(1) The Office of Violence Prevention and its director shall be administered and supervised, respectively, by the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. Among its responsibilities, the Office of Violence Prevention and its director shall be responsible for developing, fostering, promoting, and assessing violence prevention programs. To accomplish this mission, the duties of the director shall include, but not be limited to, program fundraising, program evaluation, coordination of programs, and assistance with the administration and distribution of funds to violence prevention programs. The office shall file with the Clerk of the Legislature an annual report on or before November 1 of each year regarding its activities to develop, foster, promote, and assess violence prevention programs, the status of program fundraising, evaluation, and coordination, and the administration and distribution of funds to programs. The report shall be submitted electronically.

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(2) The advisory council to the Office of Violence Prevention shall meet at least quarterly. Among its responsibilities, the advisory council shall recommend to the commission rules and regulations regarding program fundraising, program evaluation, coordination of programs, and the criteria used to assess and award funds to violence prevention programs. Priority for funding shall be given to communities and organizations seeking to implement violence prevention programs which appear to have the greatest benefit to the state and which have, as goals, the reduction of street and gang violence, the reduction of homicides and injuries caused by firearms, and the creation of youth employment opportunities in high-crime areas. The duties of the advisory council shall include, but not be limited to, receiving applications for violence prevention funds, evaluating such applications, and making recommendations to the commission regarding the merits of each application and the amount of any funds that should be awarded. If any funds are awarded to a violence prevention program, the advisory council shall continuously monitor how such funds are being used by the program, conduct periodic evaluations of such programs, assess the progress and success regarding the stated goals of each program awarded funds, and recommend to the commission any modification, continuation, or discontinuation of funding.