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The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), U.S. Department of Labor announces the availability of approximately $1.5 million total costs for one or more cooperative agreements to fund a project to integrate the issues of child labor alleviation and acceptable conditions of work into women's economic empowerment initiatives. The project intends to support service providers and policy makers when working with women entrepreneurs to ensure women-led enterprises can improve livelihoods responsibly without resorting to child labor or harmful labor practices. The project's outcomes include: Outcome 1: Increased understanding of child labor and acceptable conditions of work in the context of women's economic empowerment initiatives. Outcome 2: Increased availability of tools to integrate child labor awareness and acceptable conditions of work into women's economic empowerment initiatives. Outcome 3: Demonstrated effectiveness of tools in mitigating child labor and unacceptable conditions of work in women's economic empowerment initiatives. Outcome 4: Increased awareness and adoption of tools to integrate child labor awareness and acceptable conditions of work into women's economic empowerment initiatives by a broad range of stakeholders.The duration of the project will be a maximum of 4 years (48 months) from the effective date of the award.

With this solicitation, NIJ seeks to build knowledge on best practices in offender reentry initiatives. Specifically, NIJ requests proposals for rigorous research to examine reentry initiatives that incorporate promising practices, strategies, or programs. For this solicitation, NIJ is interested in supporting evaluations of innovative reentry initiatives that focus on juveniles, young adults (aged 18-24), and adults with a moderate-to-high risk of reoffending. A particular focus on the risk of reoffending with a violent crime is encouraged. These initiatives may be applicable to juvenile residential facilities, institutional and/or community corrections.

The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) will provide Federal assistance to support innovative projects seeking to promote and ensure the inclusion and use of minority enterprises. This Announcement is a mechanism to encourage new activities, education, outreach, innovative projects or sponsorships that are not addressed through other MBDA programs. MBDA has established key priorities designed to overcome the unique challenges faced by minority business enterprises (MBEs). MBDA is now initiating new approaches to serve MBEs that compliment Presidential priorities and U.S. Department of Commerce goals. These program priorities are separated according to the following 14 initiatives: Access to Capital American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Project Aquaculture Disaster Readiness Disaster Recovery Entrepreneurship Education Program for Formerly Incarcerated Persons Global Minority Women Economic Empowerment Initiative Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiative Inclusive Infrastructure Initiative Research Space Commerce Sustainable Business Model Technology Transfer and Commercialization Virtual Business Center

The Smart Prosecution Initiative, administered by BJA, is part of BJA's "Smart Suite" of crime fighting programs including Smart Policing, Smart Probation, and Smart Pretrial. Funding for this initiative is anticipated through the FY 2015 appropriation. BJA established the "smart suite" over five years ago with the creation of the Smart Policing Initiative. The smart suite supports criminal justice professionals in building evidence-based, data-driven criminal justice strategies that are effective, efficient, and economical. BJA's smart programs represent a strategic approach that brings more "science" into criminal justice operations by leveraging innovative applications of analysis, technology, and evidence-based practices. Historically, prosecutors have worked tirelessly to address criminal justice problems in their community. In recent years they have recognized a need to adopt innovative strategies and to engage in data-driven decision making to proactively contribute to crime prevention and response. They also recognize the effectiveness of collaborating with other criminal justice partners, stakeholders and the community to reduce violent crime and achieve safer communities. The Smart Prosecution model builds off of the lessons learned from BJA's other smart suite programs and seeks to pair action researchers with prosecutor offices to develop solutions-such as "hot spot" strategies, sophisticated crime analysis, offender-based policies, and risk and needs assessment-that create prosecution strategies in an effort to break down information silos, advance communities, improve public trust and confidence in the justice system, and increase public safety. Smart Prosecution seeks to act as a catalyst, promoting criminal justice and non-criminal justice information sharing to improve results for communities. Lessons learned from Smart Prosecution will develop a rich body of evidence for use by prosecutors nationally as they seek to work w

