OJJDP strives to enhance public safety, ensure offender accountability, and empower youth to live productive, crime-free lives. To achieve these goals, the Office provides comprehensive guidance to help states, Tribes, and local governments improve their juvenile justice systems and comply with the core requirements of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act. Following are highlights of OJJDP’s fiscal year (FY) 2020 awards and activities.
Youth Mentoring Programs and Services: $84.9 million
OJJDP's mentoring work aims to both increase opportunities for youth to have mentors and improve the quality and impact of the mentoring they receive. Through its research, programmatic grants, training and technical assistance, and publications, OJJDP provides national leadership to support the delivery of high-quality mentoring to a diverse and growing population of youth.
FY 2020 grants from OJJDP will allow national, state, and local organizations to continue providing mentoring to youth who are at risk of juvenile delinquency, victimization, and juvenile justice system involvement. Under the Mentoring Opportunities for Youth Initiative, OJJDP awarded almost $83 million to 36 organizations in 25 states and the District of Columbia. Of that total, OJJDP awarded $14 million to address opioid and other substance abuse.
The OJJDP National Mentoring Resource Center is a key resource for research and best practices in mentoring. Last year, the center provided training and other support to 362 school-, community- and faith-based mentoring programs that served more than 79,000 youth nationwide. In FY 2020, OJJDP awarded $2 million to continue the center’s operations.
Assistance to States: $57.9 million
Nearly $58 million was awarded to help states and territories protect public safety and improve their juvenile justice systems. Of that amount, more than $44 million was awarded to 53 jurisdictions through the Formula Grants Program. The funds will help states and territories prevent juvenile crime and delinquency and assist them in meeting the four core requirements of the JJDP Act: deinstitutionalization of status offenders, separation of juveniles from adults in secure facilities, sight and sound separation between juveniles and adults in jails and lockups, and the reduction of racial and ethnic disparities within the juvenile justice system.
OJJDP also awarded $2 million to the American Institutes for Research to continue operating the Center for Coordinated Assistance to States. The center provides training and technical assistance to help states, territories, and Tribes plan, operate, and assess programs designed to prevent and intervene in youth delinquency and improve the juvenile justice system.
Under the Delinquency Prevention Program, OJJDP awarded $7 million to six states and two Tribal organizations to help prevent youth who are at risk of becoming delinquent from entering the juvenile justice system. Nearly $5 million was awarded to seven states and the District of Columbia under OJJDP’s Juvenile Justice System Enhancements program.
Victims of Child Abuse: $54.1 million
Using a multidisciplinary team approach, children's advocacy centers (CACs) bring together professionals in medicine and mental health, law enforcement, child protective services, victim advocacy, and prosecution to provide coordinated services for children and families in one location. OJJDP awarded more than $23.3 million to support local and regional CACs, state chapters, and multidisciplinary teams; provide services for victims of child pornography; and help military installations address cases of child abuse. In addition, OJJDP awarded $2.5 million to the National Children’s Advocacy Center in Alabama.
More than $10.8 million in funding will support the work of the National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association. CASA programs provide advocacy for abused and neglected children—including foster care youth—in dependency hearings and support other child welfare system stakeholders at all levels of government.
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges received more than $3.1 million to provide training and technical assistance to judicial, legal, and social service professionals who handle cases of child abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, and sex trafficking. Of that total, $1 million will fund specialized training to work with families impacted by opioid abuse.
American Indian and Alaska Native children have the highest rate of victimization of any race or ethnicity. Communities in remote areas face challenges in accessing medical and legal services for children who have been physically or sexually abused. OJJDP awarded more than $7.2 million to the National Children’s Alliance to support the expansion of new satellite CACs in Alaska and the development of new satellite CACs for federally recognized Tribes in the lower 48 states. Another $4.8 million was awarded to eight existing Alaska-based CACs to increase the range and quality of services and address infrastructure needs. A total of $2.25 million will provide training and technical assistance to promote the effective delivery of CAC services in American Indian and Alaska Native communities.
Missing and Exploited Children: $47.6 million
OJJDP awarded more than $35.4 million to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to fund the center's operations and deliver training and technical assistance to law enforcement to enhance the recovery of missing and exploited children. Another $6 million will fund the center’s National Resource Center and Clearinghouse, part of an interagency agreement between OJJDP and the United States Secret Service.
Grants totaling $4.4 million were awarded through the National AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program to help the AMBER Alert network improve law enforcement’s response to abducted children and encourage public participation in their recovery. OJJDP provided an additional $1.8 million under the Missing and Exploited Children Training and Technical Assistance Program to strengthen the investigation and prosecution of cases involving missing and exploited children in states, Tribes, and local agencies.
