OARS funding Criminal Justice

The United States Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs INL is seeking applications from qualified U.S. and non-U.S. based non-governmental (NGOs)/non-profit organizations or Educational Institutions for a Cooperative Agreement to implement a program entitled, "Ecuador Countering Transnational Organized Crime Capacity Building Program". The program will assist with travel, training programs, and operational support, under the authority of INL Section Quito, in locations throughout the world for Ecuadorian law enforcement and criminal justice personnel, military, civil society, government officials, and other relevant participants from Ecuador, Colombia, the United States, and/or other countries. The award recipient will provide overall support for programmatic, logistical, and administrative assistance with the INL Section Ecuador's operational and capacity-building programs.

The Law & Social Sciences Program considers proposals that address social scientific studies of law and law-like systems of rules. The Program is inherently interdisciplinary and multi-methodological. Successful proposals describe research that advances scientific theory and understanding of the connections between human behavior and law, legal institutions, or legal processes. Social scientific studies of law often approach law as dynamic, made in multiple arenas, and with the participation of multiple actors. Fields of study include many disciplines, and often address problems including though not limited to:

The Miami Initiative for Advancing, Mentoring and Investing in Women (M.I.A.M.I. WOMEN) awarded nearly $104,000 in Giving Circle grants to students and faculty during the annual Leadership Symposium on April 12, 2018. Finalists pitched their projects the previous evening at the inaugural Hawk Tank event. This grant fund is open again for the 2018-2019 cycle.

The Higher Judicial Council (HJC) is the main body charged with improving and reforming the judiciary. However, the HJC admittedly does not have the technical expertise to make these wide-ranging, systemic reforms in the two areas indicated above. The technical expertise from an implementer would provide expert advice and training on how to prosecute and adjudicate complex criminal cases that involve the use of technical evidence and/or evidence derived from modern forensic techniques, especially as they relate to cases involving money laundering, cybercrime, and terrorism. Training, advice, and mentorship are also needed on the development and use of a plea bargaining system and on alternatives to incarceration that are written in the law, but implemented on an ad hoc basis. There are alternatives to incarceration laws on the books, i.e. setting bail and parole for minor misdemeanor cases, however they are either not used or used on an inconsistent basis. There is no law on plea bargaining.

The goal of the Immigration Litigation Fund, administered by Borealis Philanthropy, is to ensure that the nation's immigration enforcement system is fair, humane, and prioritizes the civil and human rights of those vulnerable to deportation. The Fund supports impact litigation efforts that challenge discriminatory, unlawful, and overly punitive immigration enforcement policies and practices at any stage of the enforcement trajectory from identification and apprehension, to detention and removal, as well as efforts to exclude certain immigrants from entering the country. Project support is provided for impact litigation costs and strategic convenings meant to advance coordination on an issue related to enforcement and impact litigation efforts. Public interest legal groups, advocates, and community-based organizations are eligible to apply. The Fund will be accepting applications through December 1, 2018. Visit the Borealis Philanthropy website to learn more about the Immigration Litigation Fund.

The Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL, or the Department), announces the availability of approximately $10,000,000 total costs (subject to the availability of Federal funds) for one cooperative agreement to fund a technical assistance project in a minimum of five countries to strengthen the capacity of governments to address child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking. The project will aim to achieve the following outcomes: (1) strengthened labor and/or criminal legal frameworks concerning child labor, forced labor, and/or human trafficking; (2) improved enforcement of the labor and/or criminal legal framework, specifically related to child labor, forced labor, and/or human trafficking; and (3) increased coordination among law enforcement and social protection entities to address child labor, forced labor, and/or human trafficking.

PSN is designed to create safer neighborhoods through a sustained reduction in gang violence and gun crime. The program's effectiveness is based on the cooperation and partnerships of local, state, and federal agencies engaged in a unified approach led by the U.S. Attorney (USA) in each district. One if the five core components of PSN is its provision of available training opportunities to PSN teams to assist them in the effective implementation of the critical components identified in their approved Strategic Action Plans. The Department will make available training and technical assistance (TTA) to our state, local, and tribal partners, to ensure they have the information they need to succeed. BJA will be seeking TTA providers who will develop criminal justice-related curricula and deliver TTA to state, tribal, and local law enforcement agencies, other justice system agencies, and communities.

The Pop Culture Collaborative represents an innovative hub for high impact partnerships and grants designed to help organizations and individuals leverage the reach and power of pop culture for social justice goals. Pop Up Rapid Response Grants are designed to help organizations working to build movements, drive campaigns, produce stories, and leverage media and entertainment mediums to drive positive narrative and social change in popular culture. Funded projects must impact, support, or engage at least one of these community groups: people of color, immigrants, refugees, or Muslims. Examples of funded projects include public events and private retreats; tool and resource prototypes; network and partnership building; story, narrative, and strategy design process; and creative content including short film/video, concerts, music recordings, etc. Grants range from $5,000 to $30,000. Requests may be submitted at any time by nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations, and individuals. Visit the Collaborative's website to learn more about the Pop Up Rapid Response Grants program.

