FY24 Veterans Treatment Court Discretionary Grant Program

SCOTT TIROCCHI: Welcome to the Veterans Treatment Court Discretionary Grant Program. My name is Scott Tirocchi and I'm with Justice for Vets. This PowerPoint presentation is on fiscal year 2024, competitive grant announcement.

Some important administrative notes prior to starting. This set—this is being recorded, so we'll be available afterwards. If you are having difficulties hearing today's webinar, if you're listening via computer, simply click the arrow that's going up next to the mute icon to make adjustments. And if you still can't hear, you can always call in using your phone. The phone number is in your webinar invitation.

There's Zoom features I want to chat about. There's a Q&A box and a chat box. We will be monitoring them, so please feel free to put in some questions there and we will be responding to you, either during the actual presentation or following it. There is live captioning. Simply click on the live transcript radio button to enable subtitles. If you have questions about the presentation, feel free again to send it at any time during it by using that Q&A box and selecting all panelists. And as I started off saying, the recording transcript and PowerPoint will be posted to the BJA and NTCRC websites.

Today's presenters are Ingrid Lara-Madison, who is the Senior Policy Advisor for BJA and Dr. Courtney Stewart, who is the Policy Advisor.

The agenda is as follows. We'll have a welcome and introduction to OJP and BJA. We'll talk about the Veterans Treatment Court Appropriations; OJP and BJA Priority Areas; grant categories, including eligibility and requirements; the application steps; the tips to applicants; the application resources and a Q&A.

Prior to getting started and turning this over to Dr. Courtney Stewart, we just wanted to pop up one poll today. And the poll question is, do you plan to apply for the VTC solicitation? Just take a few seconds to respond to that. We would appreciate it.

OK. This is fantastic. About 86% of participants. Looks like a lot of folks are applying, and a lot of folks are undecided right now. OK, that's fair.

OK. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Courtney Stewart. Dr. Stewart, you're up.

COURTNEY STEWART: Thank you, Scott, and hello and welcome everyone. My name is Courtney Stewart, and I am the Policy Advisor for the Veterans Treatment Court Discretionary Grant Program. I'm glad that you are here and that you have interest for applying for the funding.

As we move forward, we will start with an introduction to the Office of Justice Programs and BJA. Next slide.

What is the Office of Justice Programs? The Office of Justice Programs provides grant funding, training, research, and statistics to the criminal justice community. OJP is one of the 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, also known as the COPS Office. Next slide.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance was created in 1984 to reduce violent crime, create safer communities, and reform our nation's criminal justice system. BJA strengthens the nation's criminal justice system and helps America’s state, local, and Tribal jurisdictions reduce and prevent crime, reduce recidivism, and promote a fair and safe 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. Next slide, please.

How does BJA support the field? BJA supports the field by the following three ways: through investments, providing diverse funding to accomplish goals; by sharing knowledge, research, development, and deliver what works to build capacity and improve outcomes; and by engagement by consulting, connecting, and convening. Next slide.

Veterans Treatment Court Appropriations. Next slide.

The Veterans Treatment Court discretionary grant program appropriations have grown over the years. As you can see from the slide here, we've started out in fiscal year 2018 with $20 million. And now in fiscal year 24, we're at $33 million. And although you can see that we had a slight cut to the budget last year, we still have ample funding, and we are still looking forward to providing you with funding to support your programs. Next slide.

The fiscal year 24 Veterans Treatment Court Appropriation will support the following. It will support Veterans Treatment Court Programs, like your programs. It will support National Treatment Court Training and Technical Assistance to assist your programs in meeting your goals. And it also supports research and evaluations. Next slide.

Now we will discuss the OJP and BJA priority areas. Next slide.

OJP priority areas include 1A: Applications that proposed projects that are designed to meaning meaningfully advance equity and remove barriers to access and services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequity and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.

To receive priority 1A consideration, the applicant must describe how the proposed projects will address identified inequities and contribute to greater access to services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization. A few examples are improving victim service programs, reentry services, or prevention initiatives.

