FY24 Training and Technical Assistance for Justice-Focused Community-Based Organizations

Transcript also available as a PDF.

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, “FY2024 Training and Technical Assistance for Justice-Focused Community Based Organizations,” hosted by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. So at this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Gregory Torain, Senior Policy Advisor with BJA, to begin the presentation. Gregory?

GREGORY TORAIN: Thank you, Daryl. Welcome, everybody, to the FY24 Training and Technical Assistance for the Justice-Focused Community Based Organizations solicitation webinar. Like I said, my name is Gregory Torain. I am a Senior Policy Advisor at BJA. I'll be serving as one of your presenters, as well as Linda A. Seabrook, Senior Counsel.

So, for today's agenda, we'll go over the welcoming introduction to the Office of Justice Programs, as well as Bureau of Justice Assistance. We'll provide a program overview. We'll go over the eligibility and application requirements, application resources. And we'll have a Q&A. I want to note that during the presentation, please take time to ask questions for the Q&A as we're presenting. Both myself and Linda will try to respond to those questions as we're presenting. Depending on who's presenting at the time will try to respond to those questions, and then, we'll ask Daryl to read those questions towards the end as well as provide responses to ensure that those who aren't able to actually attend who are able to actually access the recording will still have access to those questions as well as those responses. Next slide.

So Section 1, Welcome and Introduction. Next slide.

So, what is the Office of Justice Programs? OJP makes grant funding, training, research, and statistics to the criminal justice community. And we are one of three grant making components within the Department of Justice. The other is the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. There are six different entities within the Office of Justice Programs. You have the Bureau of Justice Assistance, where I sit. We focus on criminal justice grant funding and TTA. The other Bureau of Justice Statistics, they focus on criminal justice-related statistics and analysis. You have the National Institute of Justice, they focus on criminal justice-related research. You have the Office for Victims of Crime, they focus on providing funding to support victims of crime. And then, you have OJJDP, they provide grant funding and TTA that supports juvenile justice-related strategies. And then, finally you got SMART, the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, and Registering, and Tracking. Next slide.

So, here is BJA's mission. BJA was created in 1984 and 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. And we are led by our Director, Karhlton F. Moore. Next slide.

So, how does BJA support this field? So we do it by three things. We do investments, through our shared knowledge, and through our engagement. Through our investments is through our solicitations or our funding that is aligned with our mission, our goals, our objectives, and aligned with the administration priorities. Through our shared knowledge, we invest in many different research projects, working with our national federal partners, ensure that we are working to make sure that our grants are focused on the latest research and trends. And then, through our engagement, working with both our national and federal partners, working with state partners, county partners, tribal partners, and ensure that through our engagement via listening sessions or through surveys that we are working to understand what are the challenges that are taking place within the local communities and the field to ensure that we are tying back the engagement that we have with our partners along with the research that we work with our partners to understand what's going on, and we tie that back into our investments, meaning our grant funding, to make sure that when we're making funding awards or we're making solicitations and developing those solicitations that we're making sure that it's in the latest research and we're engaging our partners to make sure we're addressing the field. Next slide.

So, here is the first poll. The first poll is, "Has your organization been awarded federal grants in the past?" So please take a moment to fill that out, we'll get about 30 seconds to respond to that. Again, part of the work that we do at BJA is trying to understand who's applying to some of our awarding and if there's ways that we can reach out to you to make sure that we engage you to understand what are your needs. And if you need to learn more, we want to make sure that we're linking you up to our resources to ensure that you have access to the resources. So we'll give it about another 15, 20 seconds. You can indicate A, B, or C, or D. Yes, my organization has extensive experience. Yes, though my organization does not currently have a federal grant. Or my organization has limited experience. Or my organization is new to federal grants. All right.

We can go ahead and see what results we have. So it looks like the most, I believe [INDISTINCT], but we had, "My organization is new to the federal grant." So awesome. So if you are new to this process, we're excited about that. We want to make sure that if there's any way that we can reach out to you or you can reach out to us to learn more about the funding that we have. We have so many different funding opportunities that can support the work that you're probably already doing. Please definitely reach out to us. Next slide. Okay. So I'd like to turn this over to Linda.

