Funding Opportunities for Your Community in 2023: An Overview of What's Ahead

Transcript also available as a PDF

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar, “Funding Opportunities for Your Community in 2023: An Overview of What Is Ahead,” hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. At this time, it’s my pleasure to introduce Courtney Stewart, Senior Policy Advisor with the Bureau of Justice Assistance, for some welcoming remarks and to begin the presentation. Courtney?
COURTNEY STEWART: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Courtney Stewart and I am a policy advisor for BJA. I’m happy to be here with you along with my colleague David Lewis, and we will be hosting our webinar today. Our agenda today explains funding opportunities available to you through BJA, and it also gives you an opportunity for questions and answers.
First, we’ll start off with a small overview of the Office of Justice Programs. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is located within the Office of Justice Programs, or OJP. OJP provides a wide range of services to the criminal justice community in the form of grants, trainings, technical assistance, and research. Although our focus today is on BJA funding opportunities, there are other OJP offices shown on this slide that offer additional grants and programs to support our shared public safety missions. The COPS Office and the Office for Violence Against Women are two of the other DOJ components that provide important resources for the criminal justice community.
BJA is proud to support our nation’s state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies with the express purpose of reducing crime and strengthening communities. One of the most important ways that we do this is by providing grants to agencies and communities in order to support local efforts. We do our best to design programs that are responsive to real-world challenges and provide maximum flexibility for local implementation. BJA is committed to streamlining the application process and minimizing the administrative burden of managing our grant. We have made real progress in recent years in these areas, and it has never been easier to apply for and manage a BJA grant. Please remember to review and apply for your grant as early as possible. We have the support to help you succeed, and it’s important to utilize all the time that you have to prepare for your grant.
The next slide shows a photo of our new BJA Director, Mr. Karhlton Moore. He was appointed by President Biden in February 2022 and he oversees the four offices within BJA.
Within BJA, we have five major strategic focus areas, which you can see on the slide.
Also, BJA strives to fund, educate, equip, and partner with you in order to facilitate grants within our communities.
There are two types of BJA grants that you are eligible to apply for—the discretionary grants, in which applicants apply directly to OJP and BJA, and formula grants are most often noncompetitive—on a noncompetitive basis. Please be sure that you are applying
for the right type of grant.
We will start our presentation with grants related to programs that support behavioral health and community-based criminal justice initiatives.
The first grant in this category is the COSSUP grant. For those of you who have formerly written BJA grants, you might know COSSUP to be formerly COSSAP. We have changed the name, so, please be aware that COSSAP is now COSSUP. This grant focuses on supporting effective local, state, and tribal responses to illicit substance use and substance use disorders in order to reduce overdose deaths, promote public safety, and support access to treatment and recovery services throughout the criminal justice system.
Our next slide will show the nine focus areas that you can apply for COSSUP funding for, and depending on your community needs, the average amount for this program is $1 million.
And our next slide shows the fiscal year 2023 COSSUP opportunities.
Our next slide is the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. This program seeks to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among criminal justice, mental health, and substance use treatment entities. The average award amount for this program is $550,000, and example projects include but are not limited to mental health, court, or other court-based programs, and programs that support cooperative efforts by public safety officials and service providers to connect individuals with treatment and social services.
Our next program is the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. This has been funded since 2006. And the goal of this program is to invest in partnership with state prescription drug monitoring programs and strategies to strengthen the system and support enhancements that improve clinical decision-making and prevent the abuse and diversion of controlled substances.
Our next program is the STOP School Violence Training and Technical Assistance Program. Please keep in mind this is a training and technical assistance solicitation, so if you are a training and technical assistance provider, this may be something that you would be interested in. The STOP School Violence Program provides funding to support threat assessments, mental health training, anti-bullying training, and technology solutions such as anonymous reporting systems. The Training and Technical Assistance Program will, in fiscal year 2023, will give one award in the amount of $8 million. And that will provide training and technical assistance for all STOP programs across the country.
The next program that we will talk about is the Kevin and Avonte Program: Reducing Injury and Death of Missing Individuals with Dementia and Developmental Disabilities. This program supports local jurisdictions’ efforts to reduce the number of deaths and
injuries of individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s, or developmental disabilities, such as autism.