BJA, in a public/private partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts, launched the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) in 2010 as a multistaged process in which a jurisdiction reduces unnecessary incarceration, increases the cost-effectiveness of its criminal justice system and reinvests savings into high-performing public safety strategies.  JRI jurisdictions reinvest these cost savings into high-performing initiatives that make communities safer. In addition to reducing prison populations, justice reinvestment encourages states to embrace a culture of greater collaboration, data-driven decisionmaking, and increased use of evidence-based practices. While the full impact of justice reinvestment reforms is not yet known, the policies enacted in JRI states hold great promise to reduce prison populations, achieve substantial cost savings, and avert future growth.  However, many of the states found similar factors driving populations and costs for example, parole and probation revocation rates; sentencing policies and practices that favored incarceration of low-risk offenders over alternatives and that resulted in long lengths of stay; insufficient or inefficient community supervision, services, and support; and parole system processing delays and denials. The policy responses to these issues also overlapped, sharing themes of evidence-based practices and data-driven decisionmaking, including risk and needs assessments; accountability measures such as performance and outcome measure reporting; earned credits to encourage compliance with conditions of community supervision; sentencing changes; swift, certain and fair responses to technical probation and parole violations, mandatory post-incarceration supervision requirements; problem-solving courts; streamlined parole processes and expanded parole eligibility; and re-entry programs to reduce recidivism.

BJA, in a public/private partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts, launched the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) in 2010 as a multistaged process in which a jurisdiction reduces unnecessary incarceration, increases the cost-effectiveness of its criminal justice system and reinvests savings into high-performing public safety strategies.  JRI jurisdictions reinvest these cost savings into high-performing initiatives that make communities safer. In addition to reducing prison populations, justice reinvestment encourages states to embrace a culture of greater collaboration, data-driven decisionmaking, and increased use of evidence-based practices. While the full impact of justice reinvestment reforms is not yet known, the policies enacted in JRI states hold great promise to reduce prison populations, achieve substantial cost savings, and avert future growth.  However, many of the states found similar factors driving populations and costs for example, parole and probation revocation rates; sentencing policies and practices that favored incarceration of low-risk offenders over alternatives and that resulted in long lengths of stay; insufficient or inefficient community supervision, services, and support; and parole system processing delays and denials. The policy responses to these issues also overlapped, sharing themes of evidence-based practices and data-driven decisionmaking, including risk and needs assessments; accountability measures such as performance and outcome measure reporting; earned credits to encourage compliance with conditions of community supervision; sentencing changes; swift, certain and fair responses to technical probation and parole violations, mandatory post-incarceration supervision requirements; problem-solving courts; streamlined parole processes and expanded parole eligibility; and re-entry programs to reduce recidivism.

The primary purpose of the OVW Training and Technical Assistance Initiative (TA Initiative) is to provide direct technical assistance to existing and potential grantees and sub-grantees to enhance their efforts to successfully implement projects supported by OVW grant funds. OVW’s TA Initiative is designed to strengthen and build the capacity of civil and criminal justice system professionals and victim service providers across the nation to respond effectively to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking and foster partnerships among organizations that have not traditionally worked together to address these crimes.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is seeking applications for the FY 2018 National Initiatives: Preventing Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Ensuring Officer Resilience and Survivability (VALOR) Initiative. This national initiative furthers the Department mission by improving the criminal justice system; enhancing law enforcement safety, wellness, resilience, and survivability; and providing support to efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address law enforcement safety and wellness needs.

The Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) funds rigorous research to produce practical knowledge that can improve the safety of schools and students. The initiative is carried out through partnerships between researchers, educators and other stakeholders, including law enforcement and mental health professionals. Projects funded under the CSSI are designed to produce knowledge that can be applied to schools and school districts across the nation for years to come. This solicitation includes multiple funding categories with different expectations and requirements to accomplish the purposes of the CSSI.