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Thanks so much, Greg. And I'd love to see that number about, "My organization is new to federal grants," because Greg's right, that's exactly what we want to see and exactly what this solicitation is all about.

So, I'm with the Office of the Assistant Attorney General. Again, my name is Linda and I am Senior Counsel for Racial Justice and Equity. And one of the things I do here at OJP across all the programmatic Offices is work to ensure that communities that have been disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization have greater access to funding and programming that supports their needs and addresses their concerns.

As OJP's mission has changed somewhat slightly, been reinvigorated in a different way, to support communities as co-producers of public safety. And I think we all know that those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by crime violence and victimization are also the same communities that have had greater obstacles in accessing federal funding and greater obstacles to receiving the resources that they need in order to be those co-producers of safety and justice.

So, we created, with BJA's leadership and in cooperation with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Office for Victims of Crime, this funding opportunity. Next slide.

So, what this funding opportunity will provide is funding for a training and technical assistance provider for justice-focused community-based organizations. And again, it's to reach those justice-focused community-based organizations that primarily serve historically marginalized and underserved communities, those communities that have suffered from disinvestment. And for that reason, it also includes rural communities. So the TTA provider will help improve the quality of the programming in these organizations, strengthen their infrastructure and administrative and financial control because we'd like to get these organizations to a point where they can more easily access OJP and other federal funding opportunities. Next slide.

So, as I said before, this is a cooperative grant, a collaborative grant funding opportunity with BJA, OVC, and OJJDP. The organization, the successful applicant for this, will have to demonstrate within the application that they have an established network of community-based organizations that are working on public safety and justice. And because OVC and OJJDP are also contributing to this effort, we want to make sure that the applicant can also, if they're not already connected to youth serving organizations or victim serving organizations, that within the application, they've described a plan to map to those other constituencies because we want to cast a very wide net of who we are helping through this TTA program. Next slide.

So, there will be one award, it will be up to $1 million. The performance start date is October 1st of 2024. And the period of performance is three years, up to 36 months.
So, with that, I have one more. Some allowable use of funds. One thing that actually is a requirement in the solicitation is to conduct a needs assessment and to create a better network, more outreach to community-based organizations in historically marginalized and underserved communities working on these issues, and conduct needs assessments with them to see what the needs of the field are. Developing resources and webinars and videos, and social media. Most of these are just ideas of what can be proposed. Connecting with OJP grantees post-award to identify needs and develop and implement tailored TTA. Folks like Greg have a lot of grantees that they are responsible for assisting. So we're really looking for a TTA provider that can be a great partner to OJP and to the great professionals who help grantees every day to ensure that we're able, we have the capacity to meet the needs of those, especially those first time awardees.

We also would want to see a peer network. There are community-based leaders throughout this country that are doing exceptional work. But, they may need help with establishing a board. Or doing social media or outreach. So they can learn from each other, right? So it would also be about establishing a peer network of those community leaders that can be dispatched to provide some of that hands-on technical assistance that may be needed.

And then, also to create a series of high-quality, easy-to-understand accessible training resources. And again, that can look like videos, can be webinars, it can be, any medium that can be used for training and education. But it has to be available to the public because we really are trying, again, to help build the field. So this is not just about those organizations that already received funding from OJP or from DOJ. We want to build the field to ensure that more organizations that are directly serving these communities have access to federal funding across the board. So with that, you can do the next slide.

GREGORY TORAIN: Thanks, Linda. So the application deadline is two deadlines and there's a two-step process to this. And I'll go more in-depth as we go further into the webinar. So step one is applying —in to the Grants.gov link. The deadline is July 17th, 2014 at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, which is step one of that process. Step two is then applying through JustGrants, which you will be applying the full application. The deadline for that is July 24 on 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Next slide.

