Matzie: Franklin Center awarded $25,000 to boost security

AMBRIDGE, Dec. 15 – New funding of $25,000 will allow The Franklin Center of Beaver County to bolster security, state Rep. Rob Matzie, D-Beaver, announced today.

Matzie said the funding to the Aliquippa facility was administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency through the Nonprofit Security Grant Fund.

“The Franklin Center is a place of hope for our community, where folks in need can find essential resources and opportunities,” Matzie said. “It’s essential that staff who work there and the residents they serve feel secure. This new funding will provide the additional resources to make that happen.”

Matzie said grants under the program may be used for a wide range of resources, including safety planning, training, and threat assessments; equipment and technology such as metal detectors, theft-control devices, protective lighting, surveillance equipment, emergency communications equipment, and other facility upgrades; and specially trained canines.

The Nonprofit Security Grant Fund provides funding to nonprofits that principally serve people, groups or institutions that are included within a bias motivation category for single bias hate crime incidents as identified by the FBI’s Hate Crime Statistics publication. The categories include race/ethnicity/ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender and gender identity.

More about the funding is available here: https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/gov-wolf-announces-3-9-million-in-nonprofit-security-grant-fund-program-awards/.

The security grant is in addition to more than $3 million in PCCD funding announced Wednesday to strengthen Beaver County law enforcement, records management and victim services.