The Minnesota Office of Justice Programs announced on Friday that Northfield has been selected as a recepient of funding from the “Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) – American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” This federal stimulus funding will support the Northfield PRIMEtime out-of-school collaborative, which provides free after school and summer programming to over 1,300 local youth (unduplicated) in grades K-12 each year. The Northfield Public Schools served as the official applicant for the collaborative. Northfield will receive $246,039 total over a two-year period.
The funding will provide staffing support for four important youth programs, as well as transportation costs to get local youth to/from these programs:
* Northfield Union of Youth/The Key
* PLUS after school program at Bridgewater, Greenvale Park, and Sibley Elementary Schools
* Summer PLUS program
A total of 315 applicants statewide applied for this funding. Northfield PRIMEtime was one of 41 projects selected through a competitive review process. Click HERE for a list of all recipients.
The Northfield funding will help to replace a two-year after school grant from the Minnesota Department of Education that expired at the end of August and for which no additional state money was available. The Northfield News featured a story on this grant — and its impact on local youth — this summer.
Congratulations to the Northfield Public Schools and all the PRIMEtime partners for this grant, which will assure the continuation of important free out-of-school-time programs for young people in our community!