The next program is the Connect and Protect program. Fiscal year 2023 opportunities will be for up to 30 awards at $550,000 average per award, and this program [is] focused on building and implementing collaborative law enforcement and mental health responses, such as co-responder teams, crisis intervention teams, and integrated community providers. This program supports public safety and health partnerships with social services and other organizations that will improve responses to people with mental health disabilities and co-occurring diseases.
Our next program is the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation. This program seeks to improve public safety and victim services in tribal communities. The solicitation provides federally recognized tribes and tribal consortia with an opportunity to apply for funds to aid in developing a comprehensive and coordinated approach to public safety and victimization. The average number of awards for this year will be 40 to 50 awards.
Our next program is Reimagining Justice: Testing a New Model of Community Safety. This year, we will award up to five awards for $1 million to support the development and testing of new or innovative approaches that improve community safety and trust using alternatives to traditional enforcement mechanisms.
Our next program is Field Initiated: Encouraging Innovation. This program invests in collaborations with the field to prevent and reduce crime and enhance the criminal justice system through innovative approaches that accelerate justice. We have two categories for this award. We will provide up to 10 awards this year for up to $1 million.
The National Center on Restorative Justice will continue to expand activities of the National Center on Restorative Justice. For fiscal year 2023, the number of awards will be one award for up to $3 million.
Our next program is the Tribal Training and Technical Assistance Program, and again, if you are a training and technical assistance provider, this may be a program that you’re interested in. For our fiscal year, there will be seven training and technical assistance awards, and the average award will be $1,800,000.
Our next program is Improving Adult and Youth Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry. For fiscal year ’23, there would be up to 10 awards, and the average amount of each award would be up to $750,000, and programs funded under this solicitation must make sure—I’m sorry, this program will support state, local, and tribal governments as well as community-based nonprofit organizations and eligible behavioral health providers to coordinate and provide comprehensive treatment, recovery, and other supportive reentry services to people experiencing mental health, substance use, or co-occurring disorders who are currently or were formerly involved in the justice system.
And the last award under this category is the Price of Justice: Rethinking Fines and
Fees. This program will fund training and technical assistance to help localities reduce the reliance on fines and fees, reduce the impact of fines and fees, and reduce jailing as a result of fines and fees within the community. There will be one award up to $2,500,000. Now I would like to turn the slide show over to my colleague David, who will continue our conversation with programs that support law enforcement.
DAVID P. LEWIS: Thank you, Courtney. This is David Lewis. I’m a Senior Policy Advisor for the Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Law Enforcement Operations section. The slides I’m going to go over now are ones dealing specifically with getting information for law enforcement and correctional facilities.
The first one we’ll talk about is the Body-Worn Camera program, and this is a purchase or lease program, and it’s designed for deployment either as a pilot, full implementation, or an expansion of an existing program. The goals of this program are officer safety, enhance evidentiary value, accountability, transparency, and mutual trust. Note that there are very specific guidelines for this program, to include policy approvals, restrictions, and how funds can be spent, and agency size. Those interested agencies need to read this solicitation very carefully and ask the appropriate questions.
Next, we’ll talk about the Collaborative Crisis Response Training Program, and this is a training initiative for law enforcement and correctional officers. The goals of this program are to educate these officers so they can interact [with] individuals with behavioral health conditions or disability. The application should reflect a best practices program, development methodology, evaluation, and most importantly, how the program will be sustained. The average amount of these awards will be $250,000.
The next program is the Virtual Reality De-escalation Training. This is a law enforcement training-focused program utilizing virtual reality technology. The proposed application should allow for multiple participants in this training. The goal is to improve law enforcement responses to individuals in crisis. The awards under this program are up to $800,000.
Next, we’ll talk about the Smart Policing Initiative Demonstration Program. The focus of this program is to identify pressing crime issues. The successful candidates will need to show the use of promising practices, data collection, and use of technology to respond to the identified crimes. Documentation of the crime issues in the application process have to be supported by data and will be beneficial in the application review. This program will prioritize applications being submitted to support real-time crime centers, especially those with documented violent crime and gun rates. Awards under this section would be up to $375,000.