The Smart Defense Initiative, administered by BJA, is part of BJA's "Smart Suite" of criminal justice programs including Smart Pretrial, Smart Policing, Smart Supervision, and Smart Prosecution. BJA established the Smart Suite over 5 years ago with the creation of the Smart Policing Initiative. The Smart Suite supports criminal justice professionals in building evidencebased, data-driven criminal justice strategies that are effective, efficient, and economical. BJA's smart programs represent a strategic approach that brings more "science" into criminal justice operations by leveraging innovative applications of analysis, technology, and evidence-based practices. In many states, the public defense delivery system is in crisis, with too many defendants lacking access to quality advice and representation. In addition to being a matter of constitutional concern, this void can contribute to over-incarceration, reduced confidence in the justice system, and other inequities. Without quality effective representation, a defendant may not be treated fairly, may not understand the process, and may not get the benefit of available alternatives to incarceration for first-time or low-level offenses. Additionally, ifthese issues are not addressed, victims are ill-served and the criminal justice system's shared goals of justice and public safety go unmet. To help jurisdictions strengthen state and local public defense delivery systems, BJA is releasing this competitive grant announcement. Under Smart Defense, BJA is seeking applicants who are interested in developing innovative, data-driven approaches to improve their public defense delivery systems guided by the Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System. This program is funded under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (Pub. L. No. 113-76).

With this solicitation, NIJ seeks to build knowledge on best practices in offender reentry. Specifically, NIJ requests proposals for rigorous research to examine reentry initiatives for adult or juvenile offenders that incorporate promising practices, strategies, or programs. These initiatives may be applicable to institutional or community corrections, or both. Preference will be given to applications that propose to use a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This research supports the U.S. Department of Justice priorities to reduce violent crime and to protect police and other public safety personnel by reducing recidivism and giving individuals tools to be law-abiding productive members of society.

With this solicitation, NIJ seeks to build knowledge on best practices in offender reentry. Specifically, NIJ requests proposals for rigorous research to examine reentry initiatives for adult or juvenile offenders that incorporate promising practices, strategies, or programs. These initiatives may be applicable to institutional or community corrections, or both. Preference will be given to applications that propose to use a randomized controlled trial (RCT). This research supports the U.S. Department of Justice priorities to reduce violent crime and to protect police and other public safety personnel by reducing recidivism and giving individuals tools to be law-abiding productive members of society.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is seeking applications from organizations, groups, or individuals to enter into a cooperative agreement with NIC for an 18-month period to begin no later than September 15, 2013. Work under this cooperative agreement will involve convening a working group with the purpose of identifying key areas of gender-informed knowledge specific to women that will both inform a future research agenda and define a project that would further incorporate these keys areas into NIC initiatives and provide further guidance for policymakers and practitioners in their management of this population. The audience for this project is quite broad, representing all aspects of corrections (jails, prisons, and community corrections), the research and academic community, other Federal agencies, state and local entities and other related stakeholders that have an interest in this population. The deliverables from this solicitation will be based on research and theory and are meant to provide a medium to inform NIC initiatives as well as more generally the corrections field, with the goal of improved system and individual outcomes. This project will be a collaborative venture with the NIC Community Services Division.

BJA and SAMHSA are accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2015 for grants to enhance court services, coordination, and evidence-based substance abuse treatment and recovery support services of adult drug courts. The purpose of this joint initiative is to allow applicants to submit a comprehensive strategy for enhancing drug court services and substance abuse treatment. Through this solicitation, applicants are competing for two grant awards (a grant from SAMHSA and a separate grant from BJA) for both criminal justice and substance abuse treatment funds with one application. In order to fulfill all of the requirements for this grant program, applicants should comply with the requirements outlined in this announcement as well as those incorporated by reference in the Requirements Resource Guide. These grants are authorized under 42 U.S.C. § 3797u, et seq., and section 509 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended. This announcement addresses Healthy People 2020 Substance Abuse Topic Area HP 2020-SA and SAMHSA's Strategic Initiative on Trauma and Justice. Drug courts funded through this grant may use federal funding and matched funding to serve only nonviolent offenders1 and must operate the adult drug court based on BJA's and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals' publication Defining Drug Courts: The Key Components, which addresses the statutory requirements. This opportunity provides drug court applicants the flexibility to identify the most appropriate evidence-based court (service/docket) model on which to base the drug court, in order to accommodate the needs and available resources of that jurisdiction, so long as the model conforms to the 10 key drug court components (see pages 9-11 of this solicitation), which describe the basic elements that define drug courts. (See page 8 for a definition of "evidence-based.")

