FY24 Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Incubator Initiative

Transcript also available as a PDF.

ANDRE BETHEA: Hello and welcome to the funding opportunity for Fiscal Year 2024 Second Chance Act Community-Based Reentry Incubator Initiative. My name is Andre Bethea and I am a Senior Policy Advisor at the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice. Today, our agenda will be a welcome and introduction to the Office of Justice Programs and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Then we'll go into the program overview for the Community Reentry Incubator Initiative. Then, we'll tap into the eligibility and application requirements. Then, this webinar will come to a close after discussing the application resources.

The first section, Welcome and Introduction. The Office of Justice Programs provides grant funding, training, research, and statistics to the criminal justice community. OJP, as it's known, is one of the three grant-making components of the Department of Justice along with the Office on Violence Against Women, OVW, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, better known as COPS. Within the Office of Justice Programs, you have BJA; Bureau of Justice Assistance, where I work; the BJS, the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice, NIJ; the Office for Victims of Crime, OVC; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, OJJDP; and the SMART Office, the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking.

Again, this funding is within the BJA, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, where our mission is to provide leadership and services in grant administration and criminal justice policy development to support state, local, and tribal justice strategies to achieve safer communities. BJA works with communities, governments, and nonprofit organizations to reduce crime, recidivism, and unnecessary confinement, and promote a safe and fair criminal justice system. Currently, Karhlton F. Moore is the Director for the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Check us out at bja.ojp.gov.

How does BJA support the field? Well, in this case, we make investments. That means we provide diverse funding to accomplish goals. We share knowledge, right? The latest research, develop, and deliver what works to build capacity and improve outcomes. Engagement. BJA convenes, connects, and consults.

This funding string, the Second Chance Act. Signed in 2008, reauthorized in 2018, it's the funding to reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for youth and adults leaving detention and incarceration to return to their communities. To date, over $600 million in grants have been made available to develop, implement, and test strategies. Second Chance Act supports state, local, and tribal governments, as well as nonprofits.

So, what does Second Chance Act funding actually do? Well, grant funding can be used for seed money, for proof of concept, to expand or enhance existing programs. Second Chance Act funding also provides training and technical assistance to grantees, so to make sure that they're doing program initiatives with fidelity, doing intervention in line with research, as well to bring the proper project management and content expertise.

Second Chance Act funding also supports the National Reentry Resource Center, which is to support the other Second Chance Training and Technical Assistance, as well as to provide reentry initiatives and concepts to the field at large.

Again, the National Reentry Resource Center is all things Second Chance Act. So it serves as a convener and a coordinator of all the Second Chance Act grantees, as well as providing knowledge to the field. The current National Reentry Resource Center is housed within the Council of State Governments Justice Center. They operate the website as a collaboration of not only the Bureau of Justice Assistance but also the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

So, now we're going to get into our Program Overview. The Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Incubator Initiative, you might hear me just say, "Incubator Initiative." The purpose of the Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Incubator Initiative is to fund intermediary organizations to operate incubator models, to build capability, capacity, and sustainability among community-and faith-based organizations that are serving people returning from home from incarceration.

Please note that there are two deadlines for the Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Incubator Initiative. The Grants.gov deadline is July 8th, 2024, 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. The JustGrants deadline is July 15th, 2024, 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Through this Community-based Reentry Incubator Initiative solicitation, BJA seeks to fund organizations that serve as financial intermediaries to community-based reentry programs and to provide support via an incubator model that will increase capability and capacity within the subawardees' organizations.

Community-and faith-based organizations provide critical reentry services for people returning from incarceration to their communities, yet many CBOs face significant barriers directly assessing and managing federal grants. BJA seeks to fund up to two intermediary organizations that will design and administer a competitive incubator initiative for community-and faith-based reentry providers. These intermediary organizations will provide subawards, oversight, and comprehensive training and technical assistance services to help build capability, capacity, and sustainability among the CBO subawardees to meet the needs of people returning home from incarceration and to apply for and manage private and public grant funding in the future.