Next, we’ll talk about the Crime Gun Intelligence Center Integration Initiative, or we call it the CGIC program. This is a collaborative program with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The required caveat for this program is that the applicant must show a precipitous increase in gun-related violent crimes. The goal is to have agencies work with the ATF utilizing intelligence, technology, and community
engagement, and not only identify these crimes but also prosecute the perpetrators. The awards under this section are up to $700,000.
The next program, this is a TA program, a training and technical assistance program, under the Internet of Things. This is limited applications for institutions of higher learning. The value to law enforcement and public safety agencies is that successful applicants under this program will be required to provide training on Internet of Things to state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies, both online and in person. The program is especially interested in educating prosecutors and judges along with law enforcement. No applications under this program will be accepted from individual agencies.
Next, we’ll talk about the Intellectual Property Enforcement Program. This program is designed to assist state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement and public safety agencies to investigate and prosecute intellectual property crimes. This also includes the education of community on what intellectual property crimes are, how to report, and how not to be a victim. This is a requirement for successful candidates to work with federal agencies that are also working on intellectual property crimes. Funds can be used for staff, storage of evidence, and task force operations. Awards will be up to $250,000.
Next, we’ll talk about the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which [is] also called SAKI. This program is specifically focused on assisting agencies with the inventory, testing, and tracking of sexual assault kits. The goal is to improve the practices related to investigations, prosecution, and victim engagement. There’s also a multidisciplinary approach for policy efforts. The intention is also to make necessary training readily available to the field. Awards under this section can be up to $1.2 million.
Next, we’ll talk about the Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program. This program is specifically targeted for medical examiners’ and coroners’ offices. The goal is to improve the quality and timeliness of forensic science being used by these offices. There are two award elements under this program. There’s a competitive award section and a formula award section, and under the formula awards, this is limited to states and territories who will be identified as potential award recipients.
Next, we’ll talk about the Postconviction Testing of DNA Evidence. The focus of this program is postconviction DNA testing. These applicants are limited to states; units of government, namely, cities, boroughs, townships, parishes, and counties; and institutions of higher learning. The goal is to assist with the cost of postconviction processing where it may show actual innocence. Awards in this section would be up to $750,000.
Next, we’ll talk about Prosecuting Cold Cases Using DNA. This program specifically provides funding to prosecute cold cases utilizing DNA. This is focused on prosecution elements of violent cold cases, and note that it’s violent cold cases. The program does provide assistance for prosecuting agencies to increase their capacity to address violent cold cases, and what they need to articulate in the application, specifically the cold
case. These awards are up to $500,000.
Next one is Strengthening the Medical Examiner-Coroner System Program. This is another program focused on medical examiners’ and coroners’ offices. The goal is to increase the number of board-certified forensic pathologists, strengthen quality and consistency of their services, and to increase the public trust. Awards under this program are up to $100,000. With that, I will turn it over to my colleague Courtney.
COURTNEY STEWART: Thank you, David. Next, we will talk about the programs that support courts, prosecution, and defense. The first program that we’ll discuss is the Emmett Till Cold Case Investigations Program. The purpose of this program is to support the investigation and prosecution of racially motivated cold case murders, and including support for victims’ families and stakeholders impacted by these cases. Funds are limited to cases where deaths occurred prior to 1980, and there will be three awards for fiscal year 2023, and the average award will be $750,000.
The Innovative Prosecution Solutions (IPS) for Combatting Violent Crime, also known as Smart Prosecution, is designed to support prosecutors’ offices to reduce caseloads, improve processes, and provide modern technology to better manage and track cases. The Smart Prosecution program will have up to 13 awards this year. Average amount will be $385,000, and there’s also a Training and Technical Assistance opportunity, one award at $500,000.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program supports state, local, and tribal law enforcement and prosecution agencies in their outreach and education of the public, victims, and their staff and partners about hate crimes. There will be 13 awards for fiscal year 2023. Average award will be up to $4 million.
The goal of the John R. Justice Grant Program is to offer an incentive for all states and territories to be able to attract, recruit, and retain talented and eligible local, state, and federal public defenders. This slide—I’m sorry, this slide should say fiscal year 2023, but the 2023 opportunities will be up to $35,147 for 56 awards.