OJP's additional priority area is 1B. Applicants that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed projects are enhanced because they are, 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 inequity, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization. Next slide, please.

BJA’s Veteran's Treatment Court priority areas are serving high-risk/high-need participants as determined by a validated risk assessment tool; adhering to the Justice for Vets 10 key components of Veterans Treatment Courts; ensuring equity and inclusion via collection and retention—of retention and access data; coordinating with the VA and local Veterans Justice Outreach, or VJO, specialist; expanding services to veterans who cannot or do not have access to VA resources; supporting veterans in Tribal communities; and early and accurate identification of veterans via VRSS, which is the Veterans Reentry Search Service, or Squares, which is the Status Query and Response Exchange System. Next slide.

Now I would like to turn the presentation over to my colleague, Ingrid LARA-MADISON. Thank you.

INGRID LARA-MADISON: Thank you, Courtney. Good afternoon, everyone. In the next section, we're going to discuss grant categories, eligibility, and requirements. Next slide, please.

Program goal. So, BJA's program goal is to provide Veterans Treatment Courts and criminal justice professionals with the resources needed to implement, enhance, and sustain evidence-based treatment and recovery support programs and systems for justice-involved veterans who have substance use disorders. Next slide, please.

We have three categories here. The first one, category one, implementation—I'm sorry, planning and implementation. These grants are available for eligible jurisdictions ready to implement a program within six months of a planning phase followed by an implementation phase for Veterans Treatment Court.

Category two, enhancement grants, are available to eligible jurisdictions with an operational Veterans Treatment Court. A few examples on how funding may be used is to scale up the existing court program, improve quality and/or intensity of services based on needs assessments, or enhance court operations.

For category three, state applicants may apply for funding to improve, enhance, or expand Veterans Treatment Court services statewide. Statewide activities may include scaling up capacity for one or more local, state, or Tribal veteran treatment program, delivering statewide training and technical assistance, or collecting data and conducting analysis to assess the practice.

Please note funding to specifically plan, implement, and enhance a Veteran Treatment Court is available under the BJA Veterans Treatment Court discretionary grant solicitation. Next slide, please.

It should be noted that it's recommended that an eligible entity, such as a unit of local government or county, apply to categories one and two on behalf of a Veterans Treatment Court and attach a fiscal agent memorandum of understanding, or MOU. The 6-month planning phase requires all new grantees to participate in the BJA-sponsored free foundational training, if not received in the past 12 months. Foundational training trains court teams on skills necessary to build a program that integrates court and treatment functions and adheres to best practice standards. Next slide, please.

In this slide, you'll find the different eligibility for categories one, two, and three. In addition to the entities eligible to apply under categories one and two are public and private entities acting on behalf of a single Veterans Treatment Court through an agreement with the state city, township, county, or Tribal governments can also apply. Under category three, BJA will consider applications under which two or more entities would carry out the federal award. However, only one entity may be the applicant. Any others must be proposed as subrecipients or subgrantees. Next slide, please.

Please make sure you have enough time to develop your application. The due date is also listed on the first page of the solicitation. Take into account the time required to register to apply, prepare the application, gather the required attachments, and complete any local, state, or Tribal review processes. There are two different deadlines. The first deadline is on Grants.gov, deadline being May 2, and the second deadline is JustGrants on May 9. Next slide, please.

In this poll question, what type of treatment court services will you be requesting BJA to fund and support?

I'm not able to see the answers. Scott, please let us know when you’ve received answers. 

TIROCCHI: We are going to let a few more trickle in and then we'll share those results. There we go. 

LARA-MADISON: Great. Thank you. Next slide, please.

Veteran Treatment Court Services are a priority for our director, Carlton Moore. In addition to the services that are offered here for funding, Veteran Treatment Court solicitation funds can also be used for equipment, training needs, evaluations, management information systems, after-care support, enhancing risk and needs assessment screenings, performance reporting, transportation for program participants, drug testing services and supplies, electronic monitoring such as scram ankle bracelets, drug court staffing positions, map services, temporary housing support, peer support or peer mentors, and any type of access to treatment service that a participant would need in the program. Next slide, please.

