FY25 Rural Law Enforcement Violent Crime Reduction Initiative Notice of Funding Opportunity

FY25 Rural Law Enforcement Violent Crime Reduction Initiative Transcript 

Serena Roche: 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. Today's webinar, Fiscal Year 2025 Rural Law Enforcement Violent Crime Reduction Initiative is presented by BJA’s Juliana Palmer, Policy Advisor, and Erin Feeley, Grants Management Specialist, who will discuss the 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 dropdown 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 again for joining us. Now, let's turn things over to Juliana.

Juliana Palmer: Thank you, Serena, and good afternoon, everyone. My name is Juliana Palmer. I'm a policy advisor at the Bureau of Justice Assistance. I am happy to be here today and joined by everyone who has made time out of their busy schedules to be here as well.

Juliana Palmer:  I am joined today by Erin Feeley.

Erin, if you'd like to introduce yourself real quick as well.

Erin Feeley: Hi. Yes.  As Julianna said, I’m . I’m the grants management specialist here at BJA, and I echo your sentiments. Welcome, and we're glad to have you here.

Juliana Palmer:  Thanks, Erin. And, Serena, we can go to the next slide.

All right. So today, just a brief agenda of what we're going to be reviewing. We are going to talk a little bit about who OJP is, what we do. We'll go into a program overview of the Rural Law Enforcement Violent Crime Reduction program, talk a little bit about the NOFO or notice of funding opportunity, and then we'll go into the OJP funding process, review some application resources, and as Serena mentioned, we will also, have a Q&A session at the end. Next slide.

All right. So as mentioned we'll be doing a little overview of OJP. Next slide.

The Office of Justice Programs, or as we often say OJP, provides funding, training, research and statistics to the criminal justice community. OJP also serves as one of three grant-making components at the Department of Justice, the other two being the Office on Violence Against Women, or OVW, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, also known as the COPS office.

You can see the other various components of OJP on the screen here, and Bureau of Justice Assistance is at the top. Next slide.

A little bit about BJA. Our mission here is to strengthen the nation's criminal justice system and to help state, local and tribal jurisdictions reduce and prevent crime, reduce recidivism, and promote a fair and safe criminal justice system. We're led by our current acting director Tammie Gregg. You can learn more about BJA by visiting www.bja.ojp.gov and learn more about our different programs, resources and of course, funding opportunities.

Next slide.

So, we do a lot of different work here at BJA, but in particular we support the field through a variety of efforts, including investments. So, providing funding like we're here today for, to accomplish goals, sharing knowledge through researching, developing and delivering what works and engagement, connecting with the field, connecting with you. I'm hearing the challenges that you all have, and I'm connecting you with resources that work.

All right. So, before we go into the program overview, I wanted to take a quick poll of those who are joining us here today. So, you can see that on the right-hand side. Our question is, has your organization or you applied for OJP grants before? That can include grants from BJA, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office for Victims of Crime, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, or the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing. Monitoring. Apprehending, Registering and Tracking. Taking this poll really helps Erin and I see who is here today, who might be newer to the grant application process, so we ensure that we connect you to all of the right resources. And then of course, we also like to welcome back returning applicants. So, we'll give that a few more seconds and then we can close that to see who is joining us today.

All right. Serena, we can go ahead and close that poll now.

All right. So, it looks like we have a good amount of people who have applied for and received OJP grants in the past. And then we have some who haven’t, newer to OJP grants looking to learn more or not applied, but have had federal grants in the past. We've got about 33, 34 of you all, but about 40 who responded have applied and received. So, welcome back. And if you haven't received funding in the past, we hope you find this webinar helpful. And connecting with resources to help you through this process. Next slide.

All right. So, program overview. Why we're here today. Next slide, Serena.

So, at BJA, we know that rural jurisdictions often have fewer resources and personnel to prevent, respond to and reduce violent crime. And this program in particular addresses those gaps by supporting rural law enforcement agencies and prosecutor's offices in their efforts to combat violent crime through implementing a violent crime reduction strategy. Next slide.

So, the notice the funding opportunity, or NOFO, provides funding for a variety of efforts and initiatives, many of which you see here on the screen and outlined in the NOFO. So, the purpose of the funding can be used for any of these activities. Technological enhancements to reduce violent crime. So, investments in hardware, software, communication systems, intelligence centers, equipment.

Those technological advancements that help law enforcement implement violent crime reduction strategies. This funding also supports personnel tactics and training to reduce violent crime, as well as partnerships that are really important in implementing crime reduction strategies, both governmental and non-governmental partnerships. And then finally, you see here on the screen data analytics and intelligence.