The next program is the Community Courts Program. The goal is to encourage the successful replication of the community court model and the application of a community court program within the wider community. Any jurisdictions who are awarded grants under the Community Courts Program will be provided with training and opportunities to enhance and start a community courts program. The number of awards for fiscal year 2023 is 10. The average award amount is up to $900,000.
The Adult Drug Court Program supports efforts by state, local, and tribal courts to address the needs of individuals in the criminal justice system with substance use issues, including targeting the needs of adults, and there are also juvenile programs. For fiscal year 2023, the estimated number of awards are 42, and there are three categories for those awards.
In addition to the Adult Drug Court Grant Program, we also have the Adult Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Initiative, so if you’re a TA provider, you will be eligible to apply for this funding. The estimated number of awards will be five. The estimated award amount will be up to $2 million.
The Veterans Treatment Court Program targets the needs of veterans who are in the criminal justice system and have substance abuse issues. In fiscal year 2023, we have 22 awards that will be given in three categories.
The Upholding the Rule of Law and Preventing Wrongful Convictions Program provides funding to support case reviews and postconviction claims of innocence with a focus on those cases at greater risk for error. In fiscal year 2023, there will be 16 awards, up to $600,000 per award.
The Capital Case Litigation Program will have one award this year, up to $1 million, and this program helps protect the integrity of the criminal justice system by providing effective training programs, resources, and tools for state and local prosecutors and defense attorneys to build their capacity as capital litigators and ensure effective representation in state capital cases, and this includes judges. One award for up to $1 million.
And then our final category is programs that support corrections, and I will turn it over to David to finish us up in this last category.
DAVID P. LEWIS: Thank you, Courtney. The next program I’ll talk about today is our Prison Rape Elimination Act, which is under our PREA. This is for our Resource Center. Again, this is one of our TTA award programs, and applicants are limited to service providers. This program is designed to provide resources and information about successes under the PREA program. The goal for this program is to assess state, local, and tribal agencies and facilities with PREA implementations, training, and technical assistance for BJA-funded PREA sites.
Next program is the Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Program. Applicants for this program are nonprofit service providers and tribes, and the goal is to partner with corrections to provide critical transitional services for offenders. A key element of this program is the building of partnerships with corrections, parole, probation, and other reentry services. Awards under this program are up to $750,000.
The next program, Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes Program. This program also builds on partnerships with corrections, parole, probation, and other reentry providers. The goal is to expand education and employment programs, and reduce recidivism. Applicants can apply for funding for this to establish and improve academic, vocational, and career programs for prisons and jails. Awards under this program are up to $900,000.
Next, let’s talk about Improving Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery
Outcomes for Adults in Reentry. This program is designed for correctional systems. The goal is to address substance use disorder for those individuals incarcerated and in a reentry process. The applicant should show how the program will reduce recidivism and promote recovery with the intent to improve public safety and public health. Awards under this program are up to $900,000.
Next program is Smart Reentry: Innovations for Jails. This is a reentry program and it’s designed for local jurisdictions. The goal is to assess, identify strengths and gaps, and build capacity for improvement. This program also supports the implementation and expansion of service delivery with community-based providers. Awards under this program are up to $1 million.
Next is our Second Chance Act Pay for Success Initiative. This program is for state, local, tribal government entities, and the goal is to enhance or implement specific contracts with housing providers to reduce recidivism and address substance use disorders for the formerly incarcerated. Awards under this program are up to $1 million.
The next program is our Swift, Certain, and Fair Supervision Program: Applying the Principles Behind Project HOPE. The applicants for this program will be community supervision agencies. The goal is to reduce crimes committed and improve outcomes, by using swift, certain, and fair principles of intervention. These activities include but are not limited to drug and alcohol screening, training, treatment, staffing, and overtime. Awards under this program are up to $800,000.
The next section that I’m going to talk about here are our formula programs, and these formula programs are ones that the guidelines are set up. They’re not individual applications but there are some certain different ones, and we’ll talk about them here.
The first is the DNA Capacity Enhancement for Backlog Reduction Program, or CEBR. This is a formula program for states and local governments with existing crime labs. The goal is to increase capacity to process more DNA samples in an effort to reduce and prevent backlogs. Awards under this program are up to $500,000.
