Volume 9, Issue 7.   The Federal Funding Report is published by NCSC's Government Relations Office in Washington, DC to help courts make the most of federal government and non-governmental organization funding opportunities.

June 2, 2009

Federal Funding Opportunities

FEDERAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:

Volume 9, Issue 7                                           

Family Drug Court Program 
Deadline:         June 15, 2009
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is seeking applications for funding under its FY 2009 Family Drug Courts Program.  The program seeks to develop and establish drug courts for substance-abusing adults involved with the family dependency court as a result of child abuse and neglect issues.  The program provides services to the children of the parents in the program and to the parents.  Applicants are limited to states, state and local courts, units of local government, and federally-recognized tribal governments acting directly or through agreement with other public or private entities. 
Contact Information:  Ms. Jennifer Tyson, Program Manager at (202) 305-1598 or jennifer.tyson@usdoj.gov.
http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/grants/solicitations/FY2009/FamilyDrugCourtsProgram.pdf

Bulletproof Vest Partnership 
Deadline:         June 24, 2009
The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) announces the Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP) designed to provide a critical resource to state and local law enforcement.  Funds from this program may be used to purchase vests and each vest purchased must meet the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standards.  According to the program, a jurisdiction is eligible to apply for funding if it is a recognized unit of general government and it employees law enforcement officers.  This includes towns, cities, villages, boroughs, parishes, counties, states, Indian tribes and special government districts.
Contact Information:  You may contact the Help Desk at 1-877-758-3787 or email at vests@usdoj.gov
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bvpbasi

Byrne JAG FY 2009 Solicitation
Deadline:         June 25, 2009
We want to alert you on the Annual Solicitation for the Byrne JAG Formula funding program.  This is a separate solicitation from the Byrne JAG funding announcement tied to the American Recovery Act that we highlighted earlier.  The local program application deadline is July 9, 2009.  Below is the link for the announcement, which details the allocations for individual states and counties.
http://www.oip.usdoj.gov/BJA/grant/jag.html

Strengthening Communities Fund Program
Deadline:         July 7, 2009 
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS), announces applications will be accepted for new cooperative agreements to experienced organizations to provide nonprofit organizations serving as project partners, with capacity building training, technical assistance, and competitive financial assistance. The focus of this program is to build the capacity of funded projects' nonprofit partners in order to address the broad economic recovery issues present in their communities, including helping low-income individuals secure and retain employment, earn higher wages, obtain better-quality jobs, and gain greater access to state and Federal benefits and tax credits.  Eligible applicants include state, county or township governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) IRS status (other than institutions of higher education) and faith-based and community organizations.  Foreign entities are not eligible under this announcement.
Contact Information:  Ms. Katrina Morgan, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Grants Management, 1515 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22209,
1-800-281-9519 or email at ocs@lcgnet.com
www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/HHS-2009-ACF-OCS-SI-0091.html

Crime Victims Funding
Deadline:         Ongoing
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is receiving applications for Project Helping Outreach Programs to Expand. The objective of the project is to provide resources to grass roots community-based organizations to improve outreach and services to crime victims.  Nonprofit grass roots community-based victim service programs that do not receive federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) victim assistance grant funding may apply for a one-time grant, up to $5,000, to support program development, networking, coalition building, and service delivery. Funds may be used to develop program literature, train advocates, produce a newsletter, support victim outreach efforts, and recruit volunteers. This is an ongoing solicitation and is contingent upon the availability of funds.
Contact Information:  Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), 810 Seventh Street NW, Washington, DC 20531 or (202) 307-5983
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/fund/expandingoutreach/welcome.html

NON-GOVERNMENTAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Human and Community Development
Deadline:         Ongoing
The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Program on Human and Community Development will focus its grant-making strategies on community change and juvenile justice.  The Juvenile Justice effort maintains a national scope and promotes an effective juvenile justice system that is linked to relevant agencies, is acknowledged to play a critical role in the community and is held accountable for public safety as well as the rehabilitation of young offenders. Grant award funding levels vary.  Eligible applicants for the Juvenile Justice program include a variety of organizations in the United States.
Contact Information: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 140 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603-5285 or (312) 726-8000
www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.938141/k.FEFC/Domestic_Grantmaking

OTHER
Here is some more information regarding criminal justice funds coming available as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was recently approved by the Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
Byrne JAG Formula Grant Program:  A large part of the criminal justice portion of the stimulus bill, was the infusion of funds for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program.  A total of $2 billion was allocated for Byrne JAG formula grant program in the ARRA.  Byrne JAG formula grant funds have been used by state courts for a variety of improvements such as specialty courts, training personnel, court record upgrades and other uses.  The Byrne JAG formula grant program is composed of two parts and state portion (60%) and a local government portion (40%).  The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) has released grant announcements for both these portions. 
The deadline for the local government portion of the Byrne JAG grant has been extended to June 17, 2009. The previous deadline was May 18. 
Local Government Portion
The grant announcement for the local government portion can be found at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/recoveryJAG/JAGrecoveryLocal.pdf.
Local state courts typically access these funds through their local governing unit (city council or county board).  Like the State portion, it is the designated local government submits the application for their allocation.  The local governing body will make the decisions about how the funds are spent within the city/county.  The allocations for eligible local governments can be found at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/recoveryJAG/recoveryallocations.html.

Department of Education Funding.   The Department of Education announced $44 billion is available for states and schools.  Of this amount, $6 billion is for a "Government Services Fund" to pay for education, public safety or other government services.
We have confirmed with the Department of Education that funds under the "Government Services Fund" may be used by state courts for public safety purposes.  Their use is not restricted to public safety in schools and educational institutions.
The funding for the Department of Education funding will go to the Governors by formula.  Governors must apply for the funds before their allocations are released.  Therefore, it is imperative that you communicate with your Governor's office and inquire about how funds will be made available, timeline, etc.