Very important when it comes to reducing crime through every activity. So, these are some of the key areas the NOFO highlights and seeks to advance through the field. Next slide.

All right. This is a really important slide. Unallowable uses of funds for this program, which are out of scope and will not be funded are outlined on page ten of the NOFO, as well as in the DOJ Grants Financial Guide, and seen here on screen. All applicants should review unallowable uses of funds, both in the NOFO and the Financial Guide, and refer to the guidance related to U.S.C. 1373 in coordination with federal law enforcement. And for additional guidance, refer to the applicable sections of the DOJ Financial Guide outlined in the NOFO. Again, this is on page ten. It's also here on the screen, unallowable uses of funds that all applicants should review. Next slide.

We did want to highlight some agency funding priorities for you today, many of which align with the intent and purpose of this NOFO. Directly supporting law enforcement operations, combatting violent crime, supporting services to American citizens, protecting American children, and supporting American victims of trafficking and sexual assaults, as well as state and local law enforcement efforts that are coordinated with federal law enforcement efforts.

So, these are all department priorities, again, that really align with a lot of what the intent of this program is, and so we recommend reviewing these priority areas as you're developing your program narrative. Next slide. All right, so some important NOFO information. Next slide.

So, this slide right here provides some key information for this program, and for fiscal year 2025, the anticipated amount of funding available is about $5.8 million, with the anticipated number of awards to be 15. This is really important. The period performance for this NOFO is June 1st, 2026, with a duration of 36 months. So again, June 1st, 2026 with 36 months and the maximum dollar amount per award is $400,000. Please note that does not mean that applicants must submit programs for the full $400,000. You won't be, docked any points if your program does not cost that much to implement, but if it does, please note that that is the award ceiling for this NOFO. Next slide.

Here we have some eligible applicants. This is also outlined in the NOFO. Eligible applicants for this funding opportunity include government entities and other units of local government. So, state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, and Native American tribal governments that are federally recognized. Next.

This is a very important slide that all applicants must pay close attention to. For additional eligibility requirements for this NOFO, an applicant must demonstrate that it proposes to serve a rural area or a rural community. This is a bit newer and different than our more recent programs under this particular program and we have to find a rural area or community, through 34 U.S.C. 12291(a)(32) to mean any area or community, no part of which is within an area designated as a standard metropolitan statistical area. And any area or community that is within an area designated as a metropolitan statistical area or considered as part of a metropolitan statistical area and located in a rural census tract, as well as any federally recognized Indian tribe. I do want to say, as far as this particular eligibility requirement, if you have any questions about your eligibility for this program based on this definition, please submit your inquiry to the OJP Response Center and we will review and respond in a timely manner.

We have received a couple of inquiries lately in response to this eligibility requirement, and we are responding very quickly. So, if you have any particular questions today, I will be instructing you to reach out to that OJP Response Center, and we will put that in the chat for everyone to have and contact if you have any questions.

In addition to that eligibility requirement, there is additional information on their prior documentation outlined in the eligibility section of the NOFO, including the mandatory certification by the Chief Executive Officer or senior official, which we'll talk about a little bit more on the next slide.

So, this is very critical as well for this NOFO. There is a mandatory certification by the chief executive officer or senior official that must be submitted with your application. This is required for state and local government applicants. All state and local government applicants must submit this certification using the appendix 1 template under this NOFO and you are required to certify compliance with U.S.C. 1373 and 1644, including the prohibitions on certain actions by state and local government entities, agencies, and officials regarding information on citizenship and immigration status.

Please review this section, which starts on page ten in the NOFO carefully and ensure that the certification is provided by the Chief Executive Officer for your agency. The certification must be submitted using only the template provided in appendix 1, which is on page 35, the very last page of the NOFO entitled certification by the Chief Executive Officer or senior official.

Failure to provide certification as outlined in the NOFO will disqualify your application from funding consideration. Next slide. All right, so some important steps to ensure proper submission of that certification. You're going to download or print the certification form, which is seen here on the screen. It's a little bit small, but as mentioned, it's on page 35 of the NOFO, the very last page. It will say appendix 1 at the top of the form. You're going to fill in the required information and have the form signed by the chief executive officer of the agency.

Next slide.

Once you have that signed and completed, you're going to go to the Data Requested with Application Screen and click on Funding Priority Inventory 2. You should select option F and all other applicable priority consideration goals that apply and upload the signed form. Again, the form must be signed. Next slide.

