State and local leaders gathered in Hartford Friday to announce $1.4 million in grant funding to support juvenile justice, money that will be used to pay for personalized intervention and support for young people.
The grant comes to the city through a federal earmark. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy helped make it happen. Murphy said it was a no-brainer.
鈥淭his grant is all about making sure that we understand one size doesn鈥檛 fit all,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淗artford鈥檚 a small city, and so the number of kids that are in the justice system or at grave risk of falling into the justice system 鈥� it鈥檚 still a relatively manageable number of children, which means we can have individualized attention plans to these kids.鈥�
The program will be implemented on the ground by local nonprofits that work directly with young people like the and .
Kristina Baldwin, director of Hartford鈥檚 Department of Families, Children, Youth and Recreation, says, 鈥淭his is a first-of-its-kind partnership that the city and the state have had to help identify our highest-risk youth. And to really look at their individualized needs and how we can best serve them.鈥�
The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Justice鈥檚 .
