FY 2023 Virtual Reality De-escalation Site-Based Initiative

Transcript also available as PDF.

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, “FY 2023 Virtual Reality De-Escalation Site-Based Initiative,” hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Kristie Brackens, Supervisory Senior Policy Advisor with BJA, to begin the presentation. Kristie?

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Thank you so much, Daryl. Good afternoon, everyone. Again, I'm Kristie Brackens. I'm Supervisory Senior Policy Advisor at the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and I appreciate your interest in the Virtual Reality De-Escalation Site-Based Initiative. This is a new program for us this year at BJA. So we're very excited about it. So, over the course of the next hour, we're going to do--first I'm going to tell you a little about OJP and BJA, it may be a review for some of you and new for others, so then I'm going to provide you with an overview of the program and then we'll talk briefly about eligibility and application requirements. Then there are some resources that we have available to assist folks with the application process. And then I always like to allow at least 15 to 20 minutes for Q&A. So that's what the next hour will look like.

So, the Office of Justice Programs, The Office of Justice Programs is one of the primary grantmaking arms of the Department of Justice. DOJ has three grant making components in addition to OJP. You have the Office on Violence Against Women, which is all things related to domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault, things of that nature. The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. So, a lot of our community policing, school violence, collaborative reform, those sorts of things, come out of the COPS hiring grant. It's probably one of their most popular programs. Those sorts of things come out of the COPS Office.

The Office of Justice Programs, however, we probably award about $4 billion a year in grant funds, and we are made up of six different components. So I'll start with the SMART Office and we'll work our way up. So, the SMART Office is a Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitor, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking Office. And we have our Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. So, you know, all things related to juveniles. So, we look at, you know, they look at proactive programs, prevention, intervention, programming, re-entry programming when it comes to youth who are involved with the system. Their mission there is really focused on preventing youth from coming in contact with the system. But then once they do come in contact with the system, the goal is to ensure that it is fair and equitable for those children. Then we have our Office for Victims of Crime. And so, you know, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the VOCA funding. So all things that are related to crime victims go through that office. Then we have the National Institute of Justice. That's the research arm of the Office of Justice Programs. And then we have the Bureau of Justice Statistics that--their name pretty much says it all. So all of the statistics--statistical reports that you see that come out, they go through BJS.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with them. And then finally, we get to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is where this program is housed and where I am housed. And when you think of BJA, it's all things--you can go back to the--to the next slide. All things provide, you know, related to adults within the criminal justice system. As we go through the presentation, you'll see some links will start to appear in the chat. And so Michael just placed the link for those that are interested in learning more about BJA to our website.

BJA's basic mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development in support of state, local, and tribal criminal justice stakeholders and communities. So, we work with law enforcement, we work with prosecutors, we work with universities, nonprofit organizations, government, state, and local tribal organizations, related to the adult involvement in the system. And so, when it comes to crime reduction, recidivism, unnecessary confinement, fair and safe prosecution, these are the sorts of programs that we fund at BJA. Our office is led by Karhlton Moore. He was appointed by President Biden in February of 2021; February 2021 is when Karhlton joined us. Next slide.

We have four core pillars at BJA: Fund, Educate, Equip, and Partner. So, you know, this program right here is an example of funding. We fund grants to support the field in a variety of different ways to accomplish the goals of our office. We partner with universities, we partner with local law enforcement, because our goal is also to educate people on best practices, on evidence-based practices. At the same time, we want to make sure that you all are getting the best information. We also want to learn from you all. And so, you know, we partner--we partner with the field, with law enforcement, with stakeholder organizations, prosecutors, schools, nonprofits, because we want to be able to learn from you all to help inform us so that we know that we're putting the right sorts of programs out there, offering the right types of training and technical assistance. So that's when it comes to equip.

You know, we do a lot--we provide a lot of training and technical assistance where we create tools and products that really enhance the capacity of the jurisdictions that we work with to improve their outcomes. You know, when you think of grant funds, we are very helpful, but a grant, you know, that's a one to--one- to three-year project. When you think of the tools, the training and technical assistance that we have to provide, that's going to last far longer, most often, than a grant because it really enhances your local capacity to better address the issues that are happening in your communities. So these are our four pillars: Fund, Educate, Equip, and Partner.