When applying, please determine if your agency has the capacity to do the work or if you need additional resources. Identify community-based organizations and agencies to partner with to address potential gaps in capacity. Helpful hint is to identify if you need partners, and if so, reach out to them as soon as possible. Next slide, please.

Passing it to you, Courtney.

STEWART: We will discuss the application steps. Next slide, please.

Planning and organizing. The first application step is Grants.gov. Earlier in the presentation, I believe we had an error in the dates. The actual date to register with Grants.gov is June 20. That is the actual date, so please take note of that. And we will update the slides to reflect that. And the second part of the application process is registration in JustGrants. You should register and complete all of your information in JustGrants by June 27. And again, we will update the slides to ensure that you have the correct information.

OJP recommends that applicants submit the complete application package in JustGrants at least 48 hours prior to the JustGrants deadline. An applicant will receive emails when successfully—successfully submitting in Grants.gov and JustGrants and should maintain all emails and other confirmations received from SAM.gov.

So, what happens if you missed the deadline due to unforeseen technical issues? OJP will only consider requests to submit an application after the deadline when the applicant can document that a technical issue with a government system prevented submission of the application on time. An applicant can submit a waiver after the deadline. The waiver will not be considered unless it includes documentation of attempts to receive technical assistance to resolve the issue prior to the application deadline. A tracking number is the most typical documentation and is generated when the applicant contacts the applicable service desk and reports technical difficulties. Next slide.

Basic minimum requirements. The solicitation identifies basic minimum requirements that an applicant must meet to move forward to the peer review process. The critical elements of the application include your project abstract, your budget web-based form, and your timeline web-based form. Next slide.

Proposal abstract. A proposal abstract should be no more than 400 words summarizing the proposed project, including its purpose, primary activities, expected outcomes, the service area, intended beneficiaries, and subrecipients if you know at that time who your subrecipients will be. And it must be completed in the JustGrants web-based form. The abstract should be in paragraph form without bullets or tables, written in third person, and exclude personally identifiable information. The abstract should identify the program type; pre- or post-adjudication; number of participants proposed to receive services; identify the minimum, maximum, and average length of program participation; and who will be the target population. In addition, whether the court has access to MAT.

Abstracts will be made publicly available on the OJP and USASpending.gov websites if the project is awarded. And detailed information can be found in the solicitation, so please take note of the information that I've just given you because that will be very important as you are—as you're putting together your application. Next slide.

The proposal narrative should be submitted as an attachment in JustGrants. The applicant may include tables, charts, and graphs as part of the proposal narrative. And these items will count towards the page limit unless included as a separate attachment. So, you want to ensure that your proposal narrative has the following features: double-spaced, standard, 12-point font; 1-inch margins; and it should not exceed 20 numbered pages. And the sections that you should include in your proposal narrative is the description of the issue, which is worth 20 percent of your total score; your project design and implementation, which is worth 40 percent of your total score; your capabilities and competencies, which is worth 20 percent of your total score; the plan for collecting the data required for the solicitation's performance measures, which is 15 percent of your total score; and your budget, finally, which is the last 5 percent. Next slide, please.

Description of the issue. You should be responding to key data points of challenges and those to be—I'm sorry, of challenges and those to be served and their needs. See the request for proposal for specific bullet points to be addressed based on which category you are applying for.

 Project design and implementation, 40 percent. State the name, location, and address where the proposed treatment court program is or will be operating. Define what type of adult treatment court or veterans court for which funds are requested and describe how applicants will use funding to incorporate the evidence-based program principles included in all—in the All Rise 10 Best Practice Standards. Next slide.

Proposal narrative. Capabilities and competencies. Identify each member of the treatment court team and briefly describe their role and responsibilities. Key team members must include a judge, prosecutor, defense attorney, treatment court provider, research evaluation and management information specialist, and treatment court coordinator. 

