BURLINGTON, Vt. (Friday, Sept. 3) – Highlighting the importance of two key
players in the fight against drugs and crime in Vermont, U.S. Senator
Patrick Leahy Friday announced more than $2.2 million in federal grants
awarded to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Vermont and the Vermont Drug Task
Force.
“These grants will help
keep our communities and our youth safe from the menace of drugs, gangs
and crime,” Leahy said Friday morning during a news conference at the Boys
& Girls Club on Oak Street in Burlington. “In Vermont, our rural and
urban communities have experienced a frightening rise in heroin use in
recent years, yet it gives us some peace of mind to know that our law
enforcement agencies are working hard to keep our streets safe and the
Boys & Girls Clubs are making sure there are safe havens for our youth.”
Leahy, a senior member of
the Senate Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democratic member on
the Judiciary Committee, led the work for the funding.
The Vermont Drug Task
Force, a special division of the Vermont State Police, was awarded a $1.1
million grant to support efforts to fight heroin in the state and fund two
positions – a chemist to work in the state crime lab and a designated drug
prosecutor in the Attorney General’s office. In the past four years,
Leahy has secured $2.4 million for the Task Force.
The Boys & Girls Club of
Vermont was awarded $1,185,000 through a Leahy-sponsored bill that
extended the annual DOJ grants to the Boys & Girls Club of America through
2010. These funds will be used to support some of the existing 20 clubs
in the state as well as help pay for the opening of four new sites in
Winooski, Brattleboro, Barre, and Vergennes.
Leahy has been a long-time
champion of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, successfully convincing
Congress to increase federal support for the nonprofit youth service
organization from $20 million in 1998 to $80 million this year and up to
$100 million in 2010. Over the past five years, Leahy has secured $4
million in DOJ grants for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Vermont.
