The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) seeks applications to fund the development and testing of new or innovative approaches to improving community safety and trust that are alternatives to traditional enforcement mechanisms for neighborhoods experiencing high rates of less serious and low level criminal offenses.
Donor Name: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/20/2023
Size of the Grant: $2,000,000
Grant Duration: 36 months
Details:
With this solicitation, BJA seeks to fill a gap within OJP’s current funding plan by seeding the development, implementation, and testing of new or innovative approaches to achieving community safety that are alternatives to a traditional enforcement model for communities experiencing a precipitous increase in less serious and lower-level crimes. This solicitation will fund applications proposing an innovative strategy or model to improve community safety, build trust, limit unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice system, and improve residents’ perceptions of law enforcement and procedural fairness and legitimacy.
BJA’s Reimagining Justice: Testing a New Model of Community Safety Program will invest in a collaborative network of community-based organizations and institutions as well as local non law enforcement government agencies. This collaboration will address these increases in less serious/lower-level crimes through the delivery of coordinated programs and services in order to avoid any unnecessary criminal justice system involvement. This new community safety model will support the development of community-led responses to the needs and objectives of community leaders, residents, and other stakeholders through a community engagement process. This approach can include coordination with law enforcement entities, where appropriate, in order to focus on a locality or one or more neighborhoods experiencing a precipitous increase in less serious crime.
Goals
To improve community safety by identifying, implementing, and testing promising new or innovative community safety strategies that will reduce and prevent crime and improve community residents’ perceptions of procedural fairness.
Objectives
Create or identify and test an effective community-based safety model to serve as an alternative to traditional enforcement processes for addressing lower-level types of crime that will improve community safety and result in increased trust and legitimacy between law enforcement and residents by implementing projects that will:
- Identify and select organizations, local government agencies, and other entities within the site(s) that will serve as partners and subawardees to enhance this strategy’s capacity and sustainability.
- Propose a community engagement strategy for a locality, or one or more economically disadvantaged neighborhoods within a locality, where crimes are persistent and concentrated.
- Implement the community engagement strategy to empower residents to design and refine a community-based safety model and ensure meaningful engagement of communities as coproducers of safety.
- Enhance potential for success through the provision of technical assistance and funding via subawards to project partners to support the implementation of the community safety model.
- Work with a research partner to assess needs, document implementation, and develop tools to support further implementation in the field, build knowledge, and enhance approaches.
- Increase investment in and build the capacity of local and community resources and institutions in the project site(s) that have the ability to reduce and prevent crime and enhance community engagement in these partnerships.
Funding Information
- Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation: $5,000,000
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards: $2,000,000
Period of Performance Duration (Months)
36
Eligible Applicants
- Private institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
Additional Information on Eligibility
- Local non-law enforcement government agencies
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
