Four Frederick County organizations have receive these grants.
Annapolis, Md (KM) Several non-profit organizations around Maryland, including four in Frederick County, are receiving Protecting Against Hate Crimes Grants. The money comes form the Governor’s Office on Crime Prevention, Youth and Victims Services.
Glenn Fueston, Executive Director, says they can be used by these organizations to upgrade security at their offices and other facilities. “These funds can be used for equipment, software purchases, physical security enhancements, anything those along those lines that will provide safety and security for these protected groups,” he says.
The Frederick County organizations receiving Protecting Against Hate Crimes Grant Awards are Life and Discovery, Inc., doing business as the Asian American Center of Frederick County, which is getting $27,442; Mount Saint Mary’s University, which has been awarded $43,749; Saint John’s Regional Catholic School, which is receiving $132,259; and Saint Katharine Drexel Roman Catholic Congregation, which is getting $87,199.
The total grant amount for all of these non-profits around Maryland is $3-million.
The money was awarded for fiscal year 2021. Fueston says these grants are very competitive. “We have a team of experts here that review the applications and make sure that they’re sound and that they’ve met the requirements and that they had performance measures which is something that we’re really interested in to make sure that we can see that there are positive outcomes for these grants,” he says.
Fueston says grant application requests for fiscal year 2022, which begins on July 1st, will be going out soon. . “Any non-profit organization or faith-based group can apply. As a matter of fact, we’ve expended the opportunity to all non-profits that serve unique and often vulnerable populations. So for example, Asian-American communities which {face} a rising threat around the country,” he says.
Anyone whose interested is encouraged to take pat in the Technical Acceptance Call for Applicants which takes place on June 18th from 11:00 AM until 12:00 noon.
Fueston says hate crimes are something that’s prevalent in the community. “We had about 386 hate-bias crimes incidents reported each year in Maryland. And that’s from 2017-2019. In 2019, there were 385. right on par with the average. So it’s fairly prevalent” he says.
BY Kevin McManus