The Houston Health Department (HHD) requests City Council approval of an ordinance authorizing the acceptance and expending of grant funds from the Department of Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the City’s Teen Dating and Youth Violence Prevention Strategy program. The current budget period is September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2017 in the amount of $396,619.00.The project period is September 1, 2016 through August 31, 2021 for an estimated total grant award of $1,983,095.00.
HHD also requests City Council to authorized the Mayor to execute all related contracts, agreements and documents with the approval of the City Attorney in connection with the grant and to authorize the Director or his designee to act as the City’s representative in the application process with the authority to apply for, accept and expend the grant funds, as awarded, and to apply for and accept and expend all subsequent awards, if any, pertaining to the grant.
HHD epidemiologists reviewed Unified Crime Reporting data and identified five zip codes with the highest rates of youth violence including 77016, 77091, 77022, 77006, and 77061. HHD convened leaders from education, law enforcement, the courts, universities, non-profits, faith organizations, and the community to form the Youth Justice Council. The Houston Youth Justice Council reviewed data on the prevalence of youth violence and toured the hot spots for youth violence in each zip code with the Houston Police Department. Based on the individual and community level risk and protective factors, HHD will work with existing partners and the Youth Justice Council and recruit additional partners to enhance and expand upon the youth violence prevention strategic plan to focus on individual- and community-level factors for youth and teen dating violence. Three of the above mentioned zip codes (77016,77091, and 77022) are in the My Brother's Keeper (MBK) service area. Successful strategies and services developed through this grant will be utilized in the MBK program.