Allegheny County, July 14, 2023 – Senator Wayne Fontana applauded the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) as Chairman, Lt. Governor Austin Davis, recently announced the awarding of grants to provide scholarship programs for at-risk students, including two grants in the Pittsburgh area.
“Education is the key to ending the cycle of poverty, to unlocking the creativity and vision of young people, and to supercharging the local economies in our neighborhoods,” said Sen. Fontana. “The grants announced this week will provide opportunities to kids who live in communities with high rates of dropout, incarceration, and crime.”
The inaugural pilot class of awardees of the $1.3 million available including two in the 42nd senatorial district that Sen. Fontana represents.
- Pittsburgh Public Schools, working with the city-headquartered nonprofit Amachi Pittsburgh, was awarded $300,000; and
- Communities in Schools PA, which is based in central Pennsylvania but serves economically-challenged school districts—including Sto-Rox School District, was awarded $165,000.
The First Chances Trust Fund was created by the General Assembly in 2017 to provide at-risk youth with constructive opportunities through a scholarship program of grants that benefit residents of the state with higher high school dropout rates and statistically higher incarceration rates or crime rates. You can learn more about the program here.
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