ALERT Partnership Funding History

1987

• ALERT Funding Coalition formed, with Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust funding, supported by funding from local corporations. Lehigh Valley Health Network administers the grant and provides direct and in-kind support. The Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust approved a $450,000 challenge grant to match funds raised locally by the ALERT Partnership over a five-year period. The work of prevention agencies providing programs in schools and the community is supported and coordinated; a newsletter is developed.

1992

• U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Community Partnership Demonstration Grant is awarded to ALERT Partnership; $350,000 for each of five years. ALERT Partnership staff hired; the Lehigh Valley's first community organizing initiative begin. Prevention Inventions developed. Workplace and school based prevention initiatives were implemented. Community Conferences for law enforcement and grassroots organizations held in 1994, 1995, and 1996.

1993

• U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention awards a $27,000 Tobacco Supplement award to ALERT. ALERT collaborates with the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley.
• U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention awards an additional $45,000 Workplace supplement to ALERT. ALERT collaborates with Drug-Free Pennsylvania's workplace initiative.

1995

• U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Community Coalitions Demonstration Grant awarded a three year grant averaging $340,000 per year; Community organizing expanded; Prevention Inventions continued. ALERT video program developed. Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley receives program support.

1996

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awards a $50,000 grant to Lehigh Valley Health Network to implement policy change for substance abuse in the Lehigh Valley. ALERT and the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley collaborate.

1997

• ALERT Partnership, in collaboration with Penn State University, the Bethlehem Police Department and Lehigh Valley Health Network, writes a grant to the U.S. Department of Justice COPS Office to develop the Pennsylvania Regional Community Policing Institute.

1998

• Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust approved a second $450,000 challenge grant to match funds raised by the ALERT Partnership.
• Drug-Free Communities Grant from U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention awarded a one year $100,000 award; an additional year of continuation funding for $100,000 was followed by three more funded at $75,000 each.

1999

• ALERT partnered with WDIY, the Lehigh Valley's national public radio affiliate in south Bethlehem, to secure a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Benton Foundation for a National Public Radio "Sound Partners for Community Health" grant. The grant funded a two-year effort that involved youth in the design of public health research and reporting for a series of on-air broadcasts.
• 1999 – ALERT assisted the Pennsylvania Regional Community Policing Institute to develop a proposal to the U.S. COPS office for a $200,000 grant to conduct community policing training to respond to, reduce, and prevent domestic violence, emphasizing partnerships and proactive problem solving.
• The Health Alliance Charitable Foundation, through the Institute for Healthy Communities, awarded ALERT Partnership a $50,000 "Building a Healthier Pennsylvania Through Community Partnerships" grant to support the city of Bethlehem's Strategic Neighborhood Action Plan. The Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust serves as the local foundation partner, providing the necessary local funding match to acquire this grant.
• ALERT subcontracted with the Alliance for Building Communities to plan to program neighborhood prevention interventions in Allentown's First Ward, with funding from a U.S. Housing and Urban Development grant.
• Muhlenberg Hospital Foundation supported ALERT's work with the Strategic Housing and Urban Development grant.

2000

• ALERT submitted planning and implementation grants on behalf of the city of Bethlehem to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to form the Bethlehem Communities That Care initiative. ALERT managed the grant of $150,000 (2001-2004) which provided bi-lingual family counseling services to families served by the Bethlehem Area School District's Family Centers, and also plans and programs initiatives focusing on social/environmental/legislative policy change around underage drinking. ALERT, the family center staff, and the social workers providing counseling developed an evaluation plan that will provide supportive data to continue the program when funding expires.
• A two year grant was awarded in September, 2000 to ALERT Partnership from the US Center for Mental Health Services. The grant provided funding for Lehigh County's Juvenile Probation Department to plan and implement a local pilot project of Boston's Operation Nite Lites, a program viewed as a model violence prevention program by the U.S. Department of Justice. Over $60,000 was provided to the county by the ALERT Partnership, through this grant, to fund the services of a probation officer to work with serious chronic youth offenders. When the grant ended December 31, 2002, the county continued to fund the program. In September 2003, Lehigh County Juvenile Probation Department acquired a $240,000 grant to fund Operation Nite Lites through the U.S. Department of Justice's Operation Safe Neighborhoods. The Lehigh County Juvenile Probation's implementation of Operation Nite Lites will be used by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency as a model for other communities in Pennsylvania. PCCD is planning to release Requests for Proposals to fund Nite Lites in other counties.
• Pennsylvanians Against Underage Drinking contracted with ALERT Partnership annually from 2001-2003 to spearhead the development of a northeast regional underage drinking prevention effort.

2001

• ALERT secured $7500 in program resources from an Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws grant to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). The resources were used to implement initiatives in collaboration with district justices and law enforcement, and the Safe Homes Campaign conducted annually by Valley Youth House.
• A two-year grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was awarded to the DUI Association on October 2001. The focus of the funding was increased enforcement activity in the areas of underage drinking, DUI, speeding, and seat belt use among Lehigh Valley young people ages 16-20. ALERT Partnership was identified during the proposal preparation as a local partner. ALERT subcontracted with the PA DUI Association to implement educational activities through the High School Advisory Board (a network of Students Against Destructive Decisions group initially supported through the Pool Trust grant which founded the ALERT Funding Coalition of 1987). Among the initiatives supported with $10,000 in program funding: The First Annual SADD Recognition Banquet, a facilitated luncheon meeting with Lehigh Valley law enforcement and district justices, the Youth Congresses against underage drinking, and various activities of the High School Advisory Board.

2002

• ALERT received a $10,200 grant from the Carl Anderson Health Care Trust to plan and coordinate a series of educational events around Ecstasy and other designer drugs for the larger Lehigh Valley community, including law enforcement, educators, and the medical professionals, in response to numerous requests for information.

2003

• ALERT received multi-year $100,000 Drug-Free Communities Grant and a $75,000 Drug-Free Communities Mentoring grant from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. ALERT will be working in partnership with the city of Allentown's Weed and Seed, and will mentor drug free coalitions in various urban and suburban communities across the Lehigh Valley, utilizing Prevention Inventions and other forms of technical assistance.
• ALERT received a multi-year $450,000 grant through the Pennsylvania Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs to form the Northampton County Community Prevention Collaborative. The funding is from the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention through a State Incentive Grant. The collaborative involves the Northampton County Drug and Alcohol Division, and Communities That Care© initiatives in Northampton County, Bethlehem and the Slate Belt.