Deadline: 31-Jul-23
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) seeks applications for funding to provide national training and technical assistance to support the local Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program sites and share resources with the field to address persistent and high crime in neighborhoods through community-oriented crime reduction strategies that are collaborative, community-led, evidence based, integrated into broader revitalization efforts, and sustainable.
This program furthers the DOJ’s mission to ensure public safety; reduce serious and violent crime, including gun violence; and strengthen local capacity to combat substance use. BCJI helps communities build trust and support law enforcement agencies working with these communities by integrating enforcement strategies into community-based crime reduction efforts.
The Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program is a strategic approach to crime reduction that leverages community knowledge and expertise and focuses efforts on neighborhoods where crime is concentrated, which may also have crime “hotspots,” microlocations where crime is focused. After years of disinvestment, these neighborhoods have faced increasing crime and a range of challenges that contribute to increased risk for crime problems, so BCJI employs a multifaceted approach that addresses root causes of crime in order to generate sustainable long-term impacts.
Goal: The goal of the BCJI TTA Program is to support the final cohort of BCJI Program sites to leverage the expertise of the current BCJI leaders and develop tools and share resources with the field to address persistent and high crime neighborhoods through community-oriented crime reduction strategies that are collaborative, community-led, evidence-based, integrated into broader revitalization efforts, and sustainable.
Objectives
- The objectives of the BCJI TTA Program are:
- Ensure translation of knowledge developed in the BCJI Program by proactively managing, facilitating, and supporting the last set of 20 BCJI grantees throughout their grant period that ends in 2025.
- Document the BCJI experience and share resources and training by engaging experts from prior sites and incorporating lessons learned into current project sites. These resources should address key issues and areas that can support the BCJI sites and other investments. The TTA provider will conduct a review of strategies and create tools that help communities to implement:
- Place-based, community-oriented strategies in communities experiencing precipitous increases in crime that effectively identify, assess, and target violent and serious crime hotspots or crime problems.
- Collaborative partnerships and trust-building among law enforcement, criminal justice system partners, and community members, resulting in coordinated and/or integrated strategies that are place and community oriented. This will be coordinated with current efforts by BJA, including a curriculum being developed by other providers on trust between communities and law enforcement.
- An actionable set of tools to support local planning processes to clearly define crime drivers and select a set of data-driven strategies that link directly to the identified crime drivers. Tools and resources should be informed by an exploration and assessment of the broad base of strategies to address the drivers of crime, including not only crime prevention and enforcement but using tools that can address conditions of distress and risk for residents in the community, while building capacity and promoting revitalization.
- Outreach to over 100 communities that have implemented data-driven, collaborative community engagement through BCJI to ensure that the final products reflect the full set of data, research, and expertise developed in the BCJI Program since FY 2011, proposing cost-effective partnerships such as using local partners or expertise as experts either as staff, consultants, or through mentor sites or paid stipends for work. Consider organizing event(s) to bring experts together from this work and other efforts.
Elements
- The BCJI Program approach and the training and technical assistance supporting the model feature the following four core elements:
- Place-based Strategy to target where crime is concentrated and enhances the impact of crime control efforts with locally driven neighborhood revitalization strategies.
- Data and Evidence Driven to improve the use of data and research to problem solve and guide program strategy.
- Community Engagement to increase community and resident engagement in shaping and sustaining crime prevention and revitalization efforts.
- Building Partnerships and Enhancing Trust to promote sustainable collaboration with cross-sector partners to address problems from multiple angles.
Funding Information
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards $750,000
- Period of Performance Duration (Months): 30.
Eligibility Criteria
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.