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Charlotte Amalie
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HomeNewsArchivesTERRITORY TO GET OVER $2M IN FEDERAL GRANTS

TERRITORY TO GET OVER $2M IN FEDERAL GRANTS

Oct. 2, 2001 – What do Coastal Zone Management, saving energy, University of the Virgin Islands curricula, delinquency prevention, bilingual school services and care for children with the human immunodeficiency virus have in common?
First, V.I. government agencies administer programs in all of these areas. Second, taken together, they have just been awarded a total of more than $2 million in federal grants.
The grants were all announced Friday in releases from the office of Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Some awards are continuations; others are new. Most require matching funds at some level by the local agency.
The recipient agencies and amounts of their grants are:
– $1,025,000 from the U.S. Commerce Department to DPNR.
– $360,000 from the U.S. Commerce Department to the Economic Research Bureau.
– $214,673 from the U.S. Commerce Department to the University of the Virgin Islands.
– $207,775 from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department to the Health Department.
– $205,000 from the U.S. Energy Department to the V.I. Energy Office.
– $100,000 from the U.S. Education Department's State Grant Program to the V.I. Education Department.
– $33,000 from the U.S. Justice Department to the Law Enforcement Planning Commission.
The DPNR grant, from U.S. Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is to implement the Coastal Zone Management program for continuing and new projects in enforcement, coastal zone planning, public information, permit processing and monitoring, coastal nonpoint implementation and other areas.
The grant to the Economic Research Bureau is to expand its efforts to aid in the fiscal and economic recovery of the Virgin Islands.
UVI's grant, also from NOAA, will incorporate Geographic Information Systems technology into the physical and social sciences curricula through collaboration with the university's Conservation Data Center, which has worked with GIS technology for several years.
The Health Department's STD/HIV/TB Program (the letters stand for sexually-transmitted diseases, human immunodeficiency virus and tuberculosis) is the recipient of the only grant that does not require local matching. The funds, received under what is known as the Ryan White Act, Title IV, are to coordinate services to children, youth, women and families impacted by HIV. Lois V. Sanders, director of the V.I. program, says these first-year funds will go toward the goal of providing coordinated HIV treatment and care on island, so patients will not have to leave the island. The grant is renewable to 2004.
No information could be obtained on the grant to the V.I. Energy Office. Personnel in Christensen's office referred questions to V.I. Energy Office, where they were in turn referred to the Planning and Natural Resources Department public information office. Messages left there were not returned.
The Education grant, from Title VII State Education Agency, is to support projects to improve English proficiency for children and youth. The V.I. Bilingual Education Advisory Committee requested the grant for instructional guidance and services needed to eliminate the achievement gap between language minority students and native English-speaking majority students.
The grant to LEPC, the second recent award under the federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, will support the objectives of the federal Community Prevention Grants Program, which seeks to mobilize community involvement to develop local strategies toward a client-centered continuum of services for at-risk children and their families.
The awards to the Planning and Natural Resources Department for coastal zone management programs and for the Energy Office are continuation grants. All others are new.

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