Plan for collecting the data required for this solicitation's form performance measures. Describe the court's current ability to collect and analyze client-level demographic, performance measurements, and outcomes data and to conduct regular assessments of program service delivery and performance. And then your budget will be 5 percent of your total score. Next slide.

Now we’re going to talk for a moment about the timeline web-based form. In this form, you should describe the project’s intent to change, reduce, or eliminate the problem noted in the proposal. You should summarize major activities, expected date of completion, and responsible agencies. You should indicate the number of program participants to be served quarterly. And additional information, again, can be in the solicitation for specific expected deliverables based on the category for which you are applying. Next slide please.

Now I'll return it back over to Ingrid to talk more about planning and organizing your budget.

LARA-MADISON: When it comes to planning and organizing your budget, please draft your budget early in this process. Before you make commitments, make sure you carefully read and understand any required budget expenses detailed in the application, especially required grantee meetings. Also, make sure that you read carefully to understand any caps on expenses or expenses that are not allowed. If you need an additional resource, you can click on this hyperlink to the DOJ Grants Financial Guide to help you walk through this process. Next slide.

The budget and budget narrative. There should be no expenses in the budget that are not referenced in the proposal narrative. Example, do not ask for drug testing supplies if you have not included drug testing as a component in your project description. The budget should include adequate funding to fully implement the project. Do not—but not more than the amount listed in the solicitation as the available funding amount. The total federal request entered in the SF-424 should match the total federal request in the application budget for the entire project period. More information on budget narratives can be found on page 30 in the solicitation. Next slide, please.

Budget and budget narrative. So here you want to make sure that you're itemizing your budget for each year. The VTC program does not require match funds. The budget narrative should relate directly to the project design. There should not be any expenses in the budget that are not referenced in your proposal narrative. Applicants should estimate the cost of travel and accommodations for up to three categories one and two or eight category three team members to attend up to two conferences and/or trainings each year to support ongoing capacity and success in implementation. Prior approval, planning, and reporting of conference meeting training costs is required. Next slide, please.

Additional attachments that you want to make sure to include as part of your application. These are—you can find them on this slide, but you can also find them on pages 33, 34, and page 40 of the solicitation packet. Anything that says recommended—for example, resumes, CVs, letters of support, research and evaluation, timeline web-based forms, State Substance Abuse Agency Director of Designee Letters, or MOUs—are highly recommended to strengthen your application. Anything that says “if applicable” pertains to the individual applicant. If it's applicable to you, then please include it as part as your application. Next slide.

Additional attachments here. Items designated as required must be submitted for the application to meet basic minimum requirements of review. If OJP determines that an application does not include the designated items, it will neither proceed to peer review nor receive further consideration. There is a checklist on page 39 of the solicitation packet. Next slide, please.

Equitable access. BJA requires applicants to describe a plan to collect and examine access and retention data to identify and eliminate disparities that exist for race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability in admission protocols or elsewhere in the Adult Treatment Court program. The plan must include use of the All Rise and National Center for State Courts Equity and Inclusion Assessment Toolkit or incorporate the American University Racial and Ethnic Disparities Program Assessment Tool, also known as RED Tool. Next slide.

Another poll question: Does your treatment court currently collect and examine data to identify and eliminate access and retention disparities in your program?

TIROCCHI: And those are adding up quickly, Ingrid.

LARA-MADISON: I'm excited to see the results. Thank you.

TIROCCHI: Cindy, if you could share those results, that'd be great.

LARA-MADISON: Okay, it's a pretty good mix. Next slide, please.

BJA will offer technical assistance to grantees to build or expand their capacity to provide access to medication assisted treatment. For more information regarding BJA's provisions on medication assisted treatment, please review the solicitation, and go to the link provided.

So just to note, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division published guidance to further clarify protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act for medications with opioid use disorder, including potential violations of the ADA, by facilities or programs that do not allow individuals to be able to continue taking doctor-prescribed MOUD. Next slide.

