The Youth Policy Institute in Los Angeles, which has been working to battle childhood poverty for more than 30 years, was named Tuesday one of six winners of the U.S. Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods competition and will receive a $6 million grant.
The department gave out a total of $33 million to organizations that provide education, health, safety and family support services to children and families in high-poverty neighborhoods.
“These grants will provide cradle-to-career support for at-risk children in communities across the country, offering meaningful resources that will help them achieve their potential,” U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said. “Promise Neighborhoods draw on the best of communities, bringing together nonprofits, schools and local institutions to meet the needs of their local communities.”
The federal Promise Neighborhoods program was started in 2010 and has awarded more than $286 million to date to “support innovative strategies that bring together public and private partners to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty,” the Department of Education stated.
The Youth Policy Institute was started more than 30 years ago and moved to Los Angeles in 1996. It focuses on supporting Los Angeles Promise Neighborhood program communities in Pacoima and Hollywood, and was previously awarded a $30 million grant by the Department of Education in 2012 to be the lead agency for the program.
A representative with the Youth Policy Institute could not be reached for immediate comment.
The institute’s Promise Neighborhood work focuses on a public-private partnership with the city and county of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Unified School District. It is working to convert 19 neighborhood schools into full- service community schools with an array of support services including early childhood development, gang prevention and college preparation.
Other grant winners are:
— Berea College, Kentucky, $6 million;
— Center for Family Services Inc., New Jersey, $6 million;
— Delta Health Alliance Inc., Mississippi, $6 million;
— Drexel University, Pennsylvania, $6 million;
— Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians, California, $2.7 million.
