Federal grants for juveniles in crisis

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to juvenile delinquency and victimization. OJJDP supports states and communities in their efforts to develop and implement effective and coordinated prevention and intervention programs and to improve the juvenile-justice system so that it protects public safety, holds offenders accountable, and provides treatment and rehabilitative services tailored to the needs of juveniles and their families. To accomplish its mission the OJJDP provides both formula and discretionary grants.

• The OJJDP’s proposed grant spending plan was published in the Federal Register (January 12, 2011 page 2135) FY 2011 Proposed Program Plan.

The plan provides an overview of the intended funding for the youth of our nation. (Keep in mind that this is a proposed plan) Now is a good time to begin to evaluate these proposed programs to determine which programs will fit your 2011/2012 departmental needs for youth related grant funded programming. Law enforcement is a key partner in many activities and programs related to youth; usually requiring active and on-going partnerships with community organizations. These programs may be implemented to address needs such as violence prevention, underage drinking, gangs, internet crimes against children etc.

Begin preparation for OJJDP grant funding now so that you will be ready for the grant funding announcement when it is published.

Gather and analyze youth data for your community. OJJDP posts a Statistical Briefing Book where you can review the Annual Bulletin on Juvenile Arrests enabling you to compare your local data with national statistics. A data analysis tool is available to locate population data, law enforcement data, juvenile court data as well as corrections and juvenile reentry and aftercare data. The Compendium of National Juvenile Data Sets is an online resource intended as an aid to investigations of juvenile offending, victimizations and contact with the juvenile system. It publicizes valuable data sources and provides information to help with the practical aspects of obtaining and analyzing data.

Prepare for Performance Measures. As with all grants in which programs deal directly with people, you will be asked to fulfill annual grant performance measures. Fortunately, the OJJDP provides helpful resources, training and online assistance with the development and reporting of the performance measurements process for each grant. Performance measurement is a system of tracking the progress of the activities identified in the grant goals, objectives and outcomes. These measures are indicators which you will use to determine if your grant program is providing benefits to the youth your grant is working to assist. Click here for more information.

Update all current grant work: If you are already working on a current grant under the OJJDP, make sure you and your partners are up-to-date with all of the required reports and financial statements. Assure that all required data has been uploaded to the online performance reporting tool (DCTAT). As a team you and your partners can begin to evaluate (or take a snapshot of your youth data) to see what is working, what is getting better and what still needs to be addressed. To assist you with this process, performance measures by program may be found here.

Begin research for future funding: Sample proposed grant funding for OJJDP FY 2011/2012 which begins October 1, 2011 are listed below. This is not an exhaustive list. For a complete list go to FY 2011 Proposed Program Plan.

• Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation
• Child Protection Programs in Tribal Communities
• National Mentoring Initiative
• Family Drug Court Programs
• Juvenile Drug Court Mentoring Programs
• Juvenile Drug Court Programs
• Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws
• Mentoring for Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiatives
• Children’s Advocacy Centers
• Child Exploitation
• ICAC Commercial Child Sexual Exploitation
• ICAC Deconfliction System
• National Gang Center

The OJJDP is still has some 2010/2011 open grant opportunities due in March and April of 2011. Please do not confuse these with the list above. For current funding opportunities go here.

OJJDP is but one federal funding partner in the work to protect our youth. The US Department of Education, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Department for Children, Youth and Families provide federal grant funding for youth related programs. Many of these grants will also require law enforcement partners. We will provide further information on those funding opportunities in future articles.