So, who is eligible to apply? So I won't read through each one of these but it's listed on your right. So within the solicitation, there are the entities that are eligible to apply for this funding. So I do want to highlight that, but also, what I want to highlight, if you fall within one of these entities that is eligible to apply for funding, one of the notes you'll see throughout the solicitation that's highlighted is that—you look to your left bottom, entities that that fill these eligibility requirements, "Entities should be able to demonstrate experience and expertise serving historically marginalized and underserved communities including rural communities." So if you fall within this eligibility requirement, being able to apply, you must also be able to demonstrate that you have the experience and expertise to serve these communities. Next slide.

So, another poll. So will you be applying for funding under this solicitation? Please indicate yes, no, or not sure. We'll obviously give you maybe 40 seconds to be able to respond to that and then we'll go over the results. Information is always very useful to us. As you can see, not only do we engage the field, we engage those who are applying for funding to make sure we have a good sense of if you plan on applying what's your capability of being able to apply, and then also if there's a way we can continue to support you once you apply. So we'll give it another about 15 seconds, Daryl, and then we'll close the poll. All right. Let's see what we have. So we have 43 that indicated that they're looking to apply and two that said no and then we have 39 not sure. Awesome. That gives us a sense of an idea of those that are on that are looking to apply, so we appreciate your feedback. We'll go to the next slide.

So, if you are able to apply, so, I know we have 43 that indicated that they're looking to apply. If you're looking to apply, please indicate the type of entity that you represent, whether you're a public and state-controlled institution of higher education or small business interest in us to understand. If you're planning on applying, those are eligible, what type of entity that would be applying. So we'll give that another 25 seconds.

Okay, Daryl. I guess we're okay for the results. So it looks like 50 indicated, not an answer, but the most answer we got was nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3). Is that right? No. I'm sorry. That's nonprofits having a 501(c)(3).

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Yup.

GREGORY TORAIN: Okay. All right. Thank you. That gives us a good sense of who may be also applying as well, so let's move on to the next slide though. Okay.
So, we'll go over Section 4, Eligibility and Application Requirements. So when the application we have in the solicitation, at the end of a solicitation, we have application checklist. So it's important to review that checklist when you are looking to submit your application and make sure that you have all the documents that need to be submitted, specifically those that are required. Again, you'll see we have the two-step process. So you have application step process one, which is in Grants.gov. Again, this is required. You can't get to step two if you don't complete step one.

In step one, you want to submit your Application for Federal Assistance. That's the SF424 as well as the Disclosure of Lobbying Activities SF-LLL. Once you complete that process, you'll receive instructions on how to register in to step two, which is the JustGrants. Also what's required is the project Proposal Abstract, the Proposal Narrative, and the Budget Detail Narrative and web-based form. And again, I'll go over those later on in the slide but those are required. Then there's some additional documents that are part of the full application, which is step two where you have the Indirect Cost rate if applicable and other documents that you would need to submit to the application that may be recommended or required. Next slide.

So again, I mentioned the two-step process. First process is to submit the SF-424 and the SF-LLL. And those can be located here in these links listed here. I don't know if you want to take a picture of that. Again, I think these are also listed in the solicitation as well. But that goes to the two-step process and this is stage one of that process in the Grants.gov. Next slide.

So, in Grants.gov, register with Grants.gov. It's a one-step, one-time process. There may be delays. It could take several weeks if you're a first time registering for it to get your username and password. Once you get your username and password, once you go into Grants.gov, you want to locate this solicitation to be able to apply for it. You can locate it either or either with this CDFA number or the Grants.gov opportunity number.

Once you locate it, then you can begin to submit the first step of the process, which is the SF-424 and the SF-LLL. All requirements are due to be submitted in Grants.gov, again, with that deadline of July 11th [July 17] at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Next slide.

Next stage is step two, applying in JustGrants. You have to register and submit that information. For more information about how to do that process, go into the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide and go under "how to." It'll pretty much walk you through the process on how to apply at each stage of that process. So again, the full application is in JustGrants and that needs to be submitted by July 24th. Next slide.

