Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success

Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Response Center:
grants@ncjrs.gov
800.851.3420

The Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention will provide funding for planning and assessing promising and evidence-based prevention and intervention services that will inform the development of a community-based continuum of care for youth at risk of becoming or already involved in the juvenile justice system. The long term goal of the program is to support sustainable, research-based and data-informed recidivism reduction policies, practices, and programming designed to reduce costs, improve public safety; reduce violent crime; advance juvenile justice reforms; develop effective and equitable juvenile justice systems; increase positive youth outcomes; and reduce juvenile delinquency, truancy, drug abuse, victimization, and other problem and high-risk behaviors.

There are 3 funding categories:

• Category 1: State Agency Planning and Assessment
• Category 2: Local Planning and Assessment - Conduct a planning and assessment process that will identify gaps and assist in achieving cost savings through reforms. These savings can be reinvested in the development and implementation of promising practices and evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies as part of a community-based continuum of care for youth at risk of or already involved in the juvenile justice system.
• Category 3: Training and Technical Assistance - Support a training and technical assistance provider to help states and local communities build the capacity of their service networks for youth through asset mapping, gap analysis, and service delivery planning, including strategic financing information, education, and sustainability planning across the continuum of care for youth.

Categories 1 and 2 should:

• Convene a planning council composed of a variety of community stakeholders, including system-impacted youth and family representatives, law enforcement, juvenile justice agency staff, school system staff, court services, social services, health and mental health providers, advocacy groups, the business community, and other public and private community and faith-based organizations, that will engage in a planning process to develop a continuum of care designed to reduce rates of delinquency and incarceration through effective prevention, intervention, diversion, and reentry services for youth so that youth may receive services and opportunities.
• Convene the planning council on a regular basis to fully support the planning process.
• Develop and conduct a planning process that, at a minimum, includes:
  • Asset mapping within the designated jurisdictions to identify leveraged resources and policy/practice strategies for implementation
  • Gap analysis to identify areas of need in the community
  • Identify the key data points for tracking and monitoring progress to meet youth needs, reduce youth incarceration rates outlined in the solicitation, and assess what practices work best to improve youth well-being and prevent juvenile crime, especially in communities where there is a high need and high crime rates.
• Identification of cost savings through reforms than can be reinvested in promising practices and evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies that will reduce juvenile crime and recidivism.
• Deliver a comprehensive community plan for accessing, delivering, and sustaining a community-based continuum of care utilizing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs and best practices.

Category 1:

• State governments

Category 2:

• Special district governments
• City or township governments
• County governments

Category 3:

• Nonprofit organizations (including tribal organizations)
• For-profit organizations (including tribal for-profit organizations)
• Institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education)

Rural and tribal jurisdictions are a program priority.

Category 1:

• Award ceiling: $800,000
• Project period: 18 months
• Estimated number of awards: 8

Category 2:

• Award ceiling: $425,000
• Project period: 18 months
• Estimated number of awards: 16

Category 3:

• Award ceiling: $1,500,000
• Project period: 24 months
• Estimated number of awards: 2

Links to the full announcement, application instructions, and the online application process are available through grants.gov.

Applicants should submit an SF-424 and an SF-LLL in grants.gov by September 28, 2023.

Submit the full application, including attachments, in the JustGrants grants management system by October 10, 2023.