WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today released the Fiscal Year 2023 Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). Administered by the DHS Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the TVTP Grant Program supports local communities in their efforts to prevent targeted violence and terrorism. CP3 provides $20 million in funding for projects run by state, local, tribal, and territorial government agencies, nonprofits, and universities. The applications are due to be submitted at Grants.gov on April 25, 2023. DHS will announce the FY23 TVTP Grant Program awards in September 2023.
The TVTP grant program is a critical tool in DHS’s efforts to guard against the terrorism threat that has evolved significantly over the past twenty years. Lone offenders and small cells of individuals motivated by a range of violent extremist ideologies, of both domestic and foreign origin, represent the most persistent terrorism-related threat facing the United States. Domestic Violent Extremism has emerged as one of the greatest terrorist threats to the homeland, and has grown into a focal point for the Department’s counterterrorism efforts. DHS remains focused on the threat posed by foreign terrorist organizations, who continue to motivate supporters, including homegrown violent extremists, to carry out attacks in the United States, both within and from beyond our borders.
“DHS is fundamentally a department of partnerships and through the TVTP Grant Program, we provide our partners with the resources and support they need to establish effective local projects that seek to prevent targeted violence and terrorism,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Over the past three years, CP3 has invested $50 million in communities across the United States. Our partners work to increase social awareness, establish local networks, and provide training to community members to prevent potential tragedies.”
The TVTP Grant Program is the only federal grant program solely dedicated to enhancing local targeted violence and terrorism prevention efforts. Through CP3, DHS helps communities prevent targeted violence and terrorism through funding, training, increasing public awareness, and developing partnerships across every level of the government, the private sector, and in local communities across our country. Leveraging an approach informed by public health research, CP3 brings together mental health providers, educators, faith leaders, public health officials, social services, nonprofits, and others in communities across the country to help people from heading down the pathway to violence and intervening prior to them committing violent attacks. The TVTP Grant Program provides financial assistance to eligible applicants to develop sustainable, multidisciplinary targeted violence and terrorism prevention capabilities in local communities, to pilot innovative prevention approaches, and to identify prevention best practices that can be replicated in communities across the country.
The FY23 grant program continues to prioritize engaging underserved communities who are often disproportionately the targets of violence. This year, the NOFO includes new oversight mechanisms that strengthen privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties protections and includes professional and training requirements for projects working with vulnerable populations. In Fiscal Year 2022, as a result of DHS’s outreach efforts, DHS made the first awards under this program to two LGBTQI+ organizations and two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). In past years, grants have helped local police departments fund threat assessment and management teams, which have paired mental health professionals with trained law enforcement officers to interrupt potential incidents of targeted violence. Other grants have helped universities raise awareness regarding the threat environment in their region and helped HBCUs create a prevention framework with training for both campus police and students on pre-incident indicators and the process of radicalization to violence.
The TVTP Grant Program also encourages innovation to harness the best ideas from those directly engaging with members of the community. CP3 has worked with grantees to identify best practices that enhance protections for participants in prevention programs. As grantees continue their innovative work, CP3 will incorporate their lessons learned and promising practices into the program in future grant cycles.
For more information on the application process and available funding, please see the NOFO on Grants.gov. Visit the TVTP Grant Program Resource page or contact CP3 at TerrorismPrevention@hq.dhs.gov for additional information on how to apply.