Dec 17, 2023 2 min read

A Washington County organization is one of 93 nonprofits statewide to receive grant funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD)’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the commission announced earlier this week.

On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, chairman of the PCCD, approved $19 million spending in a wide variety of grants, including $5 million to support security enhancements that address hate crimes and $1 million for law enforcement recruitment and training across 20 law enforcement agencies.

Organizations that could be victims of hate crimes received grant money through the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which supports nonprofits that serve individuals, groups or institutions that are at risk for hate crime incidents.

The Washington County Gay-Straight Alliance received $10,000.

Funding may be used for purchasing safety and security equipment and technology, upgrading existing structures to increase safety and security, assessing vulnerability and threats, and implementing safety and security planning and training.

To ensure local police departments are staffed and funded, the PCCD also awarded grants to address staffing shortages and support filling the roughly 225 vacant law enforcement positions across the state.

As of Tuesday’s grant awards, 488 organizations statewide have received almost $20 million in funding from the PCCD since 2020. The PCCD estimates approximately 4 million Pennsylvanians have been impacted by the funding to date.

For more information on the PCCD or the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, visit https://www.pccd.pa.gov/Pages/Default.aspx.

To apply for the next round of funding, go to https://www.pccd.pa.gov/Funding/Pages/Active-Funding-Announcements.aspx.