FY 2022 Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program

ANDRE BETHEA: Hello, and welcome to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, better known as BJA, funding opportunity webinar for Fiscal Year 2022 Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program. Again, Fiscal Year 2022 Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program.
Today, I am the sole presenter. I am Andre Bethea, a policy advisor here within the Corrections, Reentry, and Justice Reform Team at the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the U.S. Department of Justice.
Today's agenda, we'll have just a brief overview and then we will unpack the Fiscal Year 2022 Second Chance Act Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program. Then we will talk about Fiscal Year 2022 resources available for grant applicants. Again, all Second Chance Act solicitations are available on the BJA.ojp.gov website.
So let's dig in into the overview. What is the Office of Justice Programs, or better known as OJP? OJP provides grant funding, training, research, and statistics to the criminal justice community. OJP is one of three grantmaking components of the Department of Justice, along with the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). So within the Office of Justice Programs, you have the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office for Victims of Crime, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and lastly, the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. We all make up OJP.
Again, within the OJP family, I work at the Bureau of Justice Assistance, where our mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support local, state, and tribal law enforcement in achieving safer communities.
This particular funding opportunity, better known as Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program, is a part of the Second Chance Act (SCA). SCA was signed in 2008 and was reauthorized under the First Step Act of 2018. SCA provides funding to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for youths and adults leaving detention and incarceration to return to their communities. To date, over $500 million in grants have been provided to develop, implement, and test strategies.
So what are the purposes for Second Chance Act funding? Typically, grant funding is seed money or for proof of concept. In many cases, it can be used to expand or enhance an existing program. The Second Chance Act funding also provides for training and technical assistance to grantees so that they can help grantees move with fidelity, so that they can be in line with the research. So we provide training and technical assistance to grantees so that they move with fidelity, move in line with the research, and offer with the project management and content expertise. Currently, the National Reentry Research Center supports Second Chance Act training and technical assistance providers throughout, as well as the reentry field.
Again, now we're going to tap into and unpack the Fiscal Year 2022 Second Chance Act Grant Program's current funding opportunity regarding Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program.
The Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program supports 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 involved in the criminal justice system or were formerly involved. Programs funded under this solicitation must ensure that individuals are screened, assessed, and identified for program participation and clinical services during pretrial detention, or as early as possible upon incarceration and prior to release. Following release from incarceration or pretrial detention, participants should receive discharge planning services based on the results of their screening and assessment that support continuity of care and long-term recovery in the community.
Who is eligible for this funding? Well, city or township governments, including county governments. Native American tribal governments that are federally recognized, as well as Native American tribal organizations other than those that are federally recognized tribal governments. Nonprofits having 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education. This also includes nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education. Public and state-controlled institutions of higher education are included in the eligibility. Public housing authorities, Indian housing authorities, you are included. State governments are eligible applicants.
The goal of the Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program is to provide clinical and recovery support services that establish treatment, suicide prevention, and continuity of recovery in the community for people with mental health, substance use, or co-occurring disorders upon their release from a correctional facility. In Fiscal Year 2022, we estimate up to 10 awards for the Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program, with each award up to $750,000 for 36 months of a performance duration.
Let's tap into the objectives of the Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program. Provide training and education for criminal and juvenile justice agencies, mental health and substance use agencies, and community-based behavioral health providers on interventions that support best practices, diversion models, crisis response services. Engagement and recovery supports, treatment, and services. Access to medication while in an incarcerated setting and continuity of care during reentry into the community. Another objective of this wonderful program: ensure that individuals with serious mental illness are provided timely access to the appropriate recovery supports that may include care support services, medication management (including long-acting injectable medications where clinically appropriate), case management, and psychosocial therapies.
Now we're going to unpack the deliverables for the Fiscal Year 2022 Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program. Number one, a data-driven action plan to be developed with input from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the assigned technical assistance provider. This must be submitted within six months of receiving your final budget approval. The last deliverable, a final report at the end of the project period.
Just a comment about evidence-based programs or practices. The Office of Justice Programs strongly encourages the use of data and evidence in policymaking and program development for criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services. For additional information and resources on evidence-based programs or practices, see the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide. That link is throughout the solicitation and certainly is available just by typing, "Office of Justice Programs Grant Application Resource Guide."
