FY25 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Site-Based Program Notice of Funding Opportunity

Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance  

Use, Site- Based Program (COSSUP) 

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. As you may already know, the Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs and plays a vital role in strengthening the nation's criminal justice system. OJP assists state, local and tribal jurisdictions with reducing and preventing crime, reducing recidivism and promoting a fair and safe criminal justice system.

Today's webinar: Fiscal Year 2025 Comprehensive Opioid Stimulant and Substance Use Site-Based program (COSSUP) is presented by Kalyn Hill, BJA Senior Policy Advisor, who will discuss NOFO and answer any questions about the process. Before getting started we would like to go through a few housekeeping items. Please note that today's webinar will be recorded if you are using a computer and need to adjust your audio setting, at the bottom of your screen click on the down arrow unmute button to adjust as needed. If you are still having an issue within this icon, you can request that WebEx call your phone directly.

You can submit your questions at any time, which will be answered at the end during a Q&A session. To submit your questions, at the bottom right of your screen click the three dots and select Q&A. Be sure to send your question to all panelists. Closed captioning is available. The closed caption button will be visible in the bottom left corner.

Thank you for joining us. Now let's turn things over to Kalyn.

Hi. Good afternoon or good morning to those out in the West. And thanks so much, Serena. And again, my name is Kalyn Hill. I'm a senior policy advisor within the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance. I want to again welcome you all to the webinar on the Comprehensive Opioid Stimulant and Substance Use Site-Based program NOFO today that's hosted by the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance.

First, I'll introduce other speakers that I have today that will be walking through the webinar presentation, and then we'll give an overview of the webinar today. So along with me presenting will be Jocelyn Linde, who is a grant management specialist. And Jocelyn is one of the state policy advisors in BJA’s program office that manages the Comprehensive Opioid Stimulant and Substance Use Program. And then we also have a few other colleagues on the line as well.

We have Janai Jenkins and Kandia Conway who are also state policy advisors in the program office and Deirdra Assey who is a policy advisor in the policy office who will be helping to answer questions.

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So just to give a brief overview of our presentation today. First, we're going to provide you with an overview of the Office of Justice Programs and give an overview of the Comprehensive Opioid Stimulant and Substance Use Program or COSSUP. And then after that we'll discuss the funding process and application resources. And then we'll close out the webinar, trying to leave some time for question and answer. Please, as I mentioned at the top of this, please feel free to type any questions that you have in the Q&A box. And we'll get to those in our Q&A portion.

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So first a little bit about the Office of Justice Programs, which the Bureau of Justice Assistance, excuse me, is located within the Office of Justice programs. OJP provides a wide range of services to the criminal justice community in the form of grants, training, research and statistics. OJP is one of three components of the Department of Justice that makes grants, along with the Office of Violence Against Women, or OVW, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services or COPS. Next slide please.

So, the Bureau of Justice Assistance sits within OJP, as noted. BJA’s mission is to strengthen the nation's criminal justice system and helps America's state, local and tribal jurisdictions reduce and prevent crime, reduce recidivism, promote a fair and safe criminal justice system.

Specifically, BJA provides funding to support law enforcement, combat violent and drug related crime and combat victimization. Acting Director Tammie Gregg leads BJA’s efforts on providing a wide range of resources, including training to law enforcement, courts, correction, treatment, reentry, justice, information sharing and community-based partners to reduce crime and increase public safety.

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So BJA supports the field by providing funding to accomplish goals, by researching and sharing what works to build capacity and improve outcomes. And by consulting, connecting and convening.

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So, before we just get into the overview of the COSSUP program I just wanted to pause for a moment and see who we have joining us in the audience today. You may be someone who is well versed and experienced in federal grants in OJP and BJA grants. But just want to get a sense of who we have here today.

So please share your experience by selecting. We'll have a poll pop up for you that you should see on the right hand of your screen. So please share your experience by selecting the response that best fits your organization. And I'll just pause for a couple more seconds to allow folks to enter their responses.

Okay. We can close the poll.

All right. I'm just waiting for the responses there. So, we have it looks like we have a good mix of folks. A lot of, it seems like most, participants on the call are either well experienced with grants, and then we also have a good chunk who are brand new. So, thanks so much for answering that.