Now we're going to discuss Eligibility and Application Requirements. To be eligible for the Second Chance Act Community-based Reentry Incubator Initiative, you must be a nonprofit having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education are eligible to apply. For this solicitation, awardees are community-based organizations, or CBOs that are experienced at delivering reentry services, managing federal grants, administering subawards, and training others to do the same. Awardees will operate incubators, which are learning communities where subawardees can learn and grow. It's really an incubator to help smaller community-based organizations enhance the delivery of reentry services and their operation management. Awardees will also have a fiscal and administrative oversight of subawards funding and projects.

The applicant should submit proposals to operate incubators and describe their experience with reentry programming across a variety of settings managing several subawards, and building capacity of community-based organizations to implement reentry programming. BJA is open to a range of models to be used by intermediary organizations serving as fiscal agents. Applicants may propose to focus on a particular geographic area, like a particular region. Or a subject matter, for example, employment or education. In collaboration with BJA, awardees are expected to competitively select smaller CBOs to receive subawards and provide training and technical assistance support for subawardees to build capacity and their capacity, and sustain those new capacities following the end of the project. So build capacity and sustain their new capacities following the end of the project.

The applicant should propose a pass-through amount for the subawardees, an administrative amount to be retained by the applicant, as well as an amount to contract and manage a process or outcomes evaluation, if applicable. BJA expects awardees to retain 30% of their budget to support their work as intermediaries and pass the other 70% to competitively selected subawards. For example, if the applicant applies for the maximum amount of $4,000,000, BJA would expect the grantee to provide $2,800,000 to the subawardees. The subawards are expected to range between $50,000 and $150,000.

Let's get into the subawards. Applicants are encouraged to include plans and propose criteria in their proposals for identifying and selecting the subrecipients. The Office of Justice Programs must approve the application process, the selection criteria, and the selection of subrecipients suggested by the applicant. The process and design should recognize and serve the capacity limitations of smaller entities to apply for and administer grant funding and suggest methods to build capacity while also ensuring accountability to reach the desired program outcomes, while also proposing cost-effective approaches.

So, subawards to the smaller CBOs, right, may cover salary support, equipment, materials, training opportunities, travel costs associated with the training and technical assistance, the development of curricula, assessment tools, or organizational policies and procedures, such as a wellness plan, to support reentry service provider staff. In administering financial support to CBOs through subawards, intermediary organizations are responsible for ensuring that all funds are used appropriately according to the applicable accounting and financial management principles as set forth in the Department of Justice Grants Financial Guide. The requirements for subrecipient monitoring can be found in 31 USC Section 7502 and in Title 2 of the CFR Section 200, including but not limited to the sections on Subrecipient Monitoring and Management contained in Subpart D and audit requirements applicable to subrecipients contained in Subpart F.

So, the goal of the Incubator Initiative is to build programmatic, financial, and organizational capacity in CBOs and faith-based institutions to provide sustainable and effective services to people leaving incarceration that focus on community and family reintegration, building strength-based assets, and reducing recidivism, including reducing arrests, new charges, convictions for new offenses, as well as reincarceration.

The objectives of the Incubator Initiative are increase the administrative, operational, and organizational capacity of subawardees to serve the target population effectively using comprehensive case management plans and validated criminogenic risk assessments to deliver or facilitate reentry services in a manner consistent with participants' learning styles and abilities. Objective two: ensure the responsible and effective administration of subawards to competitively selected community-based organizations providing reentry services to individuals transitioning from jail or prison to the community.
The deliverables expected by successful applicants are: develop, in collaboration with BJA, a solicitation or request for proposals with agreed-upon selection criteria and in accordance with OJP regulations; develop, market, and host, in collaboration with BJA, a pre-application webinar for potential applicants; conduct a community-based organization selection process, in collaboration with BJA, to identify and award the subawards.

Once the subawards are made, the award recipients will conduct meetings with CBOs on periodic basis and memorialize the proceedings with meeting notes, transcripts, and/or recordings. Complete capacity needs assessments for each participating CBO and work with the CBO to prepare a capacity development plan that is tailored to its current capacity and resources. This includes building bandwidth for sustainability after the subaward and competency to access new funding. The capacity development plan will guide the CBO and it will be reviewed and updated, as necessary during the incubator project period. Work with every subawardee to build capacity for ensuring participants' criminogenic needs are met and that strength-based services and outcomes are provided and captured. Award recipients will conduct regional and/or topical meetings for the subawards on common issue areas. These meetings should include existing subject matter experts and material from DOJ program plans and initiatives.

