The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) seeks applications for funding two providers to address the training and technical assistance (TTA) needs of the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) site-based grantees and to provide resources to current SAKI sites across the country working Jane and John Doe sexually motivated homicide cases.
Donor Name: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/05/2023
Size of the Grant: $4,000,000
Grant Duration: 36 months
Details:
The overall goal of the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative TTA Program is to build state and local capacities to address violent crime associated with unsubmitted SAKs, sexually motivated homicides, and corresponding crime scene evidence by supporting the needs of SAKI sites and, as resources allow, other jurisdictions engaged in community-based sexual assault reform.
Given the complexity and diversity of the tasks, applicants are strongly encouraged to partner with other relevant providers in developing the application. The TTA services should include, but are not limited to:
- Training and educational sessions developed and conducted by relevant subject matter experts
- Technical assistance on SAK-related issues, including inventorying, testing, and tracking SAKs
- On-site and remote assistance, including training related to investigation and prosecution of sexually motivated crimes as well as other violent crime cold cases
- Creation and reporting of performance metrics
- TTA related to the collection of lawfully owed DNA
- Supporting the SAKI sites to engage in multidisciplinary coordination, investigation, prosecution, and victim advocacy, engagement, and support in connection with evidence and cases resulting from the testing of unsubmitted SAKs and backlogs of violent crime cold cases
Additionally, BJA seeks providers that will lend additional forensic support to the existing SAKI sites in their efforts to identify and resolve Jane and John Doe sexually motivated homicides.
Purpose Area 1—the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Training and Technical Assistance (SAKI TTA) program
Goals
- The selected TTA provider will support all SAKI grantee sites in all six corresponding purpose areas; develop resources for the criminal justice field at large to elevate local jurisdictional responses to violent crime cold cases, particularly those that are sexually motivated; and leverage existing TTA resources available through BJA’s sakitta.org website, OJP, and DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), in addition to creating additional TTA tools to fill existing resource gaps.
- The chosen provider will also provide targeted TTA to other non-SAKI funded jurisdictions engaged in system improvement efforts as resources allow.
Objectives
- 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 their program goals by addressing challenges and identifying solutions.
- Communicate regularly with BJA to assess the impact of TTA services on SAKI’s 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 as well as backlogs of violent crime cold cases, and identify efforts that will aid in preventing those failures from reoccurring in the future. This includes customized sustainability plans for each SAKI site.
- Assist advanced SAKI sites with the investigation and prosecution of all violent cold case crimes.
Purpose Area 2—the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)
Goals
Deliver forensic DNA services to SAKI grantee sites working with Jane and John Doe sexually motivated homicides.
Objectives
- Assist SAKI site-based grantees in the identification of Jane and John Doe sexually motivated homicide cases utilizing current forensic technologies. Particular focus should be given to those sites that can demonstrate an ongoing threat to public safety as well as offer assistance to those grantees that have small, rural, and/or tribal entities within their jurisdictions.
- Assist SAKI site-based grantees in advancing the investigation and prosecution of their Jane and John Doe sexually motivated homicide cases. Collaborate with SAKI sites to ensure cases are reported to relevant databases.
- Engage proactively with SAKI grantees to track and monitor the progress of their cases.
- Assist SAKI sites with the repatriation of their jurisdiction’s Jane/John Doe victim’s remain to their loved ones.
- Communicate regularly with BJA to assess the impact of the TTA services on SAKI’s goals and individual sites’ progress under this Purpose Area 2.
- Communicate regularly with BJA to address any challenges and/or delays in processing Jane/John Doe cases.
Funding Information
Purpose Area 1: the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative Training and Technical Assistance (SAKI TTA) Program
- Dollar Amount for Award: $3,000,000
- Performance Duration (Months): 36
Purpose Area 2: the National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Forensic DNA Services Technical Assistance Program
- Dollar Amount for Award: $4,000,000
- Performance Duration (Months): 36
Eligibility Criteria
Purpose Area 1
- 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.
Purpose Area 2
- Eligible applicants are states (including territories), units of local government (including federally recognized Indian tribal governments as determined by the Secretary of the Interior), nonprofit and for-profit organizations (including tribal nonprofit or for-profit organizations), and institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions of higher education). For-profit organizations must agree to forgo any profit or management fee.
For the purposes of this solicitation, “state” means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