Our next program is Project Safe Neighborhoods. This program is specifically designed to reduce crime associated with gang and gun violence. These funds are distributed through the U.S. Attorney's Office to state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies. Awards under this program or up to $190,000.
Next program is our Residential Substance Abuse Treatment for State Prisoners Program, or RSAT. This program is for states and local governments to develop and implement substance treatment programs for state, local, tribal correctional and detention locations. Funds can be used for aftercare services. Awards under this program are up to $724,218.
Our next program is the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, or JAG. You’ll see here these are a list of all the different areas where people can apply for
this money. Again, this is a formula program. It is estimated that approximately $95 million will go to local JAG programs and $195 million will go to the state JAG program, and those funds that go to the state JAG program are usually available to state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies within that area. Next.
The next is the Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Program, and this is a reimbursable program, and this particular program is to [provide] reimbursement for bullet-resistant vests. Allocations go first for areas that have 100,000 residents in population. The estimated funding under this program is $25 million.
Next is the State Criminal Alien Assistance Payment Program, which is the SCAAP Program. This is for state and local governments for costs related to the incarceration of undocumented criminal aliens. This is a reimbursement program, also, and the estimated funding total for this is $234 million.
The next program that I'm going to talk about is Payments Program, and these are some other types of assistance that the Bureau of Justice Assistance does make available to the field, and these particular payments are awarded directly by OJP to eligible applicants, and they do have to make some application to OJP BJA, and then it is on a reimbursement basis.
Next, just want to talk about that when we do our solicitations that we're looking at, many of these applications and these solicitations that you'll see out there will be posted on the BJA website in February and March. The submission deadlines are usually 60 days after it's open, and one of the things that'd be important to point out to you is that we now use a two-step process, and there are separate deadlines for each of them. First is making application to Grants.gov, and second is making the application to our JustGrants System. So it's very important when you look at the solicitation to make sure that you notice both of the deadline dates because if you miss the first deadline date, you're not able to make that application to JustGrants. The other thing that I would let you know is it's very important that when you see a solicitation out there posted for BJA that if you have questions that you ask them. You should never assume that you think you know what we're looking for, but that's what we're here to do, to assist you in the best way that we can.
The next slide, we talk about resources for funding opportunities, and this is actually a link that will be made available to you, and it's a tool to help you look at funding opportunities, the categories that we're in, and summary details on some of the things that not only BJA but other DOJ agencies have available for you in the field as a state, local, tribal, or territorial agency.
Finally, you'll see this slide here is our Resources for Funding Opportunities. We have the BJA website, the OJP, which is the overseeing one of everything. Grants.gov, and this is something that if you're looking for awards out there that you should go to Grants.gov, be very familiar of it. Also, we can get questions answered about our JustGrants program, and then you also have on this award data one, this talks about—if
you're looking for something that's a program in FY23. And as you go back and look at maybe some of the previous awardees that got that money in FY22, FY21, and look at some of the applications and what kind of programs that were actually funded previously under that type of award, and the last one in this list is our NIJ CrimeSolutions link.
We also have—these recordings and everything are available at this particular location. They will be made available within the next period of time, I think, within a few days. Available, and the way BJA and OJP—we use a peer review process. If you have some expertise and you'd like to be a peer reviewer, this is reimbursed. You do get payment to be a peer reviewer for us, and we urge you to come in to BJA and be a peer reviewer in our process. We'll also talk about the webinar series that we have and you'll see here that the next one's listed for Thursday, February 9, at 10:30 a.m., and you should plan on joining and being there. The more information you can get about the funding process at the federal level, the better chance you have of being a successful applicant.
Here are some of—the next one talks about where we make information available. OJP and BJA make announcements on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We also talk about our OJP Response Center, and this has the current links and phone numbers to ask the questions. You can subscribe to this service, but I will tell you right now—and I said this already—that if you're reading a solicitation by BJA or one of our sister agencies at OJP, if you have a question, you need to ask us about it and never assume you think you know what we're asking for. Sometimes that clarification can be whether or not you are a successful grantee at the Bureau of Justice Assistance. With that, Daryl, I will turn it back over to you.
