Rural Violent Crime Initiative

 

The Rural Violent Crime Initiative seeks to award grants on a competitive basis to small law enforcement agencies and prosecutors offices in rural locations. These grants will support improved training and technology, expanded community-based crime prevention programs, and partnerships with victim services providers. This initiative is intended to improve communication and collaboration between state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve in order to address the unique criminal justice challenges in rural areas. Goal: The goal of this program is to assist and support local rural law enforcement agencies and/or prosecutors offices as they plan, implement, and assess identified violent crime problems in their jurisdiction. Training and technical assistance (TTA) will be made available to site-based awardees to assist them in achieving these goals. The TTA provider will work with BJA to coordinate assistance and will compile a final report which includes an assessment of individual site efforts, overarching findings, and lessons learned. The objectives are as follows: Assist rural jurisdictions in reducing their violent crime problems. Identify strategies that will be designed and targeted to the unique characteristics of violent crime occurring in rural jurisdictions. Contribute to the professional literature and research on rural violent crime. Develop evidence-based resources to support intervention strategies that address rural violence. Performance Measure 1: Number of rural jurisdictions that have received funds; and, Performance Measure 2: Percentage of rural grantees that experienced a reduction in their rural violence problem (at the closeout of their award).

Active 16.039 Office of Justice Programs, Department of Justice B - Project Grants Fiscal Year 2021 Anticipated Number of Awards 45 Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards $150,000.00 Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation $5,500,000.00
Fiscal Year 2022 Please visit https://bja.ojp.gov/news/opportunity-available-rural-violent-crime-reduction-initiative Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116-260, Statute 134,1182, 1258
Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2023, Public Law 117-328 Agencies eligible for site-based awards include state and local governments (including Federally Recognized Indian Tribal Governments and State-designated Indian Tribes) The expectation is the site-based funding will be used to support programs involving law enforcement agencies and/or prosecutors' offices. Entities eligible to apply for the training and technical assistance award include for profit organizations other than small businesses, Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, and Public and State controlled institutions of higher education. The main beneficiaries of this solicitation will be rural jurisdiction that are experiencing persistently high or recently precipitous incidences of violent crime. The particular the types, causes, and solution of rural violent crime are often unique and different than those for urban violent crime. Accordingly, rural violent crime deserves focused attention and targeted solutions. There will be two criteria to be documented: 1. Applicants will have to confirm that the area(s) in which the violent crime problem occurs meet BJA's definition of rural. 2. Applicants will have to document that they jurisdiction is experiencing a persistent or precipitous violent crime problem consistent with the definition and thresholds defined by BJA. Preapplication coordination is not applicable. 2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program. See the current fiscal year's solicitation available at the Office of Justice Programs web site at https://www.ojp.gov/funding/explore/current-funding-opportunities. Upon approval by the Office of Justice Programs Assistant Attorney General, successful applicants are notified via DOJ's Justice Grants System (JustGrants). The grant award must be accepted electronically by the receiving organizations authorized official in JustGrants. For further information, please see https://www.ojp.gov/funding/financialguidedoj/ii-preaward-requirements. Contact the headquarters or regional location, as appropriate for application deadlines From 30 to 60 days. There are no appeal rights for rejection of a discretionary application, but for discretionary awards, please see section 28 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 18. In some cases, award periods may be extended if specific criteria are met. For details, please review the discussion of no-cost extensions in the Criteria for Award Extension section of the Department of Justice Grants Financial Guide available at https://www.ojp.gov/funding/financialguidedoj/iii-postaward-requirements. Both site-based and TTA-provider applicants will be assessed on their understanding of and ability to describe the underlying problem; their project design and implementation; their organization's capabilities and capacities; their plan for collecting data and providing performance measures; and submission of a budget that is cost-effective, complete, and restricted to allowable expenditure. Site-based awardees are expected to describe on or more violent crime problems affecting their jurisdiction and describe its impact with quantitative metrics (e.g., crime victimization rates or costs for intervention, treatment, or victim services expenses). TTA awardees are expected to demonstrate competency in managing multi-site TTA awards and to provide documentation of their organizational capacity in addressing violent crime reduction strategies, program assessments, and understanding the unique challenges of policing in rural areas. For site-based awards, funding is intended to: • Support the development of strategic and problem-solving approaches to addressing one or more rural violent crime problem • Promote data-driven strategies to support and measure crime reduction efforts • Promote collaborative approaches in partnership with stakeholder representing the community, local service providers, and criminal justice partners • Document and share implementation guidance and program assessment with assistance of the training and technical assistance provider (TTA). For the TTA award, funding is intended to: • Assist site-based grantees in achieving their deliverables and objectives • Foster a collaborative community of practice among site-based awardees • Compile a description of all the crime reduction strategies implemented by the site-based awardees and TTA awardees • Establish regular briefings and meetings with BJA policy staff to discuss TTA plans, achievements, work products, and adjustments • Complete a final report that summarized and integrates program and findings across sites, as well as provide lessons learned and guidance of other agencies to implement practices, strategies, and approaches that were successful. Performance Reports: To assist in fulfilling the Departments responsibilities under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), Public Law 103-62, and the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, Public Law 111–352, recipients must provide data that measures the results of their work. Not applicable. In accordance with the requirement set forth in 2 CFR 200, Subpart F, grantees must maintain all financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all other records pertinent to the award for at least 3 years following the close of the most recent audit. For additional guidance, please visit https://www.ojp.gov/funding/financialguidedoj/iii-postaward-requirements. Statutory formula is not applicable to this assistance listing.

