FY24 Integrated Treatment for Individuals with Co-occurring Disorders in the Criminal Justice System

Transcript also available as a PDF.

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, “FY 2024 Integrated Treatment for Individuals with Co-occurring Disorders in the Criminal Justice System,” hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Michelle White, Senior Policy Advisor with BJA, to begin the presentation. Michelle?

MICHELLE WHITE: Thank you so much, Daryl. And welcome, everyone, good morning or good afternoon depending on where you are in the world today. As Daryl mentioned, my name's Michelle White, a Senior Policy Advisor at the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and I am joined today by my colleague, Kalyn Hill, who you will hear from shortly. Next slide, please.

So today, we're going to cover a number of things. I'm going to do a quick overview of OJP and BJA. We're going to talk about the program, particularly eligibility and application requirements, some resources that you can access should you choose to apply for the solicitation, and then Q&A at the end. All right. So let's dive right into it.

So, for those of you all that are not familiar, the Bureau of Justice Assistance is located within the Office of Justice Programs. OJP provides a wide range of services to the criminal justice community in the form of grants, training, technical assistance, and research. OJP is one of three grant-making components of the Department of Justice, along with the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. OJP is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety, protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.

This year, we are very excited that BJA is celebrating our 40th anniversary. BJA was created in 1984 to reduce violent crime, create safer communities, and reform our nation's criminal justice system. BJA focuses its programmatic and policy efforts on providing a wide range of resources including training and technical assistance to law enforcement, courts, corrections, treatment, reentry, justice information sharing, and community-based partners to address chronic and emerging criminal justice challenges nationwide. Our current director, Karhlton Moore, was appointed by President Biden in February of 2022.

And as you can see from the slide, our work really focuses on providing funding for programs, transferring knowledge through training and technical assistance, developing guidance and resources, and engaging with partners and stakeholders across the country.

So, before we dive into particulars about this solicitation, we thought we would ask you a quick little poll question. “Has your organization been awarded federal grants in the past?” So if you could go ahead and make your selection and hit submit, and we'll give folks a couple of seconds here. All right. Excellent. If we can, Daryl, close the poll and show the results. Fantastic. So it looks like many of you have extensive experience with federal grants and then others have some limited experience. So we hope that, regardless of your experience, that you will find this of interest and that also, you can submit questions in that Q&A all throughout the presentation, either Kalyn or I will answer the questions in the Q&A or we will get to them at the end. So with that, I'm going to turn things over to Kalyn.

KALYN HILL: Great. Thanks so much, Michelle, and good afternoon or good day to all of you for joining. As Michelle mentioned, my name is Kalyn Hill, I'm a Senior Policy Advisor here at BJA. And now, I'm going to get into providing a bit of an overview of this solicitation in the program, including its purpose, goals, and focus as you consider applying.

So, the purpose of this new solicitation is to respond to a growing need in the field. More than one in nine adults with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders are arrested annually. Individuals with co-occurring and mental health and substance use disorders involved with the criminal justice system face unique challenges, and are more susceptible to further criminal justice involvement. They're less likely to post bond and less likely to be released before trial, and they're more likely to be sentenced to jail or prison, experience longer periods of incarceration, and are often placed in settings that may aggravate mental health symptoms. Next slide.

And we know that post-arrest, there are opportunities for people involved in the justice system with co-occurring disorders to be connected to services in the community that can improve these outcomes for people with co-occurring disorders. Connections to integrated treatment services can better address co-occurring disorders, however, the number of integrated services provided to individuals are scarce. For those connections to be successful, there must be collaboration among justice stakeholders, behavioral health and community partners, and BJA is committed to improving access to integrated treatment services in order to build local capacity and more effectively address these challenges. Next slide.

So with this solicitation, BJA really seeks a training and technical assistance provider to help communities in the field address these challenges. So through this solicitation, BJA is seeking to fund a training and technical assistance provider to improve access to integrated treatment services to both build local capacity for more effectively addressing challenges of individuals in the criminal justice system, improve safety outcomes for communities, and strengthen critical health and justice partnerships through the TTA. And the program will promote cross-system collaboration and improving access to integrated treatment. Next slide.