Basic Minimum Requirements, what we refer to as BMR, these are critical elements of the application. If these aren't submitted with your application, the application won't make it past the first screening process. If you do have these, then they would move on to the peer review process which moves on further to potentially receiving an award. The first one is obviously the application and the disclosure form in JustGrants. Then there's Proposal Abstract in JustGrants, the Proposal Narrative in JustGrants, and the Budget Detailed Narrative and Web-based form. One tip I'll provide with this is that sometimes when applicants are submitting this, they may have several people working on writing the application. And one common area that I've seen a lot is that when they finally get to submit the application, sometimes we might have an abstract that may be blank or abstract with a lot of different comments or proposal narrative with comments. So it's usually sometimes not their final document. So make sure before you click that submit button, you check once, twice, 10 times to make sure you got the final document that's being submitted, especially if you're working with a group of individuals that are also submitting application or working with you or working together to submit application. Next slide.

So, the Proposal Abstract, again, one of the required documents, it should be no more than 400 words and it should summarize your project, focusing on the purpose, the primary activities, the expected outcomes, the service area, who are the beneficiaries of the funding, community-based or criminal justice partners that you're networking or partnering with, and if you have any subrecipients that are going to be a part of the application. Next slide.

Then there's Proposal Narrative. Please make sure that when you're reading this information, read clearly instructions on the page limit. Proposal Narrative must be double-spaced, standard 12-point font, one-inch margins and should not exceed 12 number of pages. Failure to comply with this may result in some challenges in doing the peer review process. And one helpful tip is table charts and other graphics can be included in the program narrative and will not be counted against the maximum number of pages nor will font size requirements apply to these graphics. Next slide.

So, in the program narrative, and this is really the beef of the application, there are five sections. There's the Description of Issue. And notice each section has a percentage that is being weighed on. So the Description of the Issue is really identifying what the challenge is or the issue that you'll plan to address. And B, you talk about the Project Design and Implementation is how you plan on addressing that issue. Capabilities and Competencies is your capability to be able to implement that strategy, your experience and expertise is indicated there. D, the Plan for Collecting Data Required within the solicitation, be it the performance measures indicated in the solicitation. And then the Budget, your budget should be completeness, cost effectiveness, and allowable. It's important to make sure that your budget is aligned with your Project Design and Capabilities and Competencies, so whatever you put in your budget, it should be described in the rest of that narrative.

And a couple of different things I want to highlight as well. As you can see, Project Design and Implementation as well as Capabilities and Competencies represent 80 percent of the score. So 80 percent of the time that you're focused on this application should be in those two areas. That's pretty much the meat of this application. So you want to put most of your time in this. And just my experience working with our peer reviewers and I guess a long time ago when I used to do applications, one of the things you want to make sure you do, one, is that you want to make sure when you're doing the application, addressing each one of those categories, you want to make sure you address each question and then you want to make sure that you're responding in that right section to make sure it's easy for the peer reviewer to find the information. Last thing you want the peer reviewer to do is just looking for the information. One thing I would recommend is that when you're looking to write the application, I would just go into the solicitation, cut and paste the Description of the Issue, that section, and then respond and give yourself space underneath each question to make sure that you then respond to each individual question. That way that you're responding to all the questions and at the same time, you're making sure that that response is in that area where that peer reviewer will be reviewing. So that's just like a tip that I see. Next slide. So I'll turn it back over to Linda.

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Great. Thanks, Greg. So for those of you who have applied to OJP solicitations in the last couple of years, you've seen priority areas for advancing equity and increasing access and opportunities for communities that have been historically marginalized, underserved, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization. We've included both priority areas within this TTA solicitation, so within your application, you should identify why your project is going to advance equity, increase access and opportunities for those communities. The easy part is the 1A, priority consideration. But the targeting of this TTA is to those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization, we are also providing for reconsideration to applicants that can demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing that proposed project are on hand because either they are a population-specific organization, and I'll explain that in a second, or that they will partner with a population-specific organization that will receive at least 40 percent of their requested award's funding.

And let me tell you right now, because we get a lot of questions about this. You will not get priority consideration if you're proposing a subrecipient that is population-specific and you're proposing two, right? So you'll give 20 percent to that one and 20 percent to the other subrecipients. That will not work. So at least one of the proposed subrecipients have to have 40% of the project funding in order for the applicant to receive priority consideration. That does not mean however, that you cannot partner with a lot of population-specific organizations or other types of organizations to may perhaps match to those other constituencies.