So, why you're all here? You're all here today to learn more about this new initiative that we're so excited about, which is the Virtual Reality De-Escalation Site-Based Initiative.

And so, with this initiative, we are seeking to support local, state, campus, and tribal law enforcement in the adoption of innovative, immersive virtual reality technology that is designed for training law enforcement. And this is--particularly in the response to individuals that are in crisis, you know. At DOJ, our mission, one of our core missions, is to be able to support and improve law enforcement's responsibility to implement de-escalation approaches when they have these encounters with individuals who are in crisis. That's one of the things that we--that is a part of our mission. And so, starting up this new program this year is really going to help us along. And so the program, as I said, is to support local, state, campus, and tribal law enforcement agencies.

And what we will fund, just as an overview, I'll go into more detail about the goals, objectives, and activities in a second. But what we will fund as a part of this program is local jurisdictions to implement customized multiparticipant, fully immersive, virtual and/or augmented reality-based training technology that improves the responses of law enforcement to individuals that are in crisis and enhances law enforcement de-escalation skills for the participants. Next slide.

Several of you may be familiar with BJA's Crisis Response and Intervention Training curriculum or CRIT curriculum. This program really builds on that CRIT curriculum. You know, it's emerging technologies, it's implementing emerging technologies and scenario-based police training. That's the goal. And so, when we talk about new technologies, we're talking about including virtual reality systems that are designed for use by police systems, that allow for multiparticipant engagement, that can be integrated into the existing training programs that some of your departments or your agencies might already be using. And so as you start thinking through how you--how you're going to structure your proposal, your proposal should--that should be the basis for your proposal and your proposal should talk about how the police can't prepare for these intense situations that they may be facing in communities, how the technologies will allow them to kind of share what is happening in the real world in a virtual setting.

And so we're looking at, you know, develop--developing a curriculum and a program that is translatable, that community members that participate in this training along with law enforcement, that it really goes a long way to help folks understand the realities that law enforcement face when they encounter people that may have some developmental disabilities or intellectual disabilities or people that may be suffering from mental health disorders. It's really a training--a training, scenario-based training program that kind of takes the average person into--that would take the average person into “this is what a day in the life of an officer is like,” and then provide the officer with skills that help them to work better with that population. Next slide.

I would also encourage you all to--go back real quick, Daryl. I would also encourage you all to review the BJA Crisis Response and Intervention Training curriculum because this builds on that curriculum and there is a link for it in the chat.

So the training, like I said before, it's going to be scenario based. And so, as you are--some of the key things that I want to point out that's one of the key objectives of this program, is that they want it to be what we're looking for. It's something that is multiparticipant, that where folks can simultaneously participate together, where that's fully immersive. We want the training to be able to improve the law enforcement officers that take this training, their de-escalation skills and enhance their response. It should be evidence-based, the training that is developed. It should also be evidence-based. When it comes to, you know, the--describing how, you know, the agency will fully--will do this, some of the things that should come through in this training that we're looking for is that participants should be able to communicate with one another in the virtual world and interact within the scenario using the equipment that is issued. The focus of the training, definitely--I think I can't--I cannot reiterate this enough, should be de-escalation, is to build upon the CRIT model.

The scenario--the virtual reality scenarios should be customized to the environment in which officers currently operate. So, you know, depending on where you're at in the country, you know, roadways, subways, shopping centers, schools, homes, it should include the modeling of physical barriers, environmental or weather changes as well. Other situational factors that result in confrontations should also be a part of the training. Another part of the--one--another objective of this training should be, you know, an agency-wide. So you should also talk about in the training program, how you plan to--how this virtual reality immersive training will enhance your agency-wide strategy, how it's going to be integrated into the training that you're already doing.