All right, so a little bit more about some deliverables that BJA is looking for through this program. There's really two. The first being an action plan, which will be due within six months of the award date, and that action plan is just going to outline the efforts that you're going to take to implement your violent crime reduction strategy.

You're also going to be responsible for completing a final report due at the conclusion of the grant award. You may identify and partner with an independent consultant to plan, monitor or evaluate activities, but that is not a requirement. And what we're looking for in this final report is the efforts that you took to implement your crime reduction strategy and any available agency data to demonstrate the impact that your program had on violent crime.

So, what did the money go towards? What did you all do and what was the outcome of those efforts? Next slide.

So, we've got a little bit here. This is our merit review criteria and the weight of each section during the review of the submitted application. So, you'll see here each section of your proposal is outlined in the NOFO, which needs to be completed. This is the weight that goes into the peer review and the consideration of the review of your application. The description of the need, project goals and objectives, the design and implementation, agency capabilities and competencies, budget, performance measures and sustainability, all have varying weight, and something that we're looking closely at as we review applications. Next slide.

In addition to all of the items on the previous screen, proposal abstracts are required for this NOFO and must be completed in the JustGrants web-based form. The requirements for the abstracts are outlined on this slide. You should include the name of your proposed project, its purpose, location, target population, key activities, partners, and anticipated outcomes. This should be written in paragraph format, no more than 2000 total characters, and please ensure you don't use any personally identifiable information as any of the awarded application abstracts will be publicly posted on OJP’s website. Next slide.

Some basic minimum requirements. This is really, really important. The basic minimum requirements outline what an application must meet in order to move forward to peer review. So, you complete your application. You upload it. You submit it. In order for it to move to the next level of review, it must include a narrative, a budget detail form, a timeline, and that certification by the Chief Executive Officer, that appendix 1 that was mentioned earlier.

Applications that do not contain all of these elements will not move forward to peer review. So, it's really important that you ensure that your application includes all of these components. You should review the application and submission information section of the NOFO, and elements required will be outlined there.

Next slide. All right. Here's that application checklist. This is in the NOFO. It is something that will help you through ensuring that everything you need to do is done in order for your application to meet those basic minimum requirements and to move it on to that next phase of review. If you do have any questions as you're working through your application, please, please make sure to reach out to the OJP Response Center.

I'll include that in the chat in just a moment, but those questions are reviewed very timely. We will get back to you and answer any questions that you have as you're working through your application. Next slide.

The last slide for me. Important dates. May 27th, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern, so just about three weeks from now, a little over that, the Grants.gov deadline, is going to be coming up, and then June 3rd, 2026, at 8:59 p.m. Eastern time. That’s the JustGrants deadline. That's when everything needs to be in, that abstract, the certifications, your proposal, your budget, your timeline, all needs to be submitted by June 3rd, 2026, in JustGrants.

So, please make sure that you are paying close attention to the calendar. If you are having any issues working through any of those application sections, please reach out to that OJP Response Center. If you have questions around eligibility, deliverables, the certification, please reach out to the OJP Response Center and we will make sure to respond to you.

I'm going to put the OJP Response Center information into the chat now so everyone should have that. Please keep that handy, and with that I'm going to turn it over to Erin, who's going to talk a little bit more about the OJP funding process and application resources for those who are newer to OJP grants, to BJA grants, or grants in general.

I definitely think, paying very close attention to this next section will be very helpful. All right. Thanks, Erin.

Erin Feeley: All right. Thank you so much, Juliana. We can go on to the next slide. I think Juliana gave us a nice introduction.

All right, so before you apply for funding, there is going to be a requirement to register in SAM.gov and obtain a UEI or unique entity identifier number. This is required of all entities. What is an entity? That's going to be your town, your county, a tribe, you know, a village. That's going to be kind of, how we will define basically an entity.

There is no requirement for a special designation, but any entity wishing to do business with the federal government must register in SAM.gov and receive that UEI number. If your agency is new to SAM.gov, the registration process, I want to note, can take a little bit of time, can take a couple of days or a couple weeks. So, please start early to be sure that your registration reaches that active status before you submit the application.

Another key point for those of you who are new to SAM.gov or as a returning applicant is what's called the electronic business or EBiz point of contact. The EBiz point of contact may receive notices about time sensitive actions they need to take during the application process, and that electronic business, or EBiz POC should also be prepared to take actions to onboard your entity into JustGrants when you move into that kind of step 2 place. So, also note if you have a SAM.gov account, now is a good time to check your registration date and renew your registration if you need to. Also double check who's listed as that EBiz POC because I just previously mentioned that role is going to be an important one as we move into the JustGrants step later. Registration in SAM.gov should be renewed every 12 months even if you've applied for a federal grant before. Just always a good reminder to check that your registration is current. And the reason that SAM.gov is crucial is because applicants who do not have that active SAM.gov status will not be able to complete step one of the application process in Grants.gov. So, let's go on to the next slide and we'll cover those two steps.

