In fiscal year 2024, OJJDP awarded more than $420 million in discretionary grants to help states, localities, and Tribes develop effective and equitable juvenile justice systems that create safer communities and empower youth. OJJDP grants fund a broad array of initiatives aimed at preventing and responding to youth victimization and delinquent behaviors by youth. The Office awarded more than 350 discretionary grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and community-based organizations through a competitive process.

OJJDP is funding a variety of new programs in fiscal year 2024, including three addressing substance use:

• Community and Schools Youth Drug Prevention Program—an effort to create a national substance use prevention program in schools in partnership with local law enforcement and community coalitions.  
• Expanding Youth Access to Community-Based Treatment–Training and Technical Assistance and Program Development—an initiative to improve outcomes for youth with substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders who come into contact with the juvenile justice system, or who are at high risk of contact, by diverting them toward community-based treatment.
• Youth Justice and Mental Health Collaboration program—an effort to foster cross-system collaboration among youth justice, mental health, and substance use treatment agencies to improve outcomes for justice-involved youth with mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

OJJDP awarded a total of $39.5 million to states and communities to address the needs of children and youth impacted by opioid and other substance use, covering the three new programs, its Opioid Affected Youth Initiative, and support for drug courts serving youth and families.

Another new OJJDP program, Mentoring for Children of Incarcerated Parents, supports group, one-on-one, community, and school-based mentoring services that promote family engagement and community connectedness. The Office awarded over $89 million in fiscal year 2024 for its entire portfolio of youth mentoring programs, which help young people build positive relationships and productive futures. OJJDP’s other mentoring initiatives provide individual and group mentoring to youth who are at risk of victimization, delinquency, or juvenile justice system involvement through the National Mentoring and Multistate Mentoring  programs; serve young people affected by opioid and other substance use; and target youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system.

OJJDP awarded over $92 million to help law enforcement recover missing and exploited children, support affected families, and help state and local law enforcement agencies respond to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation. In partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Office launched the Children's Justice Project in fiscal year 2024 to accelerate the identification of children who have been found deceased but have not been identified.  

To improve outcomes for victims of child abuse and ensure that the professionals who work with affected youth and families have access to effective training and resources, OJJDP awarded nearly $68 million to Victims of Child Abuse Act programs. The funding supports local, Tribal, and regional children’s advocacy centers, which coordinate the investigation, prosecution, and treatment of child abuse using multidisciplinary teams of professionals; and training and technical assistance for court-appointed special advocates, child abuse prosecutors, and judicial, legal, and social services professionals. The Office launched the Child Victimization Prosecution Project in fiscal year 2024 to provide training and technical assistance to prosecutors to improve their handling and prosecution of cases involving children and youth who report victimization while in out-of-home placement or custodial care.

OJJDP awarded more than $44 million for a range of delinquency prevention and intervention initiatives targeting vulnerable and at-risk youth, and system-involved girls. Its Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success initiative incorporates prevention, intervention, treatment, and reentry strategies so young people can access needed resources and services where they live and at every point in the juvenile justice system. 

Programs aimed at reducing youth violence and victimization received $32 million in fiscal year 2024. The Enhancing School Capacity to Address Youth Violence initiative emphasizes collaborative approaches between schools and local community-based organizations that operate violence prevention and early intervention programs. A program for children exposed to violence helps youth and families build resilience, restore safety, heal emotional wounds, and prevent future violence.

OJJDP awarded nearly $37 million to support community efforts to strengthen effective youth reentry programs and bolster Tribal programs to reduce delinquency and strengthen the juvenile justice system for American Indian and Alaska Native youth.

To enhance state efforts to improve their juvenile justice systems, OJJDP awarded almost $19 million for training and technical assistance and other resources. The Juvenile Justice System Reform and Reinvestment Initiative promotes a broad set of reforms such as expanding community-based responses to delinquency. The Center for Youth Justice Transformation is providing training and technical assistance to strengthen state and territory compliance with the Title II Formula Grants Program and developing an online education program for best practices in juvenile justice reform.

Resources:

Visit OJJDP’s Awards page to learn more about fiscal year 2024 awards. To see awards information by city and state, view the Office of Justice Programs’ interactive map.