Now we must do some information regarding potential evaluation of programs and activities. The Office of Justice Programs may conduct or support an evaluation of the programs and activities funded under this solicitation. For additional information, see again the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide in the section entitled, "Information Regarding Potential Evaluation of Programs and Activities." Simply stated, should you be awarded this particular funding, there could be a chance that in the future OJP may want to conduct or support an evaluation of your grant-funded program.
So the Office of Justice Programs has some priority areas that align with the current administration. Priority considerations supporting Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. So the additional statutory priority considerations. As articulated in the Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Act of 2020, priority consideration will be given to applications that ensure program participants are provided with continuity of care in a community care provider program and adopt policies that focus on programming, strategies, and educational components for reducing recidivism and probation violations. For the purposes of this priority, the continuity of care shall involve the coordination of correctional facility treatment programs with qualified community behavioral health providers and other recovery supports, pretrial release programs, parole supervision programs, halfway house programs, and participation in peer recovery group programs, which may aid in ongoing recovery after the individual is released from the correctional facility. For the purposes of this priority, “community care provider program” means a community mental health center or certified community behavioral health clinic that directly provides to an individual, or assists in connecting an individual to the provision of, appropriate community-based treatment, medication management, and other recovery support when the individual leaves a correctional facility at the end of a sentence or on parole.
Now we're going to tap into some of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Fiscal Year 2022 resources available for grant applicants. Application assistance is provided by Grants.gov. This provides technical assistance with submitting the mandated SF-424 and SF-LLL. They have a customer support hotline that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except on federal holidays. And the emails are pretty simple: [email protected]. This application assistance provides information on available federal funding opportunities for various federal agencies.
The next big topic outside of Grants.gov is JustGrants. So, there is application assistance available. JustGrants has technical support. It provides technical assistance with submitting the full application and the Department of Justice's Justice Grants System, better known as JustGrants. There's a customer support hotline. However, it is only available Monday through Friday between 5:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. On Saturday, Sunday and Federal holidays, it's only available from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. There is an email that is provided in the solicitation, and I'll just repeat it for now: [email protected]. Again, [email protected]. I encourage all applicants to become familiar with Grants.gov as well JustGrants.
There are other application assistance and supports. We have the Office of Justice Programs Response Center. There's an email, [email protected]. Again, [email protected]. You will use that email for any questions that you may have about the content and material and requirements for the Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program. This OJP Response Center provides solicitation support and general assistance. Again, they have a toll-free number. They have a TTY number. And for all your questions, [email protected]. The response center hours of operation are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. They're only available Monday through Friday. This is also an opportunity for each person listening to subscribe and receive email notifications of new funding opportunities and other resources. You can sign up to receive the twice-monthly JUSTINFO newsletter as well as the weekly Funding News email. So again, all of this is available at OJP.gov/subscribe, and be sure to select grants/funding as an area of interest.
Reminder. There are dual deadlines. Applications will be submitted in a two-step process, each with its own deadline. Step 1: Submit an SF-424 and an SF-LLL at Grants.gov. Step 2: Submit the full application with attachments at JusticeGrants.usdoj.gov, that's better known as JustGrants. Submission deadline times for both Grants.gov and JustGrants are now 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and not 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time as it was in the past years. So just a reminder for you all who are familiar with grant programs coming out of BJA and OJP, 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time is now the deadline time. Read the solicitation carefully for further guidance.
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Again, we just want to use this quick reference to reiterate some of the important contacts. So for solicitation content assistance, you're reaching out to the Response Center, [email protected], and they're available from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday. So Grants.gov information, where you submit the mandated SF-424 and SF-LLL, [email protected]. They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And lastly, another quick reference, JustGrants (or the full name is Justice Grants System but we're using JustGrants around here in DOJ), they're available at [email protected]. They are available 5:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday. And on weekends and holidays, they're only available 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.
Again, I want to thank you for listening to the BJA Fiscal Year 2022 Improving Adult and Juvenile Crisis Stabilization and Community Reentry Program solicitation webinar. The Grants.gov deadline is July 28, 2022, 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The JustGrants deadline is August 2, 2022, 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Good luck. I wish you well. Please reach out to us at the different reference areas for any questions.