Teen and police service academy: addressing and preventing hate crime in houston and throughout the united states

The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded a $387,617 Project Grant under the Community-Based Approaches to Advancing Justice program (CFDA 16.047) to the Teen And Police Service Academy (TAPS Academy), a minority-owned, veteran-owned, and non-profit organization. The funding will enable TAPS Academy to develop an evidence-based curriculum module on reducing hate crimes and provide direct educational and mentoring services to 20,000 at-risk youth, parents, school staff, and community members in Houston, TX and across the United States over a 3-year period from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2026. The program aims to bridge the social gap between at-risk youth and law enforcement, foster understanding and collaboration, and prevent hate crimes by addressing root causes such as bullying and the need for belonging. TAPS Academy will leverage its Texas Education Agency-approved curriculum and highly trained police officer instructors to deliver crime prevention skills, community service-learning, and school safety enhancement training.

Future hate crime acts are often rooted in being a victim of bullying, a need for a sense of belonging and at-risk environments as children and youth. Positive factors must abound over risk factors as trusted adults provide the education, support, and skills to combat the lure of groups that recruit youth into hate groups. Taps academy provides a texas education agency approved curriculum that grants one high school credit to students upon completion. Highly trained police officers teach IT to reduce the social distance between youth and police, teach crime prevention skills, build community through service-learning, and enhance school safety using 21ST century policing methods. With a rise in hate crime, and african americans being the group most vulnerableto hate crimes IT is imperative for taps academy to develop an evidence-based curriculum through a team of experts and community partners to educate the at-risk youth taps academy serves. This proposal will allow US to create and present a new module called reducing hate crime and a stand-aline lesson to serve taps academy students nationwide as well as youth in schools and communities throughout the country, taught by police officers and civilians, the proposal will serve 20,000 youth, parents, school staff, and community members over three years in houston and throughout the united states.