How are you going to, you know--another big component of this is making sure that the community partners are included, and so you want to make sure that as you start to plan out, like, what your proposal will look like, that you are including, you know, you are talking about how your community-based partners will be used, and this includes, you know, individuals and family members who have lived experiences. This includes behavioral health providers; individuals, you know, who are experiencing, let's say, dementia or cognitive disabilities. We want to make sure that the folks that are often in crisis that law enforcement is coming in contact with that often results in these situations that escalate, that they're a part of your planning process as you start to build out your proposal for how you use this funding.

And another critical partner that I failed to mention is also, you know, you want to make sure that you're working with culturally diverse agencies as it--when it comes to this training. And all--next slide. All the applicants for this training should also have a research partner. I'm sorry, is the link not working? Can we make sure the link is working? I keep seeing the little chat popup. Daryl, am I [INDISTINCT] to notice that? Tracking that?

DARYL FOX: Yeah. The correct links has been entered in there now, so they're able to access the link.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Okay. All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Another critical component objective of this is to make sure that you have a research partner that you're working with. There is an evaluation component to this as well.

So, activities. There are several activities that will be required as a part of this--of your proposal, as a part of this program. So, of course you're going to have to develop a report that's going to describe your existing technology--your existing technology platform and how this virtual immersive technology training would be utilized and the value add to the training that you're already doing around de-escalation and the training of your officers. You're also going to have to develop a training plan that details the design and the delivery of this new program. And, you know, you'll notice that the word fully immersive and multi-participant is pretty rampant throughout the solicitation, and you've seen it a few times now in this presentation, so you want to make sure that the training plan that you're developing and designing is fully immersive and multi-participant, and how it's customized for law enforcement. You want to be able to talk about in this plan, also the curriculum that you're developing, how the new technology addresses the training needs of your agency. So, you know, when you--when you look at the training needs of your agency, you know, it's just how is this going to be affected with de-escalation for officers that are responding to individuals in crisis, whether that'd be someone with physical, intellectual, or cognitive disabilities. Again, how this relates back to the CRIT curriculum.

And keeping in mind, this funding--yes, corrections agencies are considered as well, state agencies, yes. You want to keep in mind that this funding can be used to purchase this new technology. Next slide.

So, I mentioned before that you have to have a research partner as a part of--as a part of participation in the program. You know, one of the activities that folks would be responsible for is conducting an ongoing data collection and assessment in partnership with your research partner. The assessment--the data collection should start from the start of the award. You'll be able to--or no, you'll have to be able to highlight as a part of this assessment how and whether the tools that you're using in this training, how they're effective. There'll be an evaluation report that--an evaluation that'll be written at the end that you'll be responsible for submitting. So, data collection is a big part of this process as well. And that's--you know, a lot of that is due to the fact that this is a new program that we're funding and we're [INDISTINCT], so we want to make sure that we understand how the technology is being--what is being developed and how it's being used and whether it's effective.

Which leads us to the next activity that you'll be responsible for, the part of this funding, and that's to develop a feedback system to where you're getting feedback from the folks that participate in this training on how effective it is. Next slide.

So, two important tips as it relates to the program. You need to propose a planning process and an implementation phase for the training program that you're--you'll be requesting funding for and you should, you know, again, make sure you describe, you know, how the training will improve the de-escalation skills to individuals that are--de-escalation skills of officers and individuals who are in crisis. And so, before we go into more of the, you know, application eligibility requirements, I see that a couple of questions had popped up and so I want to stop--pause for a minute and respond to some of those questions. So Daryl, can you read those questions out to me and then we'll move ahead?

DARYL FOX: Certainly. "Is this grant only for police agencies?" Well, you already answered that, corrections agencies, yes, corrections agencies are included as well.

"This grant fund existing space for the virtual reality system, any classroom technology enhancements such as a sound system and other capability?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: That's a good question. Let me--can you note that question, Daryl? And send it, and we can post it in the--in the follow up because I'm not--I don't know the exact answer to that question. I know that you can fund the technology. I'm not sure about the space. So, I know that you can use the funds for any sort of technological enhancements that you might want to do, or to purchase equipment, things of that nature. But space I'm not sure about, but I can find out about that.

DARYL FOX: And once we get to the reference section, OJP Response Center, you could ask that question to them, and they'll be able to work with Kristie directly on that response.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Uh-hmm.