Internet Crimes Against Children: $34.7 Million
OJJDP’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force program comprises 61 task forces representing more than 4,500 federal, state, and local law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies throughout the country. The task forces conduct forensic examinations and investigate and prosecute technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation. OJJDP awarded more than $28 million to the program in FY 2020. Additional ICAC-related awards include $4 million in support of the National ICAC Training Program, $2 million under the ICAC Program Support grant, and a total of $600,000 to three jurisdictions as part of the ICAC Forensic Capacity Hiring Program for Wounded Veterans.
Drug Courts and the Opioid Crisis: More Than $33 Million
OJJDP awarded more than $19 million across 21 jurisdictions under its Family Drug Court Program, which aims to increase collaboration with substance abuse treatment and child welfare systems to ensure that services improve child, parent, and family outcomes. More than $5 million will support OJJDP’s Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Program and nearly $9 million will fund OJJDP’s Opioid Affected Youth Initiative, which will assist states, communities, Tribes, and nonprofit organizations that provide support to children, youth, and families impacted by the opioid epidemic.
Reentry Services for Youth and Families: $11.2 Million
Through the Second Chance Act Addressing the Needs of Incarcerated Parents With Minor Children Program, OJJDP awarded nearly $10 million to 14 jurisdictions to support the successful and safe transition of young fathers and mothers from detention, out-of-home placement, or incarceration to their families and communities.
Through the Second Chance Act Youth Offender Reentry Program, OJJDP awarded $1.5 million to two jurisdictions to improve reentry outcomes for incarcerated youth, encouraging collaboration between state agencies, local governments, and community- and faith-based organizations.
Gang Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression: $11 Million
More than $10 million was awarded to 24 jurisdictions under OJJDP’s Comprehensive Anti-Gang Programs for Youth. These programs provide funding for communities to develop youth gang intervention or suppression initiatives that aim to reduce violence.
OJJDP also awarded $1 million to the Institute for Intergovernmental Research to continue operating the National Gang Center. The center provides training and technical assistance to communities across the country to address youth gun and gang violence. The center also tracks research and trends on gangs and maintains a database of comprehensive information on effective gang prevention, intervention, and suppression strategies.
Tribal Youth Initiatives: $7.1 Million
The Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) provides federally recognized Tribes and Tribal consortia the opportunity to develop a coordinated and comprehensive approach to public safety and victimization issues. OJJDP awarded more than $5.3 million to 14 Tribal entities under CTAS Purpose Area 8: Juvenile Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts and CTAS Purpose Area 9: Tribal Youth Program.
In addition, OJJDP awarded $1.3 million to the Tribal Law and Policy Institute to continue the Supporting Tribal Youth Training and Technical Assistance and Youth Leadership Development Program. This award will enable the institute to provide culturally appropriate training, resources, and technical assistance to key stakeholders to help prevent crime and delinquency.
OJJDP also awarded $500,000 to the Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc., to support the Alaska Native Youth Training and Technical Assistance Project. This project will establish a regional network of partnerships to develop strategies to address Alaska Native youth’s cultural needs and support their successful functioning at home, in school, and in the community.
Children Exposed to Violence: $7.1 Million
OJJDP awarded more than $7 million to seven organizations to develop support services for children exposed to violence in their homes, schools, and communities and to develop, enhance, and implement violent crime reduction strategies that focus on violent juvenile offenders.
Juvenile Justice Research and Evaluation, Juvenile Corrections Data Collections, and Archiving of OJJDP Data: Nearly $6.7 Million
OJJDP transferred more than $5 million to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) as part of an interagency agreement to fund a variety of juvenile justice and public safety-related research and evaluation projects. In FY 2020, NIJ awarded these funds to support longitudinal studies on delinquency and crime throughout the life course, research to improve the measurement of juvenile reoffending, a survey redesign to develop national estimates on the prevalence of gangs and gang members, and the review and posting of content for OJJDP’s Model Programs Guide.
OJJDP also transferred nearly $1.3 million to the U.S. Census Bureau to continue data collection activities under the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement and the Juvenile Residential Facility Census. These data collections provide valuable information about juveniles in residential placement and the facilities that hold them.
Another $400,000 was provided to the Bureau of Justice Statistics to archive and disseminate OJJDP's data at the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, the nation’s leading resource for secondary analysis of research data on crime and the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Juvenile Justice and Mental Health: $4.9 Million
OJJDP made eight awards totaling nearly $5 million under its Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. These awards help facilitate cross-system collaboration among juvenile justice, mental health, and substance abuse agencies to improve responses and outcomes for justice-involved youth with mental illness and/or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders.
Children With Sexual Behavior Problems: $4.1 million
OJJDP awarded more than $3.6 million to eight organizations to provide a continuum of intervention and supervision services for adolescent sex offenders and children with sexual behavior problems, and treatment services for their victims and families. An additional $500,000 will provide training and technical assistance to support the project sites in developing intervention models.
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For more information about the Office’s awards, visit OJJDP’s Funding page.