Deadline: 27 April 2020
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications for funding under the Second Chance Act to develop a strategic plan for integrating correctional and employment programming and systems in order to help facilitate the successful reintegration of offenders returning to communities after a prison or jail sentence.
The Correctional Adult Reentry Education, Employment, and Recidivism Strategies (CAREERRS) Program, a Second Chance Act program, is designed to help communities establish education, vocation, and job training programs in their correctional systems that address employment challenges facing incarcerated youth and adults re-entering those communities and the workforce.
Priority Areas
In FY 2020, and in addition to executing any OJP policy prioritization that may be applicable, priority consideration will be given to applications as follows:
- Applications that provide for assessment of local demand for employees in the geographic areas to which offenders are likely to return.
- Applications that propose to conducts individualized reentry career planning upon the start of incarceration or post-release employment planning for each offender served under the grant.
- Applications that demonstrate connections to employers within the local community.
- Applications that propose to track and monitor employment outcomes. To receive priority consideration under any of these program-specific priority areas, applicants must specify, in the program narrative, how the applicant will address the priority.
Objectives
- Implement or expand educational, vocational, and employment programs for incarcerated juvenile and adult offenders that result in improved educational;
- Employment outcomes, as measured by certifications and other credentials, diplomas, and jobs;
- Demonstrate increased collaboration between educational and workforce service providers and corrections, community supervision providers, and other reentry stakeholders.
Deliverables
- Development of an action plan with input from BJA and an assigned technical assistance coach and submitted within six months of receiving final budget approval.
- A final report at the end of the project period.
Funding Information
- Estimated maximum dollar amount for each award $900,000;
- Total amount anticipated to be awarded under solicitation $7,200,000;
- Period of performance duration 36 months.
Allowable Uses of Funds
- Establish/improve/expand educational and vocational programming and services for incarcerated juveniles and adults, including competency-based learning over a range of services from literacy, high school diploma/equivalency, to labor market needs-informed vocational education.
- Establish/improve/expand career training programs that are informed by the labor market needs in the geographic areas to which incarcerated individuals will return.
- Continually assess local demand for employees in the geographic areas to which offenders are likely to return and adjust educational and employment goals accordingly.
- Develop partnerships with local employers.
- Conduct individualized reentry career planning programs at the start of incarceration or post release employment planning programs for program participants.
- Subsidize wages or other employment costs as part of a career training program.
- Provide transitional services to assist in the reintegration of offenders into the community.
- Train corrections and service provider leadership and staff in CAREERRS programming.
- Track and monitor employment outcomes.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must apply under one of the following four categories, depending upon their jurisdictional status:
- Category 1: Units or components of state government agencies.
- Category 2: Units or components of county or city local government agencies.
- Category 3: Federally-recognized Indian tribal governments (as determined by the Secretary of the Interior).
- Category 4: Nonprofit organizations with a documented history of providing comprehensive reentry services.
All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.
How to Apply
Applicants must register in and submit applications through Grants.gov.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=324910