DARYL FOX: County sheriff's offices as well, police academies.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yes. Yes.

DARYL FOX: "Is the de-escalation training curriculum required to be CRIT? Or can other evidence-based trainings be used for this project?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Other evidence-based trainings can be used for this project. CRIT is just an example of BJA-funded de-escalation training.

DARYL FOX: "Guam, as a territory, they're eligible as well?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I would say yes, they are, but let me--let me submit that question to the Response Center.

DARYL FOX: Yeah. So, the person that did ask that, once we get to the end of the presentation, I'll put the slide up here, you can email. It's [email protected], and we'll reference that.

"What is BJA's definition of fully immersive virtual and/or augmented reality-based training? Does this solicitation cover both immersive simulators and virtual reality glasses?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yes. The preference is for fully immersive, and so I know--you know, and talking with the leadership--so I know that in talking to the leadership, that they want a training that is fully immersive, that, you know, individuals can participate in together as a group that simulates real-life situations.

DARYL FOX: To be clear, this is not for a department to fund an existing VR reality platform. It's to develop software where the university-based research team then implement the training with that software.
KRISTIE BRACKENS: I would say yes and no. There's nothing that prohibits you from applying for funding to support--to enhance an existing training program. So if you have something that you're doing and you can--and you can enhance it as an immersive, you know, de-escalation training program, then that would work. But it has to be an enhancement, plus to develop and/or enhance.

DARYL FOX: Here's a question on eligible expenses in the budget and the categories. Is that going to be discussed a little bit later on?

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yeah. We're going to discuss that in a moment.

DARYL FOX: "In the development of the technology itself, testing with the police agency be the primary purpose of the grant with the university unit as the primary applicant?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Can the university be the primary--I'm sorry, I'm not understanding that question. Are they asking if the university can be the primary applicant?

DARYL FOX: Correct.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yeah, the university can be the primary applicant, but they would need to be partnered with, you know, the campus police or local law enforcement.

DARYL FOX: And for those asking, we'll get--we're going to get into the eligibility a little more, the available funding, number of awards, and all that. So we'll get into that.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Okay. All right. Let's go to the next slide. We're going to look at...

DARYL FOX: Speaking of, there you go. All right.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: There we go. Section three. It's a nice little break. So these are the entities that are eligible to apply for this funding opportunity. So, city or township governments, county governments, Native American/tribal governments, public- and state-controlled institutions of higher education, and state governments. Those are the eligible applicants. And so, I think there was a question about nonprofit organizations. They're not eligible--nonprofits are not eligible applicants. So, we plan to make 11 awards. The maximum amount of each award is $800,000. The project start date is October 1 and the project period is 36 months.

Like I said earlier, the funding for this project is geared for local law--to support law enforcement, and so--you know, it's to support, as I had said, local, you know, police departments, campus police, state--local, state, campus, and tribal law enforcement as the--in de-escalation tactics. And so, when we look at the priority areas that you can receive consideration under, to receive priority consideration, it speaks to who this initiative is targeted at. And so, you know, there's priority given to agencies that are participating in the collection and reporting to DOJ of data on law enforcement use of force and deaths in custody. There is a priority area for participation in the collection and reporting to DOJ data on officer suicides and officers killed or assaulted or--priority is also given to agencies that have policies in place that restrict unannounced entries and neck and carotid restraints. There's also priority given to agencies that have policies that restrict the possession and use of militarized equipment. So these are--you know, those are the priority areas. You should note that just because you have a priority area, it doesn't, you know, guarantee that you'll receive an award, but preference is given to folks who write to and include in their application, demonstrating that they meet with--the priority focus areas of DOJ. And these priority focus areas are centered around, you know, the department's goal of enhancing public trust, engaging better with communities. And so our priority areas--or these priority areas are centered around that and these are the ones that were most applicable to this solicitation. Next slide.

