The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday that they will be making available $20 million in grant funding through the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program to help communities develop programs to combat terrorism and targeted violence.
“Domestic violent extremism and targeted violence are two of the gravest threats facing our homeland today,” said Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “Over the past few years, the United States has experienced an increasing number of targeted attacks by disaffected individuals motivated by a combination of extremist ideologies and personal grievances. This investment in local communities will help our partners develop sustainable capabilities to address an evolving threat environment, including by preventing attacks and online radicalization.”
The TVTP Grant Program will prioritize projects that prevent domestic violent extremism, enhance local threat assessment and management capabilities, implement solutions for preventing targeted violence and terrorism and challenge online violence mobilization.
For the 2021 fiscal year, Congress supported DHS’s request to double the investment into sustainable prevention programs, increasing the amount from $10 million to $20 million. In December 2020, DHS finalized plans to better monitor and evaluate the success of the grants and to share the results of the programs so that other jurisdictions could replicate them.
The announcement builds upon the department’s increased efforts to fight violent domestic extremism, something Mayorkas identified as a “National Priority Area” for State Homeland Security Program and Urban Area Security Initiative grant programs in February. As part of those programs, state, local, tribal and territorial governments must spend 7.5 percent of their DHS grants combating violent domestic extremism.
Since Inauguration Day, DHS has increased the development, production, and sharing of intelligence central to countering violent domestic extremism and is increasing training opportunities for law enforcement in threat assessment and management programs related to the same.
Applications for the TVTP grant program must be received by May 25. The application is a multi-step process, so DHS recommends that any government or non-profit organization applying should start early.