Congressmen Adam Smith (D-Tacoma) and Jay Inslee (D-Bainbridge Island) announced today that Redmond’s Friends of Youth will receive a $223,538 Economic Development Initiative (EDI) grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Friends of Youth operates a treatment center, the Griffin Home, in Renton, WA, for severely troubled adolescent boys with a history of juvenile offenses or aggressive sexual behavior. The Griffin Home is currently in dire need of repair due to many years of wear and tear.
“As both a policymaker and a parent, I am very excited about today’s EDI grant announcement for Griffin Home,” Smith said. “Based in Renton, Griffin Home is a one-of-a-kind resource for Puget Sound that has successfully changed the lives of thousands of troubled adolescent boys in the region for almost 50 years. Today’s funding, in addition to the $425,000 we successfully secured for them last year, will allow the Friends of Youth to preserve and improve their Renton community-based treatment facility. The services they provide there are critical for our community and for our children in trouble, and I’m pleased to be able to support them once again.”
Said Inslee, “I am very pleased to announce federal funding for an outstanding youth rehabilitation program on the Eastside. I am very impressed with Friends of Youth treatment program for troubled boys. This program is valuable to our community because focusing efforts on potential abusers is probably one of the most effective ways to prevent sexual abuse. More importantly, the services provided by the Griffin Home are scarce, so we must do more to fund this needed treatment in order to make our communities safer. I am proud to announce this EDI grant and look forward to working in Congress to maintain and expand these valuable services.”
Inslee and Smith worked to gain support from other members of the Washington state delegation for this appropriation request. Both made a specific appropriation request on behalf of Friends of Youth last year, and today’s EDI grant announcement is particularly significant given the highly competitive nature of these grants and current fiscal concerns with state and federal budgets.