So, this is a very, very important slide. There's the Grants.gov deadline, which is June 29, and then there is the JustGrants application deadline, which is July 6. If you miss the Grants.gov deadline on June 29, you can't apply to JustGrants. So, you have to apply in Grants.gov by June 29 and then submit your full application by July 6. So, I would strongly encourage you not to wait until June 29 and not to wait until July 6 to submit your applications. And also of note is that the time--the deadline on both those days is 8:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.

So, a lot of people often ask, you know, "What should be included in my application?" If you go to page 13 of the solicitation, it will tell you what should be included in your application. But all applications have to have, at a minimum, a project abstract, a project narrative, the budget worksheet, and the budget narrative. At a minimum, all applications have to have that. We have what we call basic minimum requirements, and an application that does not include the proposal abstract, the narrative, the budget worksheet, and the budget narrative will be screened out and it will not move forward in the process. So for this particular solicitation, the training plan is also a requirement. The training plan is also a requirement. People also often ask if they can--and something else before I go to the second question. Something that I always encourage folks to do and that I've said in other webinars is if you go to the very end of the solicitation, the funding solicitation, there's an application checklist that's included. I encourage everyone to look at that application checklist and use it as a tool to make sure that you have everything that's being asked for, included in your--in your application. The application checklist actually starts on page 24 of the solicitation. So, as you put your proposal together, I would encourage you to--you know, once you're done writing it, to go to page 24 of the solicitation and just go all the way down this checklist to make sure that you have everything included. I found that to be a good checks and balances.

Can my organization partner with other entities? Yes. You can partner with other entities but only one may submit the application and assume physical management of responsibilities. And when--and if you are going to partner with other entities, I would encourage you to include them as a part of your application. I would encourage you to include Memorandums of Understanding with them and, at a minimum, letters of support.

Next slide. Okay. So, let's go back to some of the questions and then we'll talk about the resources. I've seen a couple--I might have answered some of these.

DARYL FOX: "One has to submit both in JustGrants and Grants.gov, correct?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yes. That is correct.

DARYL FOX: Then, once again, "How many grant awards are available?" I can go back to that slide.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: We anticipate making 11 awards and the maximum amount that you can request is $800,000.

DARYL FOX: And then, “Regarding the training curriculum, how--is there a recommendation on how detailed that has to be? Is that an overview or a full-fledged curriculum?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I would provide as much detail as you think necessary. You want to make sure that, you know, when you're talking--in the training curriculum, that you're speaking to what it is you plan to do, how you plan to make this a fully immersive training, how it's going to speak to de-escalation, how it's going to enhance community trust, how, you know, you're going to work with, you know, that population of folks that, you know, might have intellectual or develop--developmental disabilities or Alzheimer's or be suffering from a mental health emergency. So, you know, I would--I would--I would encourage you to provide as much detail as possible. However, understanding that this program is a new program and that we really want to fund folks to develop these sorts of--this sort of virtual reality, immersive training, if you don't have one--you know, if you don't have one already, I can understand if it's not as detailed as possible, but you really want to speak to what we're--what the solicitation is asking you.

DARYL FOX: Several budget questions. "Should applicants budget to lease equipment or purchase the equipment?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: If they could submit that question to the National Resource--to the Resource Center--Response Center and we can find--I can find out.

DARYL FOX: I just put that email in the chat. "For priority areas of current support, does participation in the collection or importing of data to agencies other than DOJ qualify?

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No. I would mention it in your application, but it doesn't--it doesn't qualify as a priority area if you're not reporting it to DOJ.

DARYL FOX: "Is there a match requirement for the budget?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No.

DARYL FOX: "Do the training curriculum require scoring or pass-fail outcomes?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No. I mean, there--we--we're--you know, we're looking at folks to develop a training curriculum, so I would say, as far as the solicitation goes, there's no requirement listed in the solicitation of a pass-fail. However, I would think that, you know, it's going to be evaluated, and so I think there has to be some mechanism put in place. I think you would want to have some mechanism put in place that judges and that's able to determine whether the officer met with the training objectives, because you will be--there is an evaluation component and a data collection component to this.

DARYL FOX: "Regarding..."

KRISTIE BRACKENS: But the solicitation does not--the solicitation does not expressly state that it's a pass-fail.