For example, let's say you are a national organization that works on a large array of criminal justice issues but you don't work on JJ, on juvenile justice issues, so you might want to bring in a partner that has that network so that you can enhance your application and demonstrate that as an applicant, you put together the right team to give BJA and JJ and OVC what they are looking for. So, a population-specific organization are nongovernmental, nonprofit, or tribal organization that primarily serve a specific underserved population and have demonstrated experience and expertise providing targeted services to members of that specific underserved population. So sometimes that's called a by/for organization, right? For us, by us, right? But it is an organization that is specifically designed to serve a certain population. And that can be many things. We kept it very broad so that the applicant could demonstrate what that population is that they serve. So it could be Latino communities, it can be communities of color at large, it can be rural communities, it can be the disabled community, it can be LGBTQ. So there are several ways that an applicant can demonstrate that they're a population-specific organization. Not that they just serve those populations, but that's part of their design and mission. Next slide.

So, next poll. If you're applying for funding, will you be requesting a priority consideration under 1B? Meaning that you either are a population-specific organization or you are seeking to partner with a population-specific organization. And let's give it maybe 20 more seconds. I just lost it. Let's see. Yes. Okay. This is great. Wonderful. All right. Next slide.

So, again, as we've said several times now that the applicant must demonstrate that it has an existing established network of relationships with community-based and population-specific organizations. However, like I said before, you can partner with organizations but let's say you're an organization network to some broader criminal justice issues, you can certainly partner with a subrecipient that works on delinquency, victimization, if that's not currently in your network of organizations. But you do have to have familiarity with OJP programs, federal funding opportunities, and the rules, and knowledge of grant administration and management laws, regulations and policies, and a successful record working with and on behalf of historically marginalized and underserved communities as one of your organization's primary mission. And why is this so important? It's because this grant is only for three years, and we want to ensure that whatever TTA provider is selected can really hit the ground running and doesn't have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to build up that network, and really know how to access those communities that have been disproportionately impacted by crime violence and victimization. Next one.

So, I know there was a question in the chat that I answered. The recipient of this award will be expected to consult and collaborate with the existing TTA providers at OJP, that's the Office for Victims of Crime's Financial Management Resource Center and National Center for Culturally Responsive Victim Services, BJA's National Training and Technical Assistance Center, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's National Training and Technical Assistance Center, and all other OJP technical assistance providers, and that is because we want to ensure, again, that we're maximizing outreach to justice-focused community-based organizations that are current OJP grantees, but then also that were not duplicating TTA deliverables or services overall so that we can really do some really great, innovative things through this particular program. And then I think the next is yours, Greg.

GREGORY D. TORAIN: All right. Thanks, Linda. All right. The next one is also a required document that has to be a part of the application, which is the Budget Detail and Narrative Web-Based Form, which is in JustGrants. For more information about how to access the web-based form and how to fill it out, you can go to this link which is also included in the solicitation. Next slide.

So, I want to go over some of the application resources. Next slide.

So, one thing I mentioned early is the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide. In here, as you go to your right, it's kind of really small, but it talks about how to apply, and it goes over each section of the application process, kind of walk you through it. So any question you have, that guide will be helpful for you in terms of how to walk through sending your application. So, next slide.

And then we have the JustGrants resource page. You can see the link at the bottom where the website is. It has a lot of different resources in terms of trainings, a lot of support you can get from there, resources, any news or updates. Definitely please visit the JustGrants website for more information about the JustGrants process. Next slide.

Here, in terms of any assistance or technical assistance you need in terms of applying through Grants.gov, you have the customer support line there with the number, the days and times of operation, as well as a web link and email. Then you also have on the other side is the JustGrants support system where you can go on there and it has the customer support hotline number, again, the times of operation that you can call, as well as an email link to ask questions. Next slide.

So here, if you're interesting to learn more about what we're doing at OJP, you can simply subscribe or see email updates by texting OJP including your email address to 468-311 to subscribe, and you'll hear the latest information about our funding opportunities, the latest news, some of the things that we're doing at Office of Justice Programs. So definitely subscribe so you'll be in the know with OJP. Next slide.

