News Releases
Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 30, 1999
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke joins community safety activities, announces school safety grant

YAKIMA — Gov. Gary Locke and Yakima Police Chief Don Blesio today read to children and helped paint a mural as part of the ongoing community safety activities at the Southeast Community Center in Yakima. The center has worked to reduce violence, pregnancy, and drug use among area youth through a variety of recreational and educational activities.

"Successful, community-based programs like this one are making our state a safer place to live and raise a family," Locke said. "By working together, we can make a big difference in our communities."

The governor and Blesio helped paint the mural to recognize the project’s creativity and to encourage other community safety efforts in the region. The mural, which will travel to different locations in the Yakima area, depicts the children’s vision of a community without violence.

While at the community center, Locke also announced a $281,250 grant for school safety initiatives at five Yakima County and five King County schools. The grant, from the Corporation for National Service/AmeriCorps at the governor’s request, will enable the Yakima Substance Abuse Coalition and the Fremont Public Association each to enroll 15 AmeriCorps members.

The AmeriCorps members will be assigned to schools to help implement the prevention recommendations offered at Locke’s statewide Youth Safety Summit last year. One of the major recommendations from the summit was that students and young people need to be involved in developing and implementing projects that promote school safety.

"As I’ve said before, it’s going to take all of us working together — learning, listening, and reaching out — if we’re going to get to the root causes of violence in schools and come up with thoughtful, long-term solutions," Locke said. "This grant will help us get students directly involved in making their own schools safer."

The Corporation for National Service awarded the grant to Washington following a national competition open to all governors. Funds will be available for selected schools this fall.

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