Pulaski County’s Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative is seeking funding for another year. The county commissioners Monday agreed to let JDAI Coordinator Natalie Federer proceed with her regular grant application.
“JDAI, Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, is a DOC-funded grant, and that’s what pays for my salary, so through Department of Correction,” she explained. “And then the other monies I ask for in here besides my salary all are for programs.” Federer said some of that money would go toward the at-risk youth mentoring program, which is now in its third year, as well as a newly-launched truancy and chronic absence program for middle and high school students.
She explained that the maximum amount the county may ask for this year is just under $70,000. “We’re going into our fourth year,” she said. “That means that my pay gets less and less, as well, but my programming funding can stay the same, and so then, the rest of the funding will support the at-risk youth mentoring program, as well as that truancy program that we’re putting into place right now.”
Federer said the Department of Correction funding ends entirely after year five, but there will be other funding sources available at that point. She added that while her hours with JDAI will decrease, she’ll pick up new duties, as she helps Pulaski County launch its veterans court.