So, we have, at BJA, how to stay connected, we have our Facebook, our Twitter, as well as our YouTube. And then below we have our BJA website where you can be caught up on the latest funding opportunities, as well as our publications and any of the initiatives that we're doing at BJA. Next slide.

And then for any additional information, you can contact our OJP Response Center. This is related to any questions you have regarding the solicitation. They must go through our OJP Response Center. That way, we're able to collect those questions and be able to respond to you -in an organized fashion, but also it's helpful for us. Again, we're always looking at ways we can collect data to understand how we can do better, and it allows us to go back and see what are the questions that we receive the most, to be able to identify where there may be challenges in terms of translating that message in our solicitation to make sure that when we do our updated solicitations, we're addressing those questions that we get the most of, so. But that's that process if you have questions related to the programmatic aspect of the solicitation. Next slide.

Again, we're going to hit you again with the dual deadlines, making sure that you understand it's a two-step process, and that step one is the submitting Grants.gov and then JustGrants is step two. Next slide.

And again, this is just a quick reference of the important contacts that I just mentioned earlier, Grants.gov, how you can reach them, how you can reach JustGrants, and then how you can reach the OJP Response Center. Next slide. Then I'll turn it back over to Daryl for our Q&A.

DARYL FOX: Thank you so much, Gregory. Thanks, Linda. Just a reminder, as you start to gather your questions, that the recording, Power Point, and transcript for today will be posted to BJA's website. Everybody on today's call or that registered actually will receive an email when and where to access that, so keep on the lookout for that. If you have a question today, just enter it in the Q&A box and we will go ahead and go through it as we have quite a bit of time left in today's session. And, some of these had been answered, but to get them on the recording, then we can go ahead and just kind of rehash some of these, so.

"Are we identifying new grantees for this grant during the first year and also working with existing OJP grantees that would be engaged by us post-award?"

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Yeah, I guess I somewhat misread that question. So first part of the question I did answer, you're not expected to identify new grantees because this will be a very collaborative program. But, OJP will be letting you know who are our new grantees so that you can do some of that outreach. But you could also be referred grantees by a program manager or by a colleague or another organization. So there's many ways that you'll be engaged as a TTA provider. And then also coordinating with the OJP internal TTA providers.

DARYL FOX: "Can you just again clarify what justice-focused means regarding this opportunity? Does it mean law enforcement specifically or is it a little more broad?"

LINDA A. SEABROOK: No. It's not necessarily law enforcement. It's any organization that's working on criminal justice issues across the board. So that could be an organization that works on reentry or organizations that work on community violence intervention, or a prevention organization. Or an organization that works on community engagement and policing, let's say. But the only requirement is that it has to be a community-based organization rather than a law enforcement organization.

DARYL FOX: "Since there will be only one award, is it expected to be a national-inscope-type project?"

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Yes. I believe that's the intention. Again, we want to, as OJP, also expand our network, so that's really what we're going to be looking for this TTA provider, to help us with and do for us as well, so that we can ensure that we're reaching as many communities across the nation that are experiencing high levels of crime violence and victimization and get them the resources they need.

DARYL FOX: And there was actually two questions on this. “The category one was the TTA network and support, but there's five categories? Are those part of this specific opportunity as well?”

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Yeah. I don't understand that question, yeah.

GREGORY D. TORAIN: Yeah. I think it's just one category. Those might be, I don't know, objectives in that one category or focusing…

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Yeah.

GREGORY D. TORAIN: But, yeah, I don't think I understand that.

LINDA A. SEABROOK: Yeah. It might be. It might be the requirements that we kind of put in for resources. I don't know.

DARYL FOX: Not sure about this. "Is this grant a reimbursement grant?" Probably in relation to how funds are distributed once awarded.

GREGORY D. TORAIN: Yeah. Once awarded, yeah, it's a proper agreement, so once it's awarded, you're being reimbursed for after services, so, yeah.

DARYL FOX: And regarding the 501(c)(3) is not allowed to lobby—limitations—how are they instructed to fill out the lobbying form in the Grants.gov system?