Controlled Substance Act award recipients are prohibited from using federal funds to support programs or activities that violate the Controlled Substance Use Act. Programs or activities funded under a BJA ATC award must ensure that participants are tested periodically for the use of controlled substances, including medical marijuana. Next slide, please.

Violent offenders under the Veterans Treatment Court funds. Applicants can serve veterans charged with violent or non-violent offenses using these funds. So, there is no violent offender prohibition when you're applying the VTC funds. Next slide.

National Treatment Court Resource Center has created a helpful tool to assist applicants through the solicitation application process. Depending on the category you're applying under, NTCRC has created a checklist to simplify the process. We highly encourage you all to visit their website. In addition, BJA may require grantees to participate in the Painting the Current Picture Survey, a national report on treatment courts in the United States. Next slide.

Handing it back to you, Courtney.

STEWART: Now we just want to give a few tips for applicants to ensure that your application is received and that you are able to go through the peer review process and hopefully receive an award. So, if you follow these tips, you will avoid the most common mistakes.

JustGrants. Please carefully read the “How To Apply” instruction linked in the solicitation and give yourself plenty of time to complete the Grants.gov and JustGrants submissions by the established deadline.

SF-424/UEI or SAM. Please ensure the correct UEI number is entered into the SF-424 and that it is registered in SAM. The specific agency registered under this UEI number in SAM will be responsible for submitting the full application in JustGrants and administering the award if it is funded. 

The SF-424, applicant information, and budget. The federal request amount is the total grant award you are requesting, and it must be reflected in the JustGrants applicant information and the budget. The total project costs entered in the budget must include federal and non-federal funds.

And the last section is budget/allowable costs. Do not include any of the prohibited costs listed on page 30 of the solicitation. Next slide, please.

Additional information that will be helpful to you as you prepare your application packet is information on the budget subawards versus procurement contracts. You should carefully review the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide, also linked in the solicitation, subsection titled, “Information on Proposed Subawards (if any) and Proposed Procurement Contracts (if any),” and the resources linked to their end to ensure you properly categorize your costs in these sections.

Budget and Match. Every line item in the budget should be identified as either federal or non-federal. All non-federal match cost items must meet the same allowable guidelines as federal cost. Please note that the Veterans Treatment Court program does not require a match. So, you do not require a match, but you do have to include all of your line items in your budget.

Application attachments. Follow the instructions exactly in the application and submission section beginning on page 17. It is helpful for reviewers if you upload each required attachment as a separate file named and number to match the solicitation. If you combine files, please include a table of contents. Next slide, please.

Application and attachment common issues. The disclosure of pending applications is required for all applicants, and it is completed in JustGrants. The research and evaluation independence and integrity statement attachment is required if you are proposing to use federal funds and pay an outside evaluator. And the timeline web-based form must indicate the number of program participants to be served quarterly to demonstrate how the total of anticipated participants will be served before the end of the grant period. Next slide, please.

Application resources. Next slide.

This slide has the Veterans Treatment Court resource links. So, if you would like some additional resources, these links will be live when you receive a copy of the presentation, and you can click on the links and get additional information for Veterans Treatment Courts. Next slide.

BJA Grant Application Education Series. If you would like to access previous webinar recordings, transcripts, and slides, please use this link and you will have access to that information as well. Next slide.

You will also receive all of these links live to the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide. This resource guide starts with how to apply and walks you step by step in developing your application. So please, this is very, very useful information. I highly recommend that you use this resource guide. Next slide, please.

This slide will give you live links to learn about the Department of Justice Grants and Payment Management Systems. Next slide.

If you need application assistance with Grants.gov, we have listed the Customer Support Hotline, the web and the email, and also the same information for the JustGrants Technical Support. You have listed the Customer Support Hotline and the web and email address if you need any additional application assistance. And please, if you're having some problems, call or reach out sooner than later. Don't wait until the last minute because, you know, sometimes there's a lot of calls at the last minute. So please, as soon as you feel like you need assistance, please don't hesitate to use the resource. These are all, all of our—next slide, please.