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So now we'll just turn to give an overview of the program. Next slide please. So, through the COSSUP program, BJA provides support to state, local, tribal and territorial efforts to develop, implement or expand comprehensive programs in response to overdose deaths, illicit opioids, stimulants and other substances.

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And the goal of the COSSUP program is to reduce the impact of opioids, stimulants and other substances on individuals and communities, including a reduction in the number of overdose fatalities, and mitigate the impacts on crime victims by supporting comprehensive, collaborative initiatives.

COSSUP funding helps increase access to prevention, treatment and recovery support services, reduce overdose deaths, and support law enforcement efforts such as investigating activities related to unlawful distribution of illicit substances.

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Okay so now we'll just get into a little bit more specific information about the funding opportunity.

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This year under the under COSSUP there are three funding categories. And we'll just, describe (and) give an overview of each of the categories. Category one is local governments. Category two is for state governments, and category three, which is a new addition this year, is tribal governments. In past years tribal governments have been a part of category one. This year it is included as a as a separate category.

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So, under category one, as I mentioned, this is for applicants that are local governments. So, it’s broken into three subcategories. So, the first is subcategory 1a would be an urban area or large county with a population greater than 500,000. This subcategory has a funding cap of $1.6 million over the grant period.

Subcategory 1b, this is for suburban areas or medium sized counties, or local jurisdictions with a population between 100,000 and 500,000. So, this subcategory has a funding cap of $1.3 million over the grant period. And then lastly, under the category one of local governments is 1c. This jurisdiction is considered, rural. This is for rural local governments, rural jurisdictions. The applicants will be considered rural if all or part of the county is either entirely rural or is an urban or suburban county that contains rural census tracts, as identified by the Rural Health Grants Eligibility Analyzer. So, this subcategory has a funding cap of $1 million over the grant period.

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Okay. So next is category two. As mentioned, category two is for state government applicants. So, applicants under this category will make sub awards to at least six jurisdictions within their states. So eligible applicants are state agencies that are state administering agencies or the SAA, state alcohol and substance abuse agencies or drug agencies or other state agencies that are appropriate for the scope of the proposed project. This category has a funding cap of $7 million.

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And then the last category, category three, all federally recognized Indian tribes should apply under subcategory or excuse me, under category three. So, this is for tribal governments. This category has a funding limit of $1 million. As I previously mentioned, in prior years if you had applied a prior year, this would have been under category one, but now we've included as a separate category three. All of the three categories, the local, state and tribal governments, the project period is 36 months or a three-year grant period.

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Okay. So then just to discuss a bit about the activities or allowable uses under COSSUP. There are ten allowable uses or kind of buckets of allowable uses of funding under COSSUP. So, grant funds may be used to develop, implement or expand a combination of the allowable use activities or be concentrated on one, so long as the proposed budget is appropriate and justified.

So, over the next few slides we'll just cover the allowable uses. So, applicants may propose investigative activities related to the unlawful distribution of opioids, alternative-to-incarceration treatment programs, law enforcement, and first responder to deflection and diversion programs.

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Education and prevention programs that connect law enforcement with K through 12 students. Prescription drug takeback programs, naloxone programs, including training on the use of naloxone. Embedding social services with law enforcement.

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Court-based programs, evidence-based treatment, including medical, clinical and recovery support services. And comprehensive real time regional information collection, analysis and dissemination. So those, the last three slides cover all of the different allowable uses.

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So, applicants should, in addition to the allowable use of funds, applicants should also carefully review the unallowable uses, which are outlined in the NOFO of this slide. It's just a screenshot of the NOFO just so you have reference but notes the unallowable uses identified in both the NOFO and also the DOJ Grants Financial Guide.

So, applicants should also carefully read these, read this section of the NOFO and the DOJ financial guide to familiarize themselves with all unallowable uses, costs and activities.

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And then so here are the application elements that must be included in the application to meet basic minimum requirements to advance to peer review and receive consideration of funding. So, the SF-424, the proposal abstract, proposal narrative, certification by a chief executive officer, budget web-based form, including budget details and budget narrative. And we will go a little bit later in the presentation about where you can find some of those and uploading some of those documents.

