U.S. DHS awards $18 million to prevent violence and terrorism

In the 2024 fiscal year, the Department of Homeland Security has distributed 35 grants, amounting to a total of 18 million dollars, as part of the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program. The objective of this programme is to provide financial assistance to eligible applicants to enable them to develop sustainable, multidisciplinary targeted violence and terrorism prevention capabilities in local communities. This will be achieved by facilitating the piloting, strengthening, and sharing of evidence-based prevention strategies. It brings together experts from various sectors, from mental health providers to law enforcement, to address systemic factors that can lead to violence and strengthen the local protective factors. Among the grantees, there are 7 public health entities, 20 focused wholly or in part on prevention in youth settings, and 8 that provide services to underserved populations. Since its launch in 2020, the program has conducted training sessions that built prevention capacity among 38,250 attendees and is the only federal grant program dedicated to strengthening communities’ targeted violence and terrorism prevention capabilities.