DARYL FOX: Great. Thanks so much, David. Thanks so much, Courtney. A lot of information to get to there, and I just want to remind everybody—we talked about earlier in the webinar and throughout, a lot of questions. The PowerPoint recording and transcript for today's webinar will be made available for you to go back and reference, so what we'll do is when we do post those to the BJA website, you'll be emailed. We're going to be emailing the links through the registration list today, and you'll have direct links to those when those are available. So for the rest of the time we have today, we'll go ahead and take questions for the panelists, and what you can do is enter those into the Q&A box, sent to all panelists, and you'll get them in queue, and we'll go through those the next 15 or so minutes. So for the panel, regarding JMHCP, are programs focused on serving juveniles eligible for that program? And your lines may be muted.
DAVID P. LEWIS: Courtney, are you able to answer that one?
COURTNEY STEWART: Yes, I was just going back to review the slide. It was for the JMHCP. That is that correct?
DARYL FOX: Correct.
COURTNEY STEWART: Yes. What I would do for this one, if you look on the solicitation once it comes out, I would contact the program manager, and that person should be able to tell you whether or not you can apply this to the juvenile justice system. So when you review your solicitation, it's very early in the solicitation, maybe on the second or third page, you will find the contact information of the program manager, and they will be able to give you all of the specifics. You can email, or you can call that individual. So that's what I would do in this case just to be 100% sure.
DARYL FOX: With the COSSUP Program, can applicants apply for continuation funding?
COURTNEY STEWART: Yes, applicants can apply for continuation funding with the COSSUP Program.
DARYL FOX: Then, realizing it's solicitation specific, but generally are institutions of higher education eligible for BJA solicitations either as a prime awardee or sub-awardee partner?
DAVID P. LEWIS: Usually, if you go to the eligibility section of any solicitation, it will specifically state whether or not institutions of higher learning are allowed to apply directly, but in many of the cases, institutions of higher learning are sub-recipients to many of our other awards.
DARYL FOX: If a solicitation has multiple categories within it, can an organization or entity be the lead grantee in one category and a sub-grantee of another?
COURTNEY STEWART: You can be a lead grantee. I'm sorry, David. I didn't mean to—
DAVID P. STEWART: No. Go ahead, Courtney.
COURTNEY STEWART: —cross in front of you. Yes, you can be in both categories. You can apply as a lead grantee and then as a sub-grantee if they're going to be separate categories. Yes, you can do that.
DAVID P. STEWART: Yeah, and I would just add that we've had a few programs over the years—I don't know any currently, but sometimes there are some restrictions, and it will be very clearly stated in the solicitation if there are any restrictions on that. That's why I can't stress enough the importance of reading the entire solicitation and reading it very carefully.
DARYL FOX: Regarding COSSUP again, can one entity apply for a new grant if their current grant ends September 24?
COURTNEY STEWART: I would say in regards to COSSUP, again, as David stated, I would contact the program manager who was listed on the solicitation, and they should be able to review your current grant, and they'll be able to review the eligibility based on
you already receiving those grant funds and let you know if you are eligible to apply for new funding.
DARYL FOX: Can law enforcement agencies apply for a co-responder program under JMHCP?
COURTNEY STEWART: Could you repeat that, please? I'm just looking for the slide really quick so that I can review it.
DARYL FOX: Yeah, and if you get it, I can go back to that, too, Courtney, but the question is, can law enforcement agencies apply for a co-responder program under the JMHCP program?
COURTNEY STEWART: For co-responder, what would be with the co-responder? Would it be a mental health responder that works along with law enforcement? If they could just provide a little bit more information.
DAVID P. LEWIS: If I can just jump in here real quick, Courtney, I think in remembering this that it's supposed to be cross-system collaboration, so if the application is—and I'll echo what you've said before, the importance of calling, asking the question very specifically to make sure that, you know, you don't make application and you're outside the scope, that's the first thing. The second one is, in this particular program it does specifically state cross-system collaboration.
DARYL FOX: Great. Thanks for that clarification, David, and I'll actually go back to what was asked several times regarding the COSSUP Program. For specific questions regarding contacting the program manager—actually, if you want, most all questions can be referred to the OJP Response Center. I'll go back to that slide right now, and this has been entered in the chat for you to cut and paste as you like, but if you do have specific questions about the solicitations or anything current, you can contact them directly, and they'll be able to assist you in a timely manner, so I'll just leave this slide up. Is Connect and Protect also only for community programs, or can it be within prisons, as well?