DOJ’s Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) is designed to engage the full range of criminal justice policymakers and practitioners in the development of innovative strategies to improve the justice information sharing (JIS) and technology capabilities of state, local and tribal agencies. In order to be effective, Global’s approach requires training and technical assistance (TTA) to adequately engage stakeholders; facilitate working groups and task teams; develop products and publications; and offer implementation support to the field. The FY 2018 Global solicitation is designed to enhance Global’s ability to achieve its goals through the provision of TTA support.

The prison population for women has grown at double the pace of men over the past 40 years and is the fastest growing population in jails. It is critical to incorporate the relevant research and practice into the development of policy, practice and programs to reduce the rate of growth in women's correctional populations and improve management of women in our justice systems.

The goals of the Justice Sector Training, Research, and Coordination Plus (JusTRAC+) program are twofold: (1) to enhance the applied knowledge and skills of individuals and organizations that fund, design, manage, and implement rule of law programs, including U.S. Government personnel; and (2) to improve rule of law programming coordination among U.S. Government agencies, foreign governments, and multilateral, international and non-governmental organizations by supplementing educational activities with analytical products, stakeholder consultation, and dialogue facilitation support.

The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to counter Democratic People's Republic of Korea -DPRK's and Iran's activities in North Africa, which could contribute toward the development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)

Lebanon's current court archiving system is insufficient to meet the demands of the caseload of the justice sector. The goal is to support the Lebanese judicial system to establish and use a legal archival system for paper and electronic cases in order to process cases more efficiently and effectively and to have the ability to retrieve past court proceeding files. As part of this project, the implementer will train file attendants/court clerks (those responsible for this process) on proper filing conventions, document preservation, tracking of files released/returned (including tracking the individual documents contained in each file to ensure files are whole upon return) and other areas related to paper and electronic file maintenance identified as-needed.

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

INL seeks to enhance prosecutorial and judicial capacity in combating wildlife trafficking through the professional development of prosecutors, magistrates and judges handling wildlife-related cases. This project seeks to develop oral advocacy and mediation skills through mock trial competitions on complex cases related to wildlife trafficking.

This project will provide professional and technical development for defense legal professionals that provide criminal legal aid services in Bangladesh and help develop the organizational capacity of government legal aid committees to improve access to justice for indigent Bangladeshis. The project will provide legal training for defense lawyers to enhance the quality of legal aid services and engage with government legal aid committees to develop strategic initiatives to improve public outreach capabilities, planning, administrative capacity, and coordination among government facilities and NGOs. The project will support efforts to counter violent extremism in Bangladesh through improving access to justice and formal mechanisms to air grievances.

The Justice Accountability Initiative (JAI) is a data-driven approach that can help state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies analyze, understand, and address reducing recidivism and crime. The overall goal of JAI is to reduce crime by reducing the risk of recidivism, particularly violent recidivism. State and local agencies can accomplish this goal by creating and improving risk prediction tools , needs assessments and supervision plans, and building data-sharing and notification systems across criminal justice stakeholders. These strategies will also save in costs and improve operational efficiencies that can be reinvested in proven strategies to reduce crime and recidivism.

To further the Administration’s commitment to locally-driven public safety solutions and to being responsive to critical emerging issues, BJA is seeking applications for Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety. BJA has created this program to launch a robust and creative grant funding stream for the field. Supporting Innovation invites applicants to develop and test solutions that will improve officer and public safety and save lives. Lessons learned from these projects can serve as models for the nation’s criminal justice system regarding reducing violent crime, including violent crime related to tribes and tribal members, and addressing the nation’s opioid epidemic.

The purpose of this agreement is to enhance the capacity of Central American institutions responsible for preventing and addressing corruption by strengthening relevant legislative frameworks; building the capacity of judicial institutions and public servants responsible for preventing and fighting corruption; enhancing civil society engagement; and increasing regional information sharing on anti-corruption and anti-impunity efforts. The successful implementer will seek qualified professionals with a strong background and demonstrated success in increasing the capacity of institutions in the areas of legal reform, and investigation and prosecutions of corruption cases. The awardee will work with Central American judicial institutions to develop and implement necessary policies and processes to guarantee transparency in government and the active participation of civil society, and strengthen the ability of institutions and actors to effectively prepare and sentence cases.

The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) is seeking applications from qualified organizations for Injury Control Research Center (ICRC) grants. These centers will conduct high quality research and help translate scientific discoveries into practice for the prevention and control of fatal and nonfatal injuries and violence that support NCIPC’s priorities and mission.ICRCs are expected to blend Outreach, Training and Education, and Research activities into a program to reduce the number, risk, and public health impact of injury and violence in the U.S.