So again, for this solicitation, the TTA provider will be funded to do primarily two things. First, leading a national training and technical assistance program and administer subawards to local demonstration sites. So I'll kind of break down each portion of the program. Next slide.

So, in leading a national TTA program, the selected TTA provider will promote cross-system collaboration among justice stakeholders, behavioral health service providers, community support agencies, also improve access to coordinated and integrated treatment for individuals in the criminal justice system with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and provide support to the field that will focus on the post-arrest, pre-disposition phase of the criminal justice system. Next slide.

And secondly, the selected TTA provider will administer subawards and support to demonstration sites. Just to make sure folks are clear, this solicitation is to fund a TTA provider. Demonstration sites will not be selected through this solicitation. But BJA will fund a TTA provider that will work with BJA to ultimately select those demonstration sites through a competitive process post this award. And the TTA application for this solicitation are encouraged to include plans within their proposals for identifying and selecting those demonstration sites, and I'll get into later a bit of the breakdown of how applicants can consider that. But the TTA applicants are encouraged to include plans for identifying selected sites, and a process suggested by that applicant must ultimately be approved by BJA. But the design should suggest methods to ensure accountability and reach desired program outcomes. Next slide.

So who is eligible for this opportunity? Eligible entities include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, nonprofits, private institutions of higher education, and for-profit organizations and small businesses.

So, the goals and objectives of this solicitation, the goals of the Integrated Treatment for Individuals with Co-occurring Disorders in the Criminal Justice System Program is to assist and provide comprehensive TTA to local demonstration sites and the field to facilitate cross-system collaboration among justice system stakeholders, behavioral health service providers, and community support organizations to improve access to coordinated and integrated treatment for individuals in the justice system with co-occurring disorders. And TTA will specifically focus on demonstration sites, effectively connecting individuals with co-occurring disorders who present at the post-arrest, predisposition phase. So this will include things like enhancing collaboration, so fostering cross-system collaboration to better address needs; building capacity in the field through technical assistance, so delivering comprehensive TA both to the local demonstration sites and others in the field; supporting the demonstration sites through assisting and developing effective strategies for identifying, assessing, and treating individuals with co-occurring disorders; promoting integration, so encouraging the integration of mental health and substance use treatment services at post-arrest, predisposition phase; ensuring a holistic approach to addressing the complex needs of this target population; enhancing training, so developing and implementing training programs that equip justice system stakeholders, behavioral health service providers, and community support organizations with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively collaborate and address behavioral health needs; and then also monitoring and evaluating, so establishing a system of continuous monitoring and evaluation of program outcomes, refining strategies based on feedback, and emerging best practices to continually improve the program's impact. Next slide.

So, to review the deliverables expected by successful applicants, so the deliverables will include designing and delivering the demonstration projects for up to 12 subaward sites; supporting and designing two training events for demonstration sites, so bringing a cohort of the demonstration sites together around common goals as a network of sites together to address those challenges; and producing products developed in collaboration with and approved by BJA that specifically address and are responsive to the needs of justice system stakeholders and behavioral health practitioners serving this target population. Next slide.

A couple other items I'll just review as you're considering your applications. So in order to further OJP's mission, OJP will provide priority consideration when making award decisions to the following.

So, Priority 1A are applications that propose projects that are designed to meaningfully advance equity and remove barriers to accessing services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization. To receive this consideration, the applicant must describe how the proposed project would address identified inequities and contribute to greater access to services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality.

Priority 1B is for applications that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed projects are enhanced because they are a population-specific organization that serves communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality and disproportionally impacted by crime, violence, and victimization. Next slide.

And as applicants are considering budgeting for this solicitation, so applicants to this solicitation will budget a total of $5 million for subawards to communities to support individuals with co-occurring disorders. The funding level for these individual micro-grants would average approximately $400,000 per site. And the remaining $2 million in funds will be used for the provision of training and technical assistance to the subawards in the field at large. So then, I will pass it back to Michelle to review some other things as you're considering your applications.