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) recognizes that preventing and ameliorating youth violence requires a shared framework to address the factors that impact violence and victimization at the individual, peer, family, community, and societal levels and promote child and youth well-being. Jurisdictions that work to address these issues benefit from strategic, coordinated training and technical assistance (TTA) and participation in learning communities to help them reach their short- and long-term goals. To facilitate progress, better support youth violence prevention, and promote well-being in localities nationwide, OJJDP invites proposals to broker, coordinate, and provide relevant TTA to the 39 jurisdictions that OJJDP is funding through its three signature youth violence prevention initiatives-the Defending Childhood, National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, and Community-Based Violence Prevention initiatives. OJJDP invites organizations that preferably represent a partnership or consortium of entities as described in the Eligibility section on the title page to submit applications. This program is authorized pursuant to paragraphs (3)(C) and (D) under the Juvenile Justice Programs heading, and paragraph (11) under the State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance heading, in the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2015, P.L.113-235: 128 Stat. 2130, 2193, 2195.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated research that will help expand and advance our understanding about what works to prevent violence that impacts children and youth, collectively referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), including child abuse and neglect, teen dating violence, sexual violence, youth violence, and exposure to adult intimate partner violence. This initiative is intended to support the evaluation of primary prevention strategies, programs, or policies that target universal or selected high-risk populations (i.e., populations that have one or more risk factors that place them at heightened risk for perpetration of violence). Funds are available to conduct such studies focused on preventing child abuse and neglect and at least one other form of violence affecting children and youth, including teen dating violence, sexual violence, youth violence and exposure to adult intimate partner violence as detailed elsewhere in this announcement.

In 2007, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) launched the Transition from Jails to Community (TJC) Initiative to support the local reentry efforts of justice-involved adults. Under the Initiative, targeted technical assistance was provided to fourteen learning sites (including two jurisdictions selected in response to California Assembly Bill 109). Historically, community reintegration has proven complicated related to the brief length of stays in jails, the complex needs of justice-involved adults, and the lack of community-based coordination for supervision and/or post release treatment. These reintegration issues are more pronounced when considering the approximate 12 million adults transitioning through our nation's 3000+ local and community jails annually. The need exists for implementation of national strategy to increase public safety while enhancing evidence based programming to support the reintegration efforts of the men and women transitioning back into our nation's communities.

The justice system is an important target for HIV prevention and treatment, as an estimated 25% of all people living with HIV will pass through the justice system each year. As well, a high proportion of people with opioid use disorder (OUD) and people who inject drugs (PWID) pass through the justice system each year. OUD and injection drug use elevate HIV risk. Community re-entry from incarceration is a time of heightened risk for substance use relapse, opioid-related mortality, HIV risk behaviors, and discontinuation of HIV treatment. Justice involved people who have HIV, or who are at elevated risk for HIV, should have the opportunity to receive evidence-based HIV services appropriate to their level of risk. These include screening, initiation on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) or highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), and engagement in related substance use disorder treatment services. HIV treatment-as-prevention can help reach the goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the United States. This initiative aligns with the NIH-OAR priority of reducing the incidence of HIV, and with the President's objective to End the HIV Epidemic by 2030.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is soliciting investigator-initiated research that will help expand and advance our understanding about what works to prevent violence by rigorously evaluating primary prevention strategies, programs, and policies to address specific gaps in the prevention of teen dating violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and youth violence. This initiative is intended to support the evaluation of primary prevention strategies, programs or policies that target universal or selected high-risk populations (i.e., populations that have one or more risk factors that place them at heightened risk for perpetration of violence). Funds are available to conduct such studies focused on preventing the perpetration of youth violence and/or teen dating/intimate partner/sexual violence as detailed elsewhere in this announcement.

NIJ seeks investigator-initiated applications for funding for research and evaluation related to reducing firearms violence and understanding the causes and effects of firearms violence. This solicitation aims to strengthen our knowledge base and improve public safety by producing findings with practical implications for reducing firearms violence. This solicitation is focused specifically on producing research related to intentional, interpersonal firearms violence. NIJ is particularly interested in supporting research related to the following three areas identified in the 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council titled Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence: (1) the characteristics of firearm violence; (2) risk and protective factors; and (3) interventions and strategies.

This FY 2014 grant announcement focuses on national programs strategically targeted to address community and law enforcement needs. Specifically, this grant announcement focuses on developing community partnerships to assist law enforcement in locating and working with missing persons with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. This initiative is funded under the Missing Alzheimer's Disease Patient Assistance Program.