GREGORY D. TORAIN: Yeah. The lobbying form is a requirement, part of the application process, and really the focus of it is to disclose lobbying activities that may influence outcome to federal actions. So you have to be able to provide the lobbying form as part of the requirement, so.

DARYL FOX: "Are there any examples listed of justice-focused organizations that may be able to be referenced?"

LINDA SEABROOK: I think if any organization that touches any part of the criminal justice system from a community framing. So that can be an organization that helps returning citizens to get employment or workforce development or housing. So it could be those types of organizations. It could be a victim services organization, it could be an organization that works with at-risk youth, a mentoring organization. So any organization that works in communities that are disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization and works on those criminal justice issues.

DARYL FOX: And then, “Just to clarify on the opportunity itself, it's specifically for an organization that provides TTA to community-based orgs and not for the community-based orgs themselves, correct?”

LINDA SEABROOK: Right. It's for a TTA provider that has a network to community-based organizations. I wouldn't say that you have to currently maybe provide TTA to organizations, but if you can establish that you have that expertise in order to develop and implement a TTA program, and you have that network that is required then that would be an applicant that's appropriate to apply.

DARYL FOX: The next question refers to another opportunity through BJA called National Initiatives for Law Enforcement Training and TA, and that webinar is likely forthcoming, so that'll be announced in the coming dates, if not, by next week. So do keep an eye out on BJA's website and that opportunity for that webinar. And then, , “Just generally, is this able to be used for network neighborhood watch programs through police departments as far as ineligibility?”

LINDA SEABROOK: I'm sorry, Daryl. I didn't hear that.

DARYL FOX: I guess for eligibility, are neighborhood watch programs through police department eligible for this particular opportunity?

LINDA SEABROOK: No. It would have to be a community-based organization or national organization that serves communities. And with that…

GREGORY TORAIN: Yup. And within those eligibility requirements.

LINDA SEABROOK: Right. Exactly.

GREGORY TORAIN: Yeah.

DARYL FOX: Great. And I'll leave this slide up for a few moments as we go through for that person. And for anybody else that may have questions in eligibility.
“Is there an estimate on how many grantees one will be working with under this grant as the TTA provider, or organizations, I guess, would be the question?

LINDA SEABROOK: Yeah. I'm not sure. I mean, Greg, feel free to jump in. But I'm not sure we can give you any type of estimate. I think what we would be looking for, though, are those organizations that has a well-developed plan of how to do that outreach in a way that's efficient but also meaningful.

DARYL FOX: And then generally, if one does have questions about the grant process, I'll go ahead and put this slide up as well. It's going to have contact information for each step of the process. You got your Grants.gov, the JustGrants for the full application, and then for anything programmatic requirements that Greg mentioned, the OJP Response Center is who you want to contact there. So I'll leave these up. So once we conclude today, if you have any additional questions, you can contact those entities directly. They're very responsive on the whole.

Once again, this is just for one award to be made. I'll go ahead and put that slide back up. Let's see, where was that? There it is. So here's the number of awards up to $1 million and then performance start date and the period of performance.

And, “Can one partner with federally recognized tribes along as the prime?"

GREGORY TORAIN: I'm sorry. What was the question?

DARYL FOX: The question is, "Can you partner with federally recognized tribes?" I'm assuming as a subgrantee as a main applicant perhaps. The person wants to clarify a little bit.

GREGORY TORAIN: Yeah, if you have the applicant which would be the person that's applying, they can identify who would be the subrecipient or the subawardee.

LINDA SEABROOK: And, Greg, since tribal governments are one of those that are eligible to apply, then it would be okay . GREGORY TORAIN: Tribes are eligible to apply. Yeah, they fall within the entity eligible to apply.

LINDA SEABROOK: Right. Just want to make sure.

GREGORY TORAIN: Yeah.

DARYL FOX: And then, “Is the role of the TTA provider to propose how they could provide services to OJP grantees or does the proposal need to target a project or community specifically?”

