Five community organizations within Berks County have been awarded a total of $2.69 million in grants to go toward violence prevention initiatives. Funding has been awarded to Berks Community Action Program Inc., $800,000; Center for Children's Law and Policy, $830,600; Olivet Boys & Girls Club of Reading & Berks County, $607,267; Reading Hospital, $193,078; and The Salvation Army - Reading, $261,676.

The funding comes from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) through its Violence Intervention and Prevention program. The award may be used for efforts toward reducing community violence, such as street outreach; Safe Corridors/Safe Passages programs, which seek to prevent incidents from occurring on students' commute to and from school and other community centers; trauma-informed support for victims and survivors of gun violence; youth activities; and mentorship programs.

A total of 122 projects throughout the commonwealth received funding from the $88.6 million VIP grant program. This program was made possible by the $105 million allocated for violence reduction measures in this year's state budget.

More information on PCCD and the grant program is available at http://www.pccd.pa.gov/criminaljustice/GunViolence/Pages/default.aspx.