Other deliverables. Awardees will provide content to the National Reentry Resource Center to post online for subawardees and other interested parties to search and access any knowledge products, for example, reports, research briefs, webinars, or podcasts, created by the award recipient and other relevant existing knowledge products related to reentry service provision and capacity enhancement. If applicable, submit a primal process evaluation report that includes clear summary description of the reentry services supported by the subawards; an assessment of the community-based organizations' ability to identify and serve people in reentry at moderate to high risk of recidivism and/or service capacity enhancement outcomes; identification of promising or effective practices; lessons learned and challenges encountered; and recommendations for future program capacity development. This report should emphasize an evidence-informed assessment framework that is attentive to the contextual factors at the participating community-based organizations.

There are two priority considerations for the Incubator Initiative. The priority considerations are about advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities through the federal government. Priority consideration 1A, 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. Priority consideration 1B, applicants that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed projects are enhanced because they, or at least one proposed subrecipient that will receive at least 40% of the requested award funding, as demonstrated in the Budget Web-Based Form, are a population specific organization that serves communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.

There are additional statutory priority considerations. As articulated in the Second Chance Act statute, priority consideration will be given to applications that provide for an independent process and outcome evaluation. To receive priority consideration, applicants must specify in the proposed narrative how they will address the priority considerations. Applicants seeking statutory priority considerations should budget no more than 10% of the federal requested amount to contract and manage an independent process and outcome evaluation. Addressing these priority areas is one of the many factors that OJP considers in making funding decisions. Receiving priority consideration for one or more priority area does not guarantee an award.

Let's look into the review criteria. Applications that meet the basic minimum requirements will be evaluated by peer reviewers on 15% regarding the Statement of the Problem or Description of the Issue; 35% for Project Design and Implementation; 25% on Capabilities and Competencies; 15% on the proposed Plan for Collecting the Data Required for this Solicitation's Performance Measures; and 10% regarding the Budget.

Now we're reaching our final area on application resources. The Office of Justice Programs provides a Grant Application Resource Guide. Please consult this useful resource online. It provides everything you need to know regarding how to apply, the financial information, the federal award administration information, and other significant pieces of the grant-making process.
JustGrants, there's a whole tutorial to learn more about the Department of Justice's Grants and Payment Management Systems. There are tutorials, resources, user support, and training, as well as frequently asked questions made available for you as an applicant.

In addition, there's Application Assistance. We have technical assistance for Grants.gov, that is separate from the JustGrants technical support. The solicitation goes into detail about the customer support hotlines for both Grants.gov, as well as JustGrants technical support, as well as the web and email locations for technical support for grants.gov and separately for JustGrants technical support.

Please stay connected and subscribe to the Office of Justice Programs' website. You can receive email updates, you can receive text updates. Please know that if you choose text, message and data rates may apply. You can stay connected to the Bureau of Justice Assistance though all our social media platforms, as well as our website. Again, bja.ojp.gov. If you have additional questions regarding the Community-Based Reentry Incubator Initiative, all questions must go through the OJP Response Center. There's an email as well as a toll-free number. The Response Center hours of operation are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday.

A gentle reminder, there are dual deadlines. Applications must be submitted in a two-step process, each with its own deadline. Step one is regarding important forms for Grants.gov. Step two is regarding submitting the full application with attachments to JustGrants. Submission deadlines for both grants.gov and JustGrants are now 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time, not 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time as it has been the past years. Again, I urge you all to read the solicitation carefully for further guidance.

Lastly, just some quick reference and important contacts regarding Grants.gov, JustGrants, as well as the OJP Response Center. Again, my name is Andre Bethea, I am the Senior Policy Advisor at the Bureau of Justice Assistance, thanking you all for your time. Take care.