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And to advance public safety and help meet its mission, OJP will provide priority consideration to applicants that propose projects designed to advance the goals listed here, which I'll run through. To the extent that they're applicable within the scope, you know, of this funding opportunity and your proposed project. So those include supporting law enforcement operations, including immigration enforcement, combating violent crime, supporting services to American citizens, protection of American children, supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and state and local enforcement efforts that are coordinated with federal law enforcement.

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In addition to the agency priorities that are listed in the prior slide, priority consideration will be given under this NOFO to applicants and states and units of local government that actively meet the listed criteria to the maximum extent permitted by law. So that includes enforcing prohibitions on open illicit drug use, enforcing prohibitions on urban camping and loitering, (and) on squatting, enforcing or adopting standards to address people who are danger to themselves or others due to a serious mental illness or substance use disorder, or who are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves. For state applicants, substantially implement or comply with, to the extent required, the registration and notification obligations under the Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act.

Applicants seeking this additional priority consideration should complete the agency funding priorities inventory, which indicate the criteria that they're meeting. Next slide please. The applications, as we're looking to the application review process, applications must be submitted by an eligible type of applicant, must request funding within programmatic funding constraints and must be responsive to the scope of the solicitation. Additionally, applicants must include all items necessary to meet the basic minimum requirements.

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Applications that meet those basic minimum requirements will be evaluated for technical merit by peer reviewers based on how the proposed project program address the following criteria, which are laid out in the NOFO. So that includes a description of the issue, the funding need, project goals and objectives, capabilities and competencies and the budget details. And you can see outlined here how each of these components are weighted towards your overall score.

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And then on page 33 of the NOFO, which you'll see a screenshot of that page here, is the application checklist that has been created as an aid in developing an application. So again, this checklist can be found on page 33. So, you can use it as a guide to make sure that you have all of your components. All right. And with that, I will now turn it over to my colleague Jocelyn Linde, who will discuss this funding process and application resources. Jocelyn.

Thank you, Kalyn. Again, my name is Jocelyn Linde, and I am part of the programs division at BJA. Now that we have discussed this specific NOFO we wanted to zoom out and provide a bit of an overview of the OJP funding process. Your entity must register with Sam.gov and obtain a unique entity identifier. And you must maintain an active Sam.gov registration status at all times. For entities new to Sam.gov, this registration process can take time, so start early at any point during the year to be sure your status reaches active before you need to submit a funding application. Renew your registration in Sam.gov every 12 months.

Even if you've applied for a federal grant before, you need to check that your registration is current and renew it if it's not. Applicants who do not have an active Sam.gov status will not be able to complete step one of the application process in Grants.gov. Also be sure that your organization's points of contact in Sam.gov, especially the electronic business point of contact or EBiz POC, are current. The EBiz POC may receive notices about time sensitive actions they need to take during the application process.

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Applications are submitted to DOJ electronically through a two-step process, and you'll be required to register and add users in two different systems. For step one you'll submit the application for federal assistance or SF-424 Grants.gov. For step two you'll complete the full application in JustGrants, which is the DOJ grants management system.

Note that we recommend completing each step at least 48 hours before the deadline. Not waiting until the deadline to submit materials. That's to ensure that you have time to address any unexpected errors and make corrections, if necessary. As a reminder, Grants.gov deadline is earlier than JustGrants deadline.

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A few important points about Grants.gov. Be sure everyone you plan to have work on your funding application can access and take action in Grants.gov. Do this in advance of the application to be sure you're ready to submit when the time comes. Grants.gov will only allow entities with an active Sam.gov registration status to submit an application for federal assistance.

So, check to be sure your registration is not expiring soon. One common question about SF-424 is, do I need a firm budget amount to submit this form? The answer is no. You can provide an estimate on this form and then update your funding request in JustGrants.

Once submitted, the SF-424 helps to pre-populate standard information in the JustGrants application. One other note about SF-424, the individual listed in section 8F of this form is automatically identified as the application submitter in JustGrants. So be sure that that person's checking their email and is prepared to complete the application in JustGrants during step two. If this is your entity's first DOJ application, your Sam.gov EBiz point of contact will also need to monitor their email and prepare to take actions to onboard your entities into JustGrants as you move to step two. You can find more information about SF-424 in the links provided in the NOFO.