All right. So, I started to mention Grants.gov. That is going to be step one. All applicants are required to register in Grants.gov and add users in this system first. If you've applied for other grants, please make sure to check permissions for each individual user if you choose to apply for this specific opportunity. In Grants.gov, you'll submit the application for federal assistance or what we commonly refer to as the SF-424.

That is a web-based form only. That's all you're going to be completing. We recommend completing this step in Grants.gov at least 48 hours before the deadline. That's to ensure you have enough time to address any unexpected errors and make corrections if needed. Please note if you run into any technical issues while working on either of these two steps, please reach out promptly to the Grants.gov or the JustGrants Help Desk to document any issues. As Juliana noted, a few slides back, the Grants.gov deadline is a little earlier than that JustGrants deadline. So please keep those two dates in mind and try to get things in a little ahead of the deadline. All right. Next slide.

So, a few important points about Grants.gov. As I just mentioned, please be sure that everyone you plan to have work on the application can access and take those actions. Again, do this in advance to be sure that you're ready to submit. If this is your first DOJ application, the SAM.gov, that EBiz POC or that electronic business point of contact will also need to monitor their email because it's going to be that individual and that email that's going to help get things going in here in Grants.gov.

For those of you who have applied before, I want you to make a note that this year, DOJ has made some changes to Grants.gov in that we're no longer requiring every applicant to submit that SF-LLL or that lobbying form. Instead, you will be asked to do that lobbying designation in the JustGrants side. So basically Grants.gov, set it up, fill out that SF-424, and again, everything is going to be a web-based form. So, one common question that we often get about that standard form 424 is do I need a firm budget? And the answer is no. You can provide an estimate on that form in Grants.gov. Then when all your information gets transferred into JustGrants, you can do some updates to that funding request.

So once submitted, the SF-424 helps to pre-populate how you're going to get started not only with your information, but with some of those roles and responsibilities on the JustGrants side. One other thing to note about the SF-424 is the individuals listed in section 8F of this form are automatically going to be identified as the application submitter role in JustGrants.

So be sure that person is checking their email. Watch the spam and the junk mail because these are auto-generated emails so sometimes they do land there. And please be prepared to take those actions and complete the application in JustGrants eventually. And just so you know, you can find more information about the SF-424, including specific guidance on some of these questions I mentioned on page 14 of the NOFO.

Go to the next slide.

Okay. JustGrants. There is a lot to cover on this slide. Again, all of this information is in the NOFO and this is being recorded so no need to take some frantic notes. This is kind of the piece that everyone's sort of looking at because it's where really the bulk of your application is going to reside is JustGrants.

As mentioned, the basic, basic information will come over on the SF-424. First step, please review that. Make any edits that you need to in JustGrants. You do not need to go back into Grants.gov if you make any changes. Just be sure the information in the JustGrants application is accurate and complete. So, the next step you're going to move on to is the proposal abstract. This is a brief, not more than a few paragraphs summary of your proposed project. It's important to note this abstract will be made publicly available if the project is funded. So please be sure this does not include any personally identifiable information. This should just be a high-level overview. What many of you I think are asking about and kind of getting into here is the more expansive version is the proposal narrative.

Juliana gave you some parameters for that already. This is where you're going to provide us much, much more detail about your proposed project, including the problems and the needs. Please, you know, try and tell BJA a story. How does this project really tie into one of the approaches for violent crime reduction strategy that's outlined in the NOFO? Use the proposal narrative to kind of complete the story about your community.

What led you to apply for this specific award? Is there space to address goals and objectives, more details about project design, and your organization's ability to implement the project? Please include that as well. Please note that the proposal narrative is not posted publicly. Okay. Budget. Budget is a web-based form for this particular NOFO. So, each of the budget sections should align back to your proposal narrative.

And there is going to be a space, for kind of some additional notes and justification. Please clearly, in as much detail as possible, explain how the cost will support the project. You know, please don't be afraid to kind of state the obvious up front and, kind of tell us how these how these funds specifically support what you've proposed. Costs should be reasonable and necessary for the proposed project.