MICHELLE WHITE: Thank you so much, Kalyn, for all of that great information. So I'm going to carry on and talk a little bit about data collection expectations for this grant project. So there's a section in the solicitation around your plan for collecting the data required for the solicitation's performance measures that includes describing the process for measuring project performance and also identifying who will collect the data, who's responsible for that measurement, and how that information will be used to guide and evaluate the project's impact. Please note that applicants are not required to submit performance data with your application but instead to have a plan for how you will collect the data, who will collect the data, and how that data will be used. Next slide, please.

In addition, I wanted to talk a little bit—oh, sorry, I skipped a whole slide. So again, I just wanted to sort of reiterate that the performance measure information, there should be a link in the solicitation where you can find out a lot more about reporting on performance data and what types of data might be required. But the actual inclusion of that data in your application is not necessary. Next slide, please.

And very briefly, around budgeting. There is no match required for this particular solicitation. However, if you do provide a match, you will be required to report on that match. So again, it's not required unless you decide to include it and then you must ultimately report if you are the selected training and technical assistance awardee. All right.

So, let's dive a little bit more into the application requirements. So there are a number of pieces to the process that you must consider when planning to write your application. So a couple of those components include Proposal Abstract, the Narrative, the Budget Worksheet and Budget Narrative, which is web based, the Application for Federal Assistance, which includes the SF-424 and the SF-LLL, the Memorandum of Understanding or letters of support. You will see a link in this slide for the Application Submission Job Aid that has step-by-step directions that are super helpful to track all of these pieces. I will also for you that the SF-424 and SF-LLL are documents that you submit in Grants.gov. Everything else you will submit in JustGrants. And we'll talk a little bit about some resources to help you along the way as you navigate those as well. Next slide, please? Okay.

So, for the MOU and the other supportive documents. You need to include the named partner, the signed MOU or letter of intent or subcontracts or an agreement that confirms that partner's agreement to support the project through commitments of staff, time, space, services or other project needs. Each MOU or letter of intent should include the names, what services will be performed, and the duration of the agreement. Those partnerships could be for one or more organizations with expertise in law enforcement, mental health courts, prosecution, judicial or court associations, probation and parole community, treatment community supervision. And the list potentially could go on and on. And it is certainly more than appropriate there's only one applicant, but you are encouraged to partner if that will make for the soundest project and then must include MOUs and letters of support. Next slide, please. Okay.

So, one of the first steps once an application is received is that it was completed and received on time and then we review what we call the Basic Minimum Requirements. Every application must meet those basic minimum requirements before they can be moved along for a full review during a peer review process. So in particular instance of this solicitation, a Description of the Issue is 15% of the score and that evaluates the applicant's understanding of the program or issue to be addressed. The Project Design and Implementation is 40% and evaluates the strength of the proposal, including information provided on goals, objectives, timelines, and deliverables. Thirty percent for Capabilities and Competencies to evaluate the applicant's administrative and technical capacity to successfully accomplish the goals and objectives. And then as I described just a few slides ago, the Plan for Collecting the Data Required for the Solicitation's Performance Measures, and then certainly 10% for the Budget, which includes evaluating for not only completeness but also cost effectiveness, allowability, which it gets to reasonableness, allocability, and whether it's necessary to perform the project activities. Other important factors that OJP may include for award include geographic diversity; strategic priorities, in particular the priority areas that Kalyn mentioned previously; available funding past performance, the extent to which the budget accurately explains the project costs, and that the costs are allowable, reasonable, allocable, and necessary for the performance of the award. Next slide, please.

So let's talk about How to Apply. So these are some very important steps. I know the post said that nearly everyone has either extensive expertise or has some experience applying for a federal grant but just to sort of lock through this with everyone. Applications must be submitted to DOJ electronically through a two-step process, as I mentioned, that begins in Grants.gov. So before you even get to that, though, you must have a UEI, which is a Unique Entity Identifier, and that number must be registered on SAM.gov. You really should begin that registration 30 days prior to the deadline. And then, in terms of submitting documents, you submit the SF-424 and the SF-LLL in Grants.gov. And then, that is the initial deadline. The final deadline for all of the other application requirements you must submit the full application, including all the attachments in JustGrants. And there's a lot of great detail in the solicitation with stepby-step instructions about every piece of this, so I really encourage anyone interested, especially if you've not been through this process before, to make sure to review and/or refresh what the requirements are at the outset of your review of the solicitation and decisions around applying. Next slide, please. Okay.

