hired hundreds of additional state police, provided tens of millions in grants for to help hire and retain local police and made major investments in violence prevention programs like the BOOST initiative. The Shapiro-Davis Administration has demonstrated a serious commitment to preventing crime by investing in our community safety, while ensuring that we have the resources to keep our streets safe.”
Since taking office in January 2023, the Shapiro-Davis Administration has been laser-focused on reducing the epidemic of gun violence across Pennsylvania. Gov. Shapiro and Lt. Gov. Davis have secured millions in state funding to make our communities safer, including:
- Awarding $85 million in violence intervention and prevention funding for 131 VIP and Coordinated Community Violence Intervention (CCVI) strategies grant projects;
- Re-establishing Pennsylvania’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Executive Order 24-02 last September;
- Delivering $4 million in federal Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative Grant funds to expand hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) statewide; and
- Providing more than 800 technical assistance sessions to 135 community-based violence prevention groups receiving PCCD grant funding through the PA Peace Alliance.