Matching requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing. Award periods for Office of Justice programs generally range from 12 to 36 months. For specifics pertaining to this program, please see the current fiscal year’s program solicitation available at the Office of Justice Programs web site (https://www.ojp.gov/funding/explore/current-funding-opportunities). For additional information, see the Department of Justice Grants Financial Guide section on “Period of Availability of Funds" at https://www.ojp.gov/funding/financialguidedoj/iii-postaward-requirements), . Method of awarding/releasing assistance: Lump. None/Not specified. Juliana Palmer
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Assistance
810 7th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20531 USA
Juliana.Palmer@usdoj.gov
Phone: 202-598-6531 https://bja.ojp.gov/news/opportunity-available-rural-violent-crime-reduction-initiative 15-0404-0-1-754 (Project Grants) FY 22$13,394,604.00; FY 23 est $8,000,000.00; FY 24 est $7,000,000.00; FY 21$5,500,000.00; FY 20$0.00; - Maximum dollar amount for each award: Category 1 $200,000 Average Award amount: Category 1 $100,000 Maximum dollar amount for each award: Category 2 $600,000 Average Award amount: Category 2 $600,000 Office of Justice Programs funding opportunities https://www.ojp.gov/funding/explore/current-funding-opportunities Department of Justice Grants Financial Guide (https://www.ojp.gov/funding/financialguidedoj/overview) and Post award Instructions (https://www.ojp.gov/funding/financialguidedoj/iii-postaward-requirements), applicable OMB Circulars and regulations, and Department of Justice regulations applicable to specific types of grantees. Fiscal Year 2022 Examples of funded programs include: • A rural agency seeking to reduce sexual assault and domestic violence through increased patrol capacity, community involvement, and procurement of forensic software and hardware. • A rural agency seeking to aid investigations to prosecutive offenders in violent crimes and fatal traffic accidents through procurement of reconstruction software. • A rural agency seeking to reduce the number of violent, property, and narcotic-related offenses through the upgrade of cameras and transmitters in the jurisdiction’s Real Time Crime Center. • A rural agency seeking to deter violent and property crime throughout the country and increase investigators’ ability to investigate crimes and secure forensic evidence through the purchase of surveillance cameras and digital forensic extraction software.