So, as I said, the SF-424 and SF-LLL must be submitted in Grants.gov by 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Notice it's no longer 11:59 pm. but it's 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time on July 8th. And then all the remaining documents, the full application must be submitted in JustGrants by 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time, July 15th, 2024. And as I mentioned, to be considered timely, the full application has to be submitted by the JustGrants application deadline. Failure to begin that process, whether it's obtaining a UEI, registering in SAM.gov, uploading to Grants.gov or JustGrants without giving yourself a significant period of time to make that happen is not an acceptable reason to request a technical waiver. There are very small number of reasons you can apply for a technical waiver, but failing to do things in a timely fashion is not one of them. Next slide, please.

All right. So we've talked a lot about what you must do, but now I want to share a little bit about some of the resources that we have online to provide for you to try to make this process a little bit less overwhelming and go a little bit more smoothly.

So, the first is the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide. You can see from this slide there are a ton of different things that you can access here to help answer your questions. I know Daryl is putting a lot of links directly into the chat so that you can click on them and have them at your fingertips. They will also be in this slide deck once it's posted online. But there's a lot of really great resources here that will assist you in not only deciding whether or not to submit an application but also throughout the full application process.

And then, I also mentioned that JustGrants is a very important part of this process, not only as an applicant but also if you are awarded as where you will manage online, not only the programmatic side but also the fiscal side of an award. So there's some really great tutorials here. Again, the link is now in the chat in a great place to sort of go and get your questions answered. And there's also an online user support that you can access there when you have questions or concerns or issues about JustGrants.

Okay. So I mentioned some assistance. JustGrants provides technical assistance with those two forms, the SF-424 and the SF-LLL. They operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except for federal holidays. There's a Customer Support line. You can also submit your inquiries via web and email. And they will be able to assist you with all things Grants.gov. There's also separately a JustGrants technical support. So make sure that you know which system you're having an issue with and reach out appropriately. They cannot assist you with each other's. JustGrants technical support provides assistance with submitting the full application in DOJ's Justice Grants or JustGrants management system. There's a Customer Support Hotline and you can also reach out via the web or email. Okay.

So, another great way to stay connected for all kinds of updates. You found this webinar, so that's great, but in the future, if there are other things that you would like to see regular information about, you can subscribe for email updates. And also next slide.

There's a fair amount of social media activity that BJA and OJP support. And these are how you can access Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. A lot of great tutorials on YouTube. And you can use the QR code there on the screen to subscribe to Justice Matters, News From BJA. And then also you can access our website.

And then in general, if you have other additional questions about the solicitation, you can reach out to the OJP Response Center. Any questions maybe you don't get answered today or think of later that are not technical around either Grants.gov or JustGrants, but are around the substance of the solicitation, please either email or call toll free. The Response Center hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and they are really quite responsive. So please do feel free to reach out and ask questions. Next slide, please.

And one sort of final reminder is that, again, there are two deadlines for submission. So step one is in Grants.gov and step two is the remainder of the full application with the attachments in JustGrants. Please feel free to read that solicitation. Submit your questions to the OJP Response Center. And really in particular, as Kalyn mentioned, it's super important to read that eligibility criteria closely. What we are looking for here is a training and technical assistance provider that will ultimately, in partnership with BJA, then release a solicitation to solicit through a competitive process up to 12 demonstration projects. So make sure that you are an eligible entity before you apply. Next slide.

This is a great slide for quick reference on who to reach out to with what question. So again, Grants.gov and JustGrants for those very technical "I'm trying to submit something online" questions. And then for the programmatic requirements of the solicitation, reach out to the OJP Response Center. All right.

So, this is the Q&A portion. So if you would please go down to those three little dots in the bottom corner of your screen, and click there and select Q&A. Please submit your questions in the Q&A not in the chat. And I think we have just a couple of questions here. So we will start with the Q&A. Please continue to submit them, and we will work on your responses. So, Kalyn, it looks like we have two questions. I think we can start maybe at the top.