LINDA SEABROOK: So, I would say that the successful applicant should demonstrate maybe both, right? So how they will connect with OJP to learn of the needs of existing OJP grantees, but then also how that TTA provider is going to engage or create or expand its network of community-based organizations that are serving historically marginalized and underserved communities that are disproportionately impacted by crime and violence in order to assess the needs of those organizations and then create resources and tools and other mediums for training and technical assistance from there. It's not contemplated and it's probably not possible, right? To have one-on-one TTA with everyone who may want TTA from this provider. But there should be a very thoughtful plan about how you're going to meet the needs of as many as possible through the design and implementation of your proposed project.

DARYL FOX: “Is this a new opportunity this year or was this offered in the past?”

LINDA SEABROOK: Yeah, this is a brand new opportunity, again to further OJP's mission to support communities as co-producers of safety and justice. So we want to make sure that we're resourcing those communities to be those effective co-producers.

DARYL FOX: Do the homeless population or justice-involved population count for priority 1B consideration?

LINDA SEABROOK: Yes. If there's an organization that is designed to help the homeless or justice-involved populations, then that would be a population specific organization, yes.

DARYL FOX: "And then can an entity apply if they've previously received grants from OJP?"

GREGORY TORAIN: Yes, they would be able to apply. Sometimes we have applicants that already have a current [INDISTINCT] and they're applying for some similar to what they're already currently being funded for, but yeah, they can still apply for an OJP if they have one already.

LINDA SEABROOK: That being said, it's really encouraging to see so many folks who haven't applied before [INDISTINCT] in this opportunity, so.

GREGORY TORAIN: Definitely.

DARYL FOX: Then just for clarification on eligibility, are law enforcement agencies part of the definition of community-based organizations?

LINDA SEABROOK: No, community-based organizations are exactly that. Those are that rooted and grounded in a community. So that would not be affiliated with the government or law enforcement or otherwise.

DARYL FOX: And once again, I'll go ahead and put this slide up. If you do have questions once we conclude today [INDISTINCT] that's the end of the queue at this time. We do have some more time today. If you'd have a question, please enter it in. And also put up this dual deadline. And once again, so you got set up one for the grants...

LINDA SEABROOK: And even if you're not like absolutely that you're going to apply, don't miss that grants.gov deadline because I used to be in the field and an applicant. And I'll tell you, that hurts when you finally get everything together and you're like, "You know what? I am going to apply." And then you don't. You forgot. The Grants.gov deadline passed you. So just do it even if you're not quite sure you're going to submit an application.

DARYL FOX: This is another clarification on eligibility, Peace Officers' Association. They're a non-profit of volunteers, is that something for consideration?

LINDA SEABROOK: Again, that Peace Officers' Association would have to demonstrate that they have a network of community-based organizations working on crime, violence, and victimization.

DARYL FOX: And then just generally, there may be a slide on this but this person is interested in the responsibilities of the organization who actually gets awarded the grant. Perhaps this one, Linda, just in general . LINDA SEABROOK: Sorry. Yeah, I'm not understanding the question, I guess.

DARYL FOX: Basically, the gist of the solicitation opportunity and what the TTA provider will be doing as part of the award . LINDA SEABROOK: Sure. So they'll be working on developing and implementing training and technical assistance to these justice-focused community-based organizations. But those organizations that primarily serve historically marginalized and underserved communities, including rural communities that are disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization in several ways, helping them improve the quality of their programming. You can help with creating logic models. Logic models is how we, kind of, solve problems, right? So maybe it's about that. Maybe it's about making a strategic plan. Maybe it's about improving your board or board engagement for a community-based organization. Or it could be about strengthening the administrative and financial controls so that that organization will be able to do the reporting and the record keeping that's required for receiving federal money, so things such as that.

DARYL FOX: Great. Then they followed up with a thank you on that. So very clear on that. And that's at the end of the queue at this time. So we are at 2:00. Is there anything in closing that you all wanted to address before we conclude?

GREGORY TORAIN: I would just say good luck to everybody that looks to apply. We look forward to you submitting your application and good luck.

LINDA SEABROOK: Thank you for your interest. We're very excited about this and would love to see you apply.

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