DOJ made one change to Grants.gov step this year. We are no longer requiring every applicant to submit an SF-LLL in just in Grants.gov. Instead, applicants will be asked about their lobbying activities in the JustGrants application.

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Your JustGrants application will align with the requirements described in the NOFO. Generally, applications must contain most of these sections. The standard applicant information in JustGrants is pre-populated with data from your SF-424. You'll need to review and make edits as necessary to the information in JustGrants. You do not need to go back and make changes to your SF-424 in Grants.gov. Just be sure that your information in JustGrants application is accurate and complete.

Your budget should align with the proposal narrative and clearly explain how each cost will support the projects. Costs should be reasonable and necessary for the proposed projects. Since allowable costs will vary by DOJ program, you should look at the NOFO for more details on allowable and unallowable costs. As we provided in an overview of that a bit earlier. For some DOJ programs, MOUs or partners letter of intent are required. For this program it is not required, but entities may include as you do have project partners.

Generally, these should reflect partnerships and show agreements to support your project through the commitment of staff time, space, services and other project needs. You'll also need to address multiple disclosures and insurances in your application. These questions guide applicants through programmatic, financial and legal topics to ensure applicants understand what is required of them. Read those carefully and seek clarification when needed.

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After the JustGrants deadline has passed, OJP will thoroughly review all applications. This process typically takes several months. First, we check to confirm that the application contains the basic minimum requirements that were described in the funding opportunity. For applications that miss these requirements, you will receive a notice that your application has been eliminated from further review.

For competitive opportunities like this one, peer reviewers who are subject matter experts assess the technical merits of an application. OJP staff then assesses applications based on factors such as geographic diversity, past performance, and whether applications are likely to meet the funding opportunities goals and objectives. We then evaluate the fiscal integrity of the applicant, examine proposed costs and determine whether the budget and budget narrative explain the project costs and whether those costs are allowable and reasonable.

Finally, OJP reviews potential risk presented by applicants prior to making an award. The pre-award risk assessment takes into account a variety of factors, including an applicant's financial capability and past performances. During the review process, OJP may contact you to clarify program or budget details. Applicants are often eager to learn how their application is progressing through the review process.

Unfortunately, DOJ staff, including user support and OJP Response Center, cannot share any information with you until the final awards have been made public. Next slide. You can visit OJP grants award website to see all OJP awards made by year, program and even locality. This site is updated as awards are made in your application. If your application is selected, specific JustGrants users from your organization will be notified by email of an award, and they will also see the award in their JustGrants account. If you receive notice of an award, you must take specific steps in JustGrants to accept or decline it. The DOJ Award Acceptance Checklist on the JustGrants resource website can walk you through those steps.

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Additionally, please note the certification by the Chief Executive Officer. If the applicant is a state or local government, they must submit a certification found in the appendix to be considered for funding. The application will not proceed to peer review phase if this is not fully executed and submitted. Again, this only applies for state and local government applicants. The applicant entity, including its officials and personnel, certifies compliance with 8 U.S.C. 1373 and 1644 to any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance under any award made by OJP pursuant to this application. Sub recipients must also comply with 8U.S.C. 1373 and 1644.

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The blank certification form can be found at the end of the NOFO. Download and print the certification form. Fill it in as required. To upload the signed certification go to the data requested with application screen, click on funding priority inventory two, select option F. Select all other applicable priority considerations goals that apply, and click the upload button for the additional application component screen.

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Finally, before we open it up to questions, we wanted to share some application resources.

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One is the OJP Grant Application Resource Guide. And we're going to include that in the chat. Slide 40.

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We also have the JustGrants resource website.

If you need assistance submitting in Grants.gov, there is a customer support hotline. If you need assistance submitting the full allocation, there is similarly a JustGrants support line. All of this information can be found in the last few pages of the NOFO. And these slides will be made available online as well. And please feel free to reach out to the OJP Response Center as well.

Thank you.