CONLEY BRINGING $13k IN SEIZED DRUG MONEY TO ROXBURY, CHELSEA YOUTH GROUPS Feb. 28, 2008 Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley yesterday delivered $5,000 in seized drug money to a Roxbury non-profit organization and will deliver two additional checks totaling $8,000 to similar agencies in the coming weeks, all to fund programs that aim to prevent young people from becoming involved in drugs, gangs and violence. In a small ceremony at the Tremont Street headquarters of Sociedad Latina, Conley presented Executive Director Alexandra Oliver-Davila with a check for $5,000 earmarked for the group’s youth outreach programs. On Wednesday, he will deliver a check for $3,000 to a Chelsea non-profit for drug use prevention performances, and on March 12 he will present a $5,000 check to an urban youth workers’ agency. All three events are part of an annual series of grants that present social service agencies with cash and assets seized from drug traffickers in the course of Suffolk County narcotics investigations. “These funds go directly into the very communities that drug dealers once called their own,” Conley said. “Safe, healthy, drug-free neighborhoods can flourish right here at home if we work together toward that common goal.” Yesterday’s presentation was held at the group’s Mission Hill offices. For the past 40 years, Sociedad Latina has been serving Boston’s Latino community to provide young people with programs that help them build leadership skills, obtain employment, and become active in the community while maintaining their cultural identities and traditions. This year, Conley’s funding will go toward their Neighborhood Outreach for Inner Street Empowerment (NOISE) – a program that brings kids and teens from various Mission Hill housing developments, youth organizations, and schools together with Boston Police officers from the District 2 station to address issues of community safety, enhance communication between youth and officers, and increase opportunities for young adults to participate actively in preventing violence. On March 5, Conley will deliver another grant award to The Improbable Players during an afternoon ceremony at the Clark Avenue Middle School in Chelsea. This educational performance troupe will use the money to fund their performances, workshops, and post-show discussions geared toward substance abuse education and prevention in middle and high schools in Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. One weeklater, Conley will meet with leaders of the South End/Lower Roxbury Youth Workers Alliance to deliver a $5,000 check to fund after school programs, basketball leagues, and academic tutoring throughout the neighborhoods of Boston’s South End and Lower Roxbury. A total of 14 Boston-area non-profits will receive a share of $50,000 in seized drug money from Conley’s Asset Forfeiture Reinvestment Program this year. The program, now in its 16th year, returns cash and assets seized in drug prosecutions to youth groups and service agencies in the communities whence they came. This year’s grants total $32,500 more than was allocated in the first round of grants in 1992. Return to the Press Releases page.