Allowable costs, you know, are going to vary from program to program and please make sure that, again, you double check that the NOFO, but also the DOJ Grants Financial Guide. There is allowable and unallowable sections that can be very helpful. The grants financial guide does also have a listing of costs requiring prior approval and OJP’s policy and guidance on financial and other types of reporting. If you have any MOUs or partner letters or letters of intent, they should really reflect the partnerships and kind of show agreement to support how your project is going to commit both staff time, space, services or kind of other needs. There are some additional application components that are required.

For example, Juliana mentioned there is a certification by the chief executive officer and documentation demonstrating the proposed service area meets the requirement of the specific NOFO. Please be sure, again, all this information is there. Please be sure to read it carefully. You'll also need to address multiple, web-based forms that we call kind of disclosures and assurances in your application. For example, this is where the lobbying disclosure form comes up. There are also some programmatic, financial and legal topics. So please be sure the person submitting and doing these disclosures and assurances is someone who can really make those decisions and you're not just filling out a, for example, a financial disclosure that may need to have review by a council.

Just an example. All right. We can move on to the next slide. All right. So, what happens after those two steps? There is in JustGrants, some time for OJP to thoroughly review the applications. This process is going to take several months. First, we check to confirm the application contains basic minimum requirements. We've already been through those earlier in this webinar.

For applications that miss any of these requirements, they will receive a notice that the application has been eliminated for further review. For competitive opportunities, such as this one, if an application passes the basic minimum requirements, it will move on to peer reviewers who are subject matter experts who assess the technical merits of an application. OJP staff will also assess the application based on factors such as geographic diversity and past performance, and whether the application is really likely to meet the funding opportunity goals and objectives.

We then evaluate the fiscal integrity of the application. We're going to look at that budget and examine the proposed cost to determine whether the items listed in the budget and the narrative really accurately explain the project costs, and whether those costs are both allowable and reasonable. Finally, OJP will review any potential risks presented, sorry, by the entity itself prior to making any awards.

The pre-award risk assessment takes into account a variety of factors, such as your entity's financial capability and any past performance. During the review process, OJP may contact your organization to clarify any program or budget details. We understand that this is going to be a long process, and many times applicants are eager to learn how the application is progressing.

Unfortunately, DOJ staff, and that includes the JustGrants help desk and the OJP Response Center, cannot share any information with you until final awards have been made publicly. Next slide.

All right. So, good news. If your application is selected, specific JustGrants users, such as those listed in the application, the application submitter, possibly the entity administrator roles will be notified by email of the award and you will also be able to see that in the JustGrants account. Again, these are auto generated notices. So definitely something to keep an eye out for.

Sometimes they more so prompt you to log in to JustGrants to look at an application. If you receive a notice of an award, you must take specific steps in JustGrants to accept it or decline it. The DOJ Award Acceptance checklist is on the JustGrants resource website, and we can kind of walk you through those steps to how to find those resources.

The JustGrants team actually does offer some live weekly training sessions to support both the pre-award and the post-award processes, specifically in JustGrants. So next slide. Okay. So, let's just take a moment to look quickly at some application resources. Next slide.

All right. So as I just kind of previously mentioned there's a whole list of resources that are out there. The grant application guide. This is a really good one that kind of goes through some of those forms and different things that I just mentioned that will allow you to kind of go through the different steps and give me a moment. I will drop this link in the chat and we can go on to the next slide.

Okay. So, this is the JustGrants resources website. And if you see that kind of top corner, one where it says training, that's the title I just kind of spoke about where you can find a lot of different resources on just how to submit an application and how to set up roles and permissions, and there's also going to be a section there that will kind of show those ongoing live training sessions.

Those are publicly posted. Anyone is welcome to sign up for those particular trainings and it's a great resource, especially for navigation of the JustGrants system. All right. Next slide.

Okay. I think this may have been posted in the chat. Again, this is all in the NOFO, but these are some important help desks that can get you through any sort of technical issues. Again, you know, please don't wait until those application deadlines when everyone's kind of rushing at the systems, but if you do have any questions along the way, specifically with navigation, please do feel free to reach out to these folks.

They are very helpful. And we can go on to the next slide. Okay. OJP Response Center. Please do reach out to them if you have a lot of general questions. Anything about, you know, as Juliana mentioned, eligibility or different things related to the NOFO. It is very helpful to have those questions sent here so we can gather them all in one place and see if there are kind of common questions and answers that we can do better at getting information out to you all for. So, I think we just have one more slide.

Asking you to help stay connected. And I think with that, maybe we can move into the next slide, which is questions and answers.