DARYL FOX: "Regarding the research partner requirements, can the research be done internally, or does it have to be a separate entity?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: It needs to be a separate entity that you partner with. A research team or a university.

DARYL FOX: "And that could--a CRT curriculum, something they could use or is that just an example of one?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: It's just an example. It's an example of an evidence-based curriculum that BJA, you know, funds, but it's just an example.

DARYL FOX: And “Quoting from the solicitation, it says that you can purchase equipment, 'Purchase necessary technology, such as a virtual reality system and necessary equipment that is specifically designed and produced for the training of law enforcement.'" They're just confirming if that's still correct. Let's see here.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yes. That's correct. Thank you.

DARYL FOX: "The RFP includes biometric data. Is there suggestion on how to do this? Fitbits or do you mean visual biometrics and self-reported qualitative data?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Biometrics data? I don't really have a suggestion on how to do that. I know that's something that they want. Like, you know, if you're--you know, the monitoring of the--and talking to the deputy that's over this program who can be with us today, so I'm filling in for her. The heart rate--she wants--you know, she was thinking of, you know, when you do those sort of trainings, the virtual reality trainings where you can monitor someone's heart rate, their pulse, things of that nature, so--but if you want to submit that question to the Response Center, I can find out definitely what they mean by that and make sure that someone follows up. But I would say yes. I know that that--that's something they're interested in.

DARYL FOX: "What if your police department is at a university with a research component within that university, does that qualify?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yes, because universities--the--you have to partner with--the solicitation said that, you know, you need a research partner, which could be a university, and campus law enforcement is eligible for this funding as well, so yes.

DARYL FOX: "The agencies are allowed to include officer overtime in their budget?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I would say yes. I don't see that--I didn't see anything that would prohibit that.

DARYL FOX: "Can the funding be used for creating a facility to house and operate VR training equipment and environment?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: So most--but--you can submit that question to the--to the Response Center, but most grant funds do not--do not allow for reconstruction--do not allow for new construction of facilities. So, my initial response would be no, but if you want to submit that question, I can find out for sure for you. But my initial response would be no because there's no new construction typically with grant funds.

DARYL FOX: "And are there--is there structure limits on how much of the award can be used for subawards?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No.

DARYL FOX: Okay. These are like--caught up. A few more, but if you want to get through the rest, then we can address the rest at the end here.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Sure. Next, we have some application resources. You also--of course, the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide. I would encourage anyone that hasn't applied--I'm sure many of you are professionals now when it comes to applying for OJP grants, but if you haven't, this is a great resource, and I would encourage you to take a look at it. It goes through everything, from, you know, Grants.gov to JustGrants to the, you know, the different application components and things of that nature. So I would encourage you to take a look at that. Next slide.

Hopefully, you'll be successful in getting this grant award. And so, you know, if you're interested in learning, like, what happens after the grant award, I would encourage you to take a look at this resource on JustGrants. It talks about the JustGrants process but also about the payment management system that we have in JustGrants once an award has been made. Next slide.

So, when it comes to technical assistance as it relates to submitting your SF-424 or SF-LLL, most of you will submit SF-424s. There's the customer service line for Grants.gov. They operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except on federal holidays. And there's also an email address and a website where you can reach out to them. Grants.gov is where you'll also find information on--in addition to this federal funding opportunity but all federal funding opportunities. So if you don't already have an account registered on Grants.gov, I would encourage you to do that as well. JustGrants Technical Support. And so this is the DOJ's Grants Management System. And so JustGrants is where you'll actually submit your proposal--your project proposal and your application. And they are open Monday through Friday, between 7:00 AM and 9:00 PM, and on Saturdays, Sundays, and federal holidays, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. And so, if you have trouble submitting your actual application or things of that nature, JustGrants Technical Support is who you'll want to reach out to. There's also a web address for JustGrants and an email address for them as well. Next slide.