These are all of our social media links. So, Facebook, X, and YouTube, please go on and check us out and see some of our—some of our trainings and some of our additional information about Veterans Treatment Courts. Next slide, please.

Your quick references, your important contacts are listed here for Grants.gov, JustGrants, and also the OJP Response Center. All of those are listed here for you to utilize. And again, please reach out sooner than later.

And we are at the end of the presentation. So now we will have time to take questions. And I've actually been looking in the chat, taking a peek in the chat and the most asked question was the deadline. So of course, the deadlines are different than what we had on the slide. We will update the slide. We apologize for the error. The Grants.gov deadline is June 20. That's June 20. And the JustGrants deadline is June 27, one week later. June 27.

Okay, so now we will be checking the Q&A to see if there are any additional questions. And if you have any questions, please put them in the Q&A for us.

TIROCCHI: Hey Courtney, we have a question from Marie Lane. If marijuana is downgraded from a Schedule 1 substance to a Schedule 3 per the new recommendation, will this impact the Controlled Substance Act and requirement to test for medical marijuana?

That's a great question Marie. Courtney, would you have any advice on that question or?

STEWART: Yes, I'm just doing a little research right now to make sure I give her the correct information.

TIROCCHI: You know, that Marie Lane is a troublemaker. She works for Justice for Vets. That is a great question. I agree.

STEWART: Okay, we can take another question while I research the answer.

TIROCCHI: I think that is—that's what we have there. A lot of them was regarding the copy being available, which Cindy responded to.

Oh, here's a question. Our court. Where's that one? That was a good one. Our court has a current BJA enhancement that ends in 2025. Are we eligible to apply under this solicitation for different enhancement services, even though our current grant is still active?

STEWART: Yes, you are eligible to apply as long as you are applying for different enhancements and services. So yes, you are correct. Please apply and note in your application that you have a current BJA grant and that you will be applying for different enhancements and services.

TIROCCHI: Other question for the team member requirements. Can the information specialist and the program coordinator be the same person?

STEWART: Yes, that can be the same person as long as you list that in your narrative and as long as the person has the ability to handle both positions, absolutely. And just outline it in the in your narrative.

TIROCCHI: Great question. Question from Sherry. Do category one applicants need to include all 10 key components in their grant application?

STEWART: No, you do not have to include all key 10 components in your application. If you have specific components that you would like to apply to enhance with your program, you can focus on those specific components, but it does not have to be all 10.

TIROCCHI: Excellent. From Tasha: Would you be able to clarify an eligibility for nonprofit 501(c)(3)s? Do they need to be acting on behalf of a veteran's treatment court?

LARA-MADISON: I can take this from Courtney. They need to have a MOU with the Veteran Treatment Court in order to apply for the solicitation.

TIROCCHI: Excellent. And then we have another one regarding—Gina saying we just received a BJA grant for our court in 2024. Can we apply for this grant as well?

STEWART: Yes, you can apply for this grant as long as you are applying for some different enhancements and services for your program. So absolutely, you can apply.

TIROCCHI: So as of right now, I think we covered the questions as I'm going through them, with the hypothetical question from Marie Lane outstanding right now. Other than that—Gina said, perfect. Thank you for your time. Got a lot of thank yous here. And, we are good. Scrolling through.

Okay, folks, well, that concludes our webinar today. BJA, Ingrid, and Courtney, if you have anything else to add, please feel free to do so this time.

LARA-MADISON: Nothing else to add, Scott, we just want to say thank you for coming on to the webinar. If you have any questions moving forward, please let us know. And we look forward to receiving all your applications.

STEWART: I just wanted to thank everyone as well. And just to reiterate, do not hesitate to reach out and reach out sooner than later so that we will have the time to get you the information that you need to submit a solid application. Thank you.

TIROCCHI: Thank you very much. And folks, feel free to send those questions directly to Cindy League. If you do not send them to BJA, you can also send them to us, and we will make sure that we get them to BJA. Cindy's email address is indicated in the chat box. My email address is also available. It's S-T-I-R-O-C-C-H-I at allrise.org.