Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will work to reduce juvenile delinquency and to broaden college access in communities nationwide, thanks to a $1 million grant awarded by the US Department of Justice earlier this month.

The funding supports the fraternity’s national Go-To-High-School, Go-To-College® program, and will target more than 5,000 males age 6-17 in 22 states, including Maryland, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois and California.

“This comprehensive truancy and juvenile delinquency prevention effort offers high school and college readiness training and common sense direction for program participants, providing them with the resources, skills and relationships they need to make positive decisions that help them to become productive members of society,” said Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity executive director and COO, William Douglass Lyle.

Alpha will establish mentoring networks with to help students remain in school and on track for high school graduation, and to promote community safety and college preparation. The fraternity will develop a mobile app to offer resources and support for students participating in the network, and will report to the DOJ as a ‘Category 2’ community outreach initiative to for crime prevention.

Established in 1922, the Alpha Phi Alpha Go-to-High-School, Go-to-College® program concentrates on the importance of completing secondary and collegiate education as a road to advancement, and is the fraternity’s oldest national program.