I kind of already said this, but if you want any updates on funding opportunities or things happening at OJP, you can subscribe to our email or to text message alerts. And, of course, you know, we are on Facebook, we are on Twitter, we are on YouTube, and you can always find information out on BJA's website. And we've put this slide up a couple of times. If there are some questions that come to you after this is over, if there are questions that you have regarding the solicitation as you get ready--as you prepare to submit your application and draft your application, you can contact the OJP Response Center, and their email address is [email protected]. And then, of course, their toll-free number is listed here for you as well, 800-851-3420. And they're open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday.

Again, I cannot stress enough the two-step process that we have now. You have to submit your SF-424 on Grants.gov and then--in that date. Again, let me remind you all, the Grants.gov deadline is June 29, 8:59 PM. And then step two is where you submit your full--your full application with all of the attachments in the DOJ JustGrants system, and that deadline, again, is July 6 at 8:59 PM. So remember those two dual deadlines. And, of course, just another slide that summarizes all the contact information that I just gave you. And here it is. You know, answer any additional questions that you might have on this program. So were there other questions, Daryl, that I didn't get to?

DARYL FOX: Several on the subawards and is there limits. You did answer that in the past one.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Yeah. There aren't any limits expressly written in the solicitation regarding the subawards. Is a nonprofit eligible for a subaward? There isn't anything that I see that will restrict the nonprofit organization from being eligible for a subaward if it's relevant, but--oh, I can--yeah.

DARYL FOX: "Regarding the research team, do they have to be in specific areas of focus, say, criminal justice peer programming or anything like that?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: The solicitation does not state that they have to be in a specific area of focus. However, I think that I would--I would strongly encourage, you know, looking at the subject matter of the solicitation, that they have an expertise in virtual reality or, you know, technology-based training, criminal justice de-escalation tactics.

DARYL FOX: "Can agencies apply for their already leased virtual reality training equipment?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: There's nothing in the solicitation that I can see that prohibits that because, you know, it does say that you can, you know, enhance an existing program. You are--you know, enhance your training program. So there's nothing that I see that would prohibit that.

DARYL FOX: "Is there a list of performance measures posted?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No. There isn't a list of performance measures posted. Some performance measures that I'm aware of for this program are going to be how many officers or citizens participated in the simulation. I know that's one of the things that we'll be looking at is how many participated. The subaward to the business, I do see one about a subaward to the business. If that person could submit that question regarding the subawards to the OJP Response Center. I want to make sure that I'm giving you all accurate information on the subaward. So if you could submit that question to the OJP Response Center, then I can internally follow up and make sure that you get a response back on that because I don't want to give out--I don't want to give you all the wrong information on the subaward.

DARYL FOX: Yeah. And to expand on that, Kristie, for those on today's webinar, the reason--referring there, that's the official way to submit questions. And they'll work directly with her on the response, so--it's kind of difficult to go ahead and respond individually from the contact information in the webinar. So that's the official port if you'd answer your quest--ask your question.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: And, again, I do apologize. The person that manages this program, unfortunately, is out today and so I am covering this program for them. So I apologize that I don't have all the answers to some of your questions, but if you--if you submit them to the OJP Response Center, I will make sure that you get a response back.

DARYL FOX: And several questions. The PowerPoint, transcript, and recording from today will be posted to the BJA website. So, you'll receive an email when those are available, how to access those, and you can reference these as you prepare your applications.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I see a question regarding--let's see. Subaward to a business. Okay. That one--they could submit. "Would a state law--would a state-certified law enforcement agency operated by a hospital system be eligible? Officers are employees of the healthcare system, but the agency is certified and recognized as a police agency." If you could submit that question to the OJP Response Center, I can make sure that someone, you know, follows up and gets you an answer on that. So state agencies are--state governments are eligible applicants, so--but I want to--I'll get clarification, but state agencies are eligible applicants.
"Besides the actual VR/AR equipment, what other expenses do you anticipate?" I would say materials, personnel calls, consultants, you know--you know, subject matter experts to help develop the training.

"For priority areas of current support, does participation…"--okay. We already answered that question.

DARYL FOX: Kristie, does the training plan need to be approved through an entity such as the state AG's office or state LEA?

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No, because we understand--you know, it's my understanding, with this solicitation, that we're looking to help folks develop this because this is something that's new out there in the field. So we're really looking to help develop this sort of training, and so no.