KALYN HILL: Yup. So the first question, and maybe this is helpful for everyone, the question was, ”Are detention centers and jails eligible for grant funding?” I think you touched on this, Michelle, but if you wanted to reiterate.

MICHELLE WHITE: Certainly. So units of local government are not eligible for this particular training and technical assistance solicitation. So eligibility, as you can see on the screen, are institutions of higher education, nonprofits with a 501(c)(3) status, for-profits and small businesses that if a detention center was ultimately interested in this project, and we hope that you are, that eventually once a training and technical assistance provider is onboard with us through this competitive process, then another solicitation that is competitive would be released by that training and technical assistance provider to identify those 12 sites.

KALYN HILL: Great. And the next question was, "How many awards does BJA anticipate funding?"

MICHELLE WHITE: So we anticipate making one award to be the training and technical assistance provider and to make those subawards to the 12 demonstration sites.

KALYN HILL: Great. And responding to one in the chat, but just to reiterate that this award is to fund a training and technical assistance provider. So as Michelle mentioned, those interested in funding specific projects for jurisdictions. So please stay tuned and informed of forthcoming opportunities.

MICHELLE WHITE: Right. And so that's a great reason to subscribe and follow is because BJA likes to post to all of the things that not only we put solicitations out for, but all of our training and technical assistance providers too. So that's another good way to make sure you don't miss an opportunity to be a demonstration site.

KALYN HILL: Okay. One other question. "How are for-profit organizations and small businesses treated versus nonprofits?"

MICHELLE WHITE: So, I'll try to answer your question as I think you intend it, but if I don't have it correct, please feel free to add some extra notes in the Q&A. That's just eligibility. So everyone that submits passes BMR, those basic minimum requirements is peer reviewed and competes with each other for those awards. And then I think I've seen a couple of times, "Can you please provide an example of a demonstration site?" So typically what that means is likely a locality or a regional area within a state that would then apply to be a subawardee of the grant to implement the practices intended under this training and technical assistance solicitation.

KALYN HILL: Go ahead.

MICHELLE WHITE: I was just going to say, just want to verify that eligible service provider organizations can partner with another agency or organization. So the eligibility here, the training and technical assistance provider is not to provide direct service. The training and technical assistance provider is to support not only the demonstration sites that are ultimately selected, but also the field broadly implementing practices that support folks that are justice-involved with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder. So not for the provision of direct services. However, if you are applying to be a training and technical assistance provider, it is perfectly appropriate to partner with other organizations, but only one primary applicant may apply.

Okay. Let's see. “In terms of judging, who is more competent to handle the project, as everyone can outsource needed resources?” I'm not quite sure I understand that one, unless it might be a follow on to the eligibility question. I'm going to give sort of the age-old answer, and that really just depends on the capabilities and competencies that can be demonstrated by the applicant organization.

Kalyn, does it look like we've gotten all of them that are in the chat?

KALYN HILL: I believe so. I think one more just came in. And it seems like one might be a specific question. So we also do encourage folks to reach out to the resource center— excuse me, Response Center if you need assistance with any questions on programmatic questions.

MICHELLE WHITE: Yes. And to reiterate that, where the training and technical assistance provider is not an entity that is going to provide actual clinical services, but they are going to support the entities at the local level that would become demonstration sites that are working to provide those co-occurring services in their community. So again, the applicant is not a direct clinical service provider.

KALYN HILL: I think we've covered all the questions in the chat. If anyone has any final questions, feel free to drop your questions in.

DARYL FOX: And I'll also note that several people had asked, and the PowerPoint, transcript, and recording for today will be posted to BJA's website. So everybody that's registered will receive an email when and where that is posted. So be on the lookout for that and you can refer back to this as you begin to prepare your applications.

MICHELLE WHITE: Well, thank you so much, Daryl, and for everyone who joined us today, but it looks like we don't have anything left in the Q&A.

DARYL FOX: Yes. That seems to be the end. And, as mentioned, once we conclude, if you have a question, you can contact the Response Center at the contact information listed here, and they'll work to provide a response to you also. Once again, good luck to everybody. So 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.