Manhattan District Attorney Distributes $46 Million To Build Youth Centers

SOHO, NY — Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance is handing out nearly $46 million to build five youth centers throughout the borough, the prosecutor announced on Monday.

Vance announced the new youth centers along with representatives from more than a dozen local nonprofits and anti-poverty organizations at a press conference in SoHo on Monday. The grants are part of his office's broader initiative to redistribute criminal forfeiture funds from settlements with international banks. In total, Vance distributed $58 million to local organizations on Monday.

The bulk of the money, $45.9 million, will go toward building the five "youth opportunity hubs" throughout Manhattan. Four local hubs will be built to serve neighborhoods in East Harlem, Central and West Harlem, Washington Heights and the Lower East Side, and a fifth hub will be built in SoHo to provide citywide support. Vance touted the hubs as an initiative to connect community providers throughout the borough and to provide new physical spaces for young people in specific Manhattan neighborhoods.

The Door, the youth development nonprofit that hosted Monday's press conference, was awarded up to $6.5 million to build the citywide hub, along with multiple partners. Julie Shapiro, The Door's executive director, said the grant would provide services to more than 1,500 young people from throughout the borough.

"This initiative doesn't start after young people are in trouble," Shapiro said on Monday. "Youth hubs focus on their strengths and on access to opportunity as the best way to help them achieve their goals."

The rest of the money, an additional $12 million, will go to existing organizations throughout Manhattan. In total, 100 organizations will benefit from the investments, according to Vance's office.

Monday's grants are the latest in Vance's Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, launched to use $250 million that Vance's office has seized in financial crime prosecutions.

"Some years ago we had the opportunity to invest in our communities as a result of cases that we brought against foreign banks," Vance explained on Monday. Previous grants from Vance's office have paid for new technology for the NYPD, increased funding for rape kit testing throughout the U.S., and anti-violence efforts in New York City Housing Authority properties. Manhattan borough president Gale Brewer, who joined Vance on Monday, described the redistribution of funds as using "the money from the bad guys" to help poor children and families throughout the borough.

Vance's initiative is part of his office's broader effort to redefine the prosecutor's role in communities, and to focus on preventative work instead of simply arrests and prosecutions.

"Law enforcement has to understand that we're not going to prosecute and arrest our way out of the problems that we have in our society," Vance said on Monday.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy/Patch.