Deadline: 30 April 2019
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications for funding to support national training and technical assistance (TTA) for jurisdictions engaged in comprehensive response system improvement related to the issue of unsubmitted sexual assault kits (SAKs).
This program supports the Department’s mission by improving:
- state and local jurisdictions’ capacities to respond to violent crime; and
- the functioning of the criminal justice system through the investigation and prosecution of cases resulting from SAK evidence and the collection of lawfully owed DNA.
Objectives
The objectives of the SAKI National TTA Program are to:
- Assist SAKI sites in implementing evidence-based activities to address existing challenges related to unsubmitted SAKs and to enhance the sexual assault response.
- Engage proactively with SAKI grantees to monitor their progress toward achieving program goals by addressing challenges and identifying solutions.
- Communicate regularly with BJA to assess the impact of TTA services on SAKI program goals and individual sites’ progress.
- Provide TTA to other jurisdictions interested in improving their response to sexual assault through evidence-based practices.
- In collaboration with OJP and stakeholder organizations, assist in the development, implementation, and dissemination of best practices, policies, and protocols for addressing systemic failures that lead to large numbers of untested kits and preventing those failures from reoccurring in the future. This includes customized sustainability plans for each SAKI site.
- Assist advanced SAKI sites with the investigation of other violent cold case crimes as outlined above.
Award Information
- BJA expects to make up to one award of up to $6,600,000 for a 36-month period of performance, to begin on October 1, 2019.
- Of this amount, $1,000,000 will focus on cold case investigations related to other violent crime cold cases and making DNA testing available. $600,000 will focus on Forensic Training to Ensure Conviction Integrity
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible applicants are for-profit organizations, nonprofit organizations (including tribal nonprofit or for-profit organizations), faith-based and community organizations, institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education), and consortiums with demonstrated experience providing national and local-level training and technical assistance. All recipients and their subrecipients (including any for-profit organizations) must forgo any profit or management fee.
- BJA welcomes 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 (subgrantees). The applicant must be the entity that would have primary responsibility for carrying out the award, including administering the funding and managing the entire program.
- BJA may elect to fund applications submitted under this fiscal year (FY) 2019 solicitation in future fiscal years, dependent on, among other considerations, the merit of the applications and on the availability of appropriations.
How to Apply
To apply for a grant, applicants must complete the Grants.gov registration process via given website.
For more information, please visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=313341