DARYL FOX: And generally--there's been a couple questions generally about training plan. "Is there a section in the solicitation that identifies what specifically should be included in that?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I would say the specifics, as far as what should be included in the training plan, if you look at the objectives that are listed on page eight and then the deliverables on page nine.

DARYL FOX: And there is not a list of research institutes or partners for people to reference, correct? It's just something they'd have to do?

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Right. No, there isn't a list. I always encourage folks to, you know, partner with their local university or community college. Are there other questions, Daryl, or did we...

DARYL FOX: A lot of items that we did address already.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Okay.

DARYL FOX: As long--you know--yeah. For the last questions. As long as the primary applicant is eligible, then, yeah, you could partner with a university-based researcher or team of researchers would qualify.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: Right. Yes.

DARYL FOX: And Mike--somebody for the link of the solicitation. Again, that was entered in the beginning of the presentation. We'll go ahead and put that back in the chat for you to access. It will take you to the BJA webpage where that--where that resides. If somebody works for...

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I would say campus law enforcement is eligible. I saw that. So campus law enforcement is eligible. I'm sorry I cut you off, Daryl.

DARYL FOX: Oh, no. Please. That was a good distinction. Yeah. This one--"Somebody works for a nonprofit contracted with SO in providing a co-response model." So, the question around nonprofit subaward also be involved in training.

KRISTIE BRACKENS: If you could submit--the sheriff's--my initial thought, and, again, I encourage you to submit this question to the OJP Response Center and I can, you know, confirm, is that the sheriff's office would need to apply and then you--they would be able to partner with the nonprofit on that. But the lead applicant would need to be the sheriff's office.

So I see someone said that, “The solicitation states that applicants must partner with a university-based researcher or team of researchers to assist in the development of the training and review the implementation progress and outcomes. Then could any research team qualify?” If you want to submit that question to the OJP Response Center, but, I mean, typically the applicants that I have seen that are most successful are those that have a university or, you know, community college-based research team, but--or if--you know, if there's a research organization. But if you want to submit that question, I can get clarity on that for you as well. Okay. So that's solicitation. Sheriff's office should apply. And then, Ms. Nicholas, if you could submit that question to the OJP Response Center regarding Guam, because normally in our solicitation, it'll say states and territories. That's how we know Guam is eligible to apply. In this solicitation, it just says states. And so that's why I am unsure if Guam is--Guam is eligible. But if you submit the question to the OJP Response Center, I can, you know, get confirmation on that. But typically, it says states and territories and this one just--this one just says states.

DARYL FOX: "And can the research partner be the prime applicant, or do they have to be the secondary partner?"

KRISTIE BRACKENS: I'll look at the eligibility criteria, the eligible applicants. [INDISTINCT] I would say that the research partner would--what would--the prime applicant, it should be the law enforcement agency, so the campus police department or the police department and then a--the research partners who they bring on. But you have to have a research partner in order to be eligible for this grant. But the funding is targeted at law enforcement. So if you want to submit that question, I can get clarification for you, but my thought is that the local, state, or university police, or tribal law enforcement, or county police would need to be the primary applicant and then the research partner is secondary. But if you want--if you submit that question to the OJP Response Center, I can, you know, talk to the person that's leading this--leading this effort and get that confirmation back for you, get you an answer.

DARYL FOX: Okay. Thank you so much. So, once again, the items for today, including the recording, will be made available on the BJA website. You will receive an email when and where to access those. Is there anything else in closing, Kristie, you wanted to mention?

KRISTIE BRACKENS: No. I thank you all for joining the webinar today. I apologize that I didn't have the answers to some of your questions, but, I mean, if you submit them to the OJP Response Center, we will make sure that you all get the answers that you need. But we're really excited about this program. It's a completely new initiative and a new space for us here at BJA. So we look forward to receiving your proposals. So thank you for your interest in helping us launch this new program. Thank you.

DARYL FOX: So, on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance and our panelist, we want to thank you for joining today's webinar. This will end today's presentation.ar. This will end today's presentation.