WASHINGTON, D.C. – The McCain Institute’s Preventing Targeted Violence (PTV) program has secured funding through the Department of Homeland Security’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program to launch an awareness and upstander campaign for teens and young adults, and to continue their work with key partners.
Individual awards listed below:
- $770,610 awarded to the McCain Institute for the Youth Upstander Initiative for Targeted Violence Education (UNITE) program.
- $820,990 for Boston Children’s Hospital’s TVT: Strengths, Needs, and Risks Assessment & Management (T-SAM) tool. (sub-grantee)
- $817,129 for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. (sub-grantee)
“These grants fund strategic partnerships to teach teens to stand up to hate, train local leadership to prevent hate, and to share promising practices among clinicians, respectively,” said Brette Steele, senior director of the McCain Institute’s Preventing Targeted Violence program. “In particular, the nationwide Youth UNITE campaign will increase young individuals’ skillsets to respond to threats both online and offline, raise awareness about when to seek help from a trusted adult, and provide ways to better involve youth in local prevention efforts.”
Additional background on how this funding will be used:
In partnership with Community Matters, Moonshot, and the Reilly Group, Youth UNITE will build off the success of the PTV program’s latest public awareness campaign, SCREEN Hate, which provides resources for parents and caregivers. The recently published SCREEN Hate National Findings Report highlights the lessons learned and recommendations for future bystander awareness programming.
The McCain Institute’s PTV program will continue to work on establishing and supporting local violence prevention efforts with Boston Children’s Hospital and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, thanks to grant funding provided by DHS.
Associated Department of Homeland Security grantees:
The McCain Institute coordinates the Invent2Prevent team in partnership with EdVenture Partners and Credence Management Solutions. Two Invent2Prevent competition finalists, American University and the University of North Dakota, received a total of $1,170,958.78 to sustain their D.U.C.C. (Developing and Using Critical Comprehension) and Be S.E.E.N.N. (Be Students Empowering and Encouraging Native Nations) projects, respectively. Both teams participated in the yearlong I2P sustainment program, through which the McCain Institute provides mentorship and guidance to help teams sustain and scale their projects.