DAVID P. LEWIS: Daryl, I have that is slide 21. You want to put that back up there?
DARYL FOX: And then here, yeah, here's slide 21, more information on it.
DAVID P. LEWIS: If you read this, it looks like it says law enforcement focus, but again, you have to look at the solicitation because sometimes it provides a clear definition of what's considered law enforcement.
DARYL FOX: Regarding the virtual reality de-escalation training, is that only for law enforcement, or is corrections included with that at all?
DAVID P. LEWIS: Check. I think that's the one I responded on. Let me just—I'm trying to take a look.
DARYL FOX: Yeah. Slide 32, David, and I put it up as well.
DAVID P. LEWIS: OK. Yeah. I don't see a restriction on that, but again, once the solicitation comes out, I know a lot of times it has certain limitations to it, but once you take a look at that, once the solicitation's out there, I know we're having a lot of cross-reference between law enforcement and correction officers, so I would wait for the solicitation to go out there, and then if you have any additional questions, please contact us here at BJA.
DARYL FOX: And then just a general question on where these opportunities can be found. The solicitations will be posted to the BJA funding section. We'll put that in the chat. Everything is going to be listed there with the due dates for both Grants.gov and JustGrants, which David mentioned at the end of the presentation, two separate due dates, and you definitely have to make the first one to be able to apply and meet the second one. We'll go ahead and put that in the link.
DAVID P. LEWIS: They will also be—they're always listed on the Grants.gov site. If you go to Grants.gov, there are 26 federal agencies that post funding on there, and you can actually put key words on there where they'll make notification to you when it's posted, but you also can subscribe to notifications on the BJA website for when we post a new solicitation.
DARYL FOX: Can SAKI funds be used to continue the support of a state sexual assault evidence kit tracking database, which includes funding for technical support and additional customizations of an existing database?
DAVID P. LEWIS: The funds, from my understanding, for that particular program are specifically for the processing of the kits, but if you send that question to the Resource Center—I'll ask the question, and we'll get a specific answer for that, but my understanding is it's for the processing of the kit itself.
DARYL FOX: And then, Courtney and David, just generally as far as expectation of releasing all these, is there a general statement or guideline that can be mentioned as far as anticipation of release dates for these?
COURTNEY STEWART: The best thing to do is to continue to check the BJA site under funding because they are being released on a daily basis. We're working very diligently to get them out as quickly as possible, so I would check every day. I would go ahead and check because a lot of the fiscal year '23 solicitations are already out.
DARYL FOX: And a reminder, as well, the webinar Thursday at 10:30 a.m. will answer many questions, as well, you all have from today's session. It will get a little more in depth on the process, how to apply, things to have prepared and ready, so I would
definitely encourage everybody on today's webinar to register for that. That one will also be made available on the website once that's concluded. Then this question. Can you apply for more than one opportunity at any given time?
COURTNEY STEWART: Yes, you can apply for more than one opportunity at a time. Absolutely.
DAVID P. LEWIS: The only restrictions you have on that is in some of our solicitations they ask if you have applied for any additional funds in a similar program. For example, they might have applied with BJA or maybe have issued a COPS grant or something with DHS under FEMA. That's the only kind of caveat that we ask sometimes to ensure that we're not doing duplication of funding.
DARYL FOX: Regarding the Improving Reentry, Education, and Employment solicitation, are applicants able to apply for both tracks, under Education and Employment for that one?
DAVID P. LEWIS: I'm not directly responsible for that one, but I don't believe they're separate tracks. I believe they're examples of programs. So you would articulate that in your application on how you were attempting to use the funds requested.
DARYL FOX: Then generally regarding the peer-review process, I wonder if you could speak to that a little bit. Are there separate review panels for each section of the applications? Are reviewers, you know, switched out or different for each funding year cycle?
DAVID P. LEWIS: We use peer review panels. What we do is we identify peer review panels. We like to use new reviewers as we go from year to year when we can, but in a solicitation where there may be multiple categories, each category will have its own peer review panel, but it also depends on how many applications come in. For example, we usually don't ask a peer reviewer to do maybe more than between 10 and 15 applications, and that's a high end, but sometimes where we have a low number of applications come in, where there are multiple panels, and the peer reviewers have that expertise for each of the categories, we might have them review for each category. I would say each of these vary from program to program. Courtney, do you have anything to add on that?
COURTNEY STEWART: No. I think that's correct. Thank you for your answer.
DARYL FOX: And somebody did ask for this slide to be put up with the email address here, [email protected]. Will there be another round of funding for BJA's Stop School Violence Program, not the technical assistance grant program?
DAVID P. STEWART: I believe that program will have an FY23. I don't know if it was posted yet this year, but I know there's funding for FY23.
DARYL FOX: And for this CGIC program—if you can alert me to what that stood for again, I can go to that slide—is there a minimum threshold for what you would consider a precipitous increase for that grant? Is there a certain...
DAVID P. STEWART: Yeah. The way we look at precipitous increase, what you have to do is look over a year's period, over a two-year period usually, and you submit those statistics for that particular area over that period of time, and then they take a look at, you know—because the other thing, too, is one of the things we found out over the years is a precipitous increase for a particular area is different than maybe a larger area where they have higher crime numbers. So what they do is they do an evaluation based on a case-by-case basis, but you do have to submit the documentation on those particular increases, specifically on violent crime and gun crime.
DARYL FOX: David, regarding BWC, body-worn camera. Prosecutor's office in a large metro area. They process a large volume of body-worn camera video for evidence presentation. Are prosecutors' offices eligible to apply for that? Is that strictly law enforcement? And basically, from the angle of processing the video and the technology.
DAVID P. STEWART: It's a body worn camera program, so if you had investigators where they were going to wear body-worn cameras, that's what the program is for. There are some subsections. Again, you have to look at the categories that are listed in the solicitation, and they'll tell you specifically what it can be used for, and then you look up under the eligibility section, and it will specifically tell you who may apply for that particular funding and under which categories.
DARYL FOX: And, David, this one, it's a yearly question and a valid one. Will there be funding for drones within correctional facilities either now or in the future?
DAVID P. LEWIS: As of right now, there is a restriction by the Department of Justice that unmanned aerial devices are not permitted to use federal funding out of DOJ. That paragraph and that restriction is in every one of our solicitations currently.
DARYL FOX: Great. Thank you. So we're at time here, Courtney, David. I don't know if there's anything in sum that you wanted to mention to the audience today before we wrap up.
DAVID P. LEWIS: Courtney, I'll let you go first.
COURTNEY STEWART: I just wanted to say I'm excited to see so many people in the webinar interested in applying for the different grants, and just please be sure to read your solicitation, email or call the solicitation manager, and also just seek out all of the information that you can. We are here to help. We will. If we don't have the answer, we will assist you with getting the answer, but each program has a specific program manager, and they are really helpful in helping you to get down to the details and to ensure that you are eligible to apply. So please take advantage of that.
DAVID P. LEWIS: I would just like to echo what my colleague Courtney had said, it's so important to read the solicitation, and I mean the entire solicitation. The other thing is you should make a checklist for yourself on the required elements for submitting an application, and that's very important because some applications require letters of intent or memorandums of understanding with other partners. The other thing, too, is to be very clear on the items that you're requesting and that if you have a sub-recipient in your award that they're eligible to be part of that particular award, and it's just so, so important that you prepare your application and not wait till the last minute to submit because sometimes when you have a large number of applicants trying to submit at the same time and you get to that deadline, for some reason, you may not be able to get into the system. So if you're looking at any funding, please think early, start your drafts early, ask your questions, and then submit early. Thank you.
COURTNEY STEWART: I just have one last thing. Also, if you continue to check the BJA site under funding and resources, we are in the process of uploading sample Project Narratives that will be very useful when you are developing yours. So please be sure to continue to check for those.
DARYL FOX: Yeah, thank you both, and that's a great segue to once again Thursday's webinar on the funding process. We're going to get into a lot of the how-to, so definitely something of interest as far as how to get items ready and prepared and submitted in time. Once again, everything will be posted through BJA’s website. You'll receive an email when those are posted, and you'll be able to access this PowerPoint and recording directly from there. So with that, on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and our panelists, we want to thank you for joining today's webinar. This will end today's presentation.