The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) seeks applications for funding under the fiscal year (FY) 2023 Victims of Child Abuse Act Training and Technical Assistance for Child Abuse Professionals program.
Donor Name: Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/05/2023
Size of the Grant: $3,000,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
This program furthers the DOJ’s mission by providing funding for the development and implementation of a national training and technical assistance program for child abuse professionals and to promote a multidisciplinary response to child abuse cases.
Applicants must describe how their proposed project/program will integrate and sustain meaningful youth and family partnerships into their project plan and budget. Depending on the nature of an applicant’s proposed project, youth and family partnership could consist of one or more of the following:
- Individual-level partnership in case planning and direct service delivery (before, during, and after contact with youth-serving systems).
- Agency-level partnership (e.g., in policy, practice, and program development, implementation, and evaluation; staffing; advisory bodies; budget development).
- System-level partnership (e.g., in strategic planning activities, system improvement initiatives, advocacy strategies, reform efforts).
With this solicitation, OJJDP seeks to provide funding for the development and implementation of training and technical assistance for child abuse professionals for the purpose of promoting the effective delivery of the evidence-informed Children’s Advocacy Center Model and the multidisciplinary response to child abuse.
Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables
Goals
The program’s goal is to enhance the coordinated multidisciplinary approach to investigating and prosecuting child abuse and improve the capacity of child abuse professionals to effectively respond to child maltreatment. OJJDP seeks proposals that support efforts to provide information regarding improved child interview techniques—more specifically, techniques related to advanced interviewing, thorough investigative methods, interagency coordination, and effective court preparation and presentation.
Objectives
An applicant should address all of the objectives listed in the Goals, Objectives, Deliverables, and Timeline web-based form.
To achieve its goal, OJJDP has established the following objectives for this program:
- Develop training opportunities for child abuse multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) and professionals. These teams may include but are not limited to law enforcement, prosecutors, service providers, Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators, social workers, and adult and juvenile probation officers.
- Provide technical assistance for child abuse professionals and MDTs to enhance the coordinated multidisciplinary response to child abuse.
- Develop publications and resources for child abuse professionals to enhance the coordinated multidisciplinary response to child abuse.
Training and technical assistance proposed should occur at the local, state, regional, and national levels and be delivered through a systematic, coordinated, and customized approach developed in partnership with the other VOCA-funded programs, as noted in the deliverables below.
Deliverables
The applicant is expected to deliver the activities and products listed below under this project. While these deliverables are to be developed during the course of the project, applicants should propose an initial 3-year training and technical assistance strategic plan to be informed and enhanced by the deliverables below.
- Conduct an annual assessment of key stakeholders in the field to identify gaps and emerging training and technical assistance needs to improve the coordinated multidisciplinary response to child abuse and increase the capacity of child abuse professionals to address child maltreatment. Key stakeholders should include, but are not limited to, law enforcement, prosecutors, service providers, CPS investigators, social workers, and juvenile justice system professionals.
- Develop and implement an annual training and technical assistance strategic plan informed by the needs assessment. The plan should detail the products and deliverables that will be produced to address the gaps across the above multiple stakeholder groups as well as propose criteria for deciding the communities in which to devote project resources.
- Provide training sessions (onsite, cross-site, online/web based, etc.) for child abuse professionals at the local, state, regional, and national levels. The applicant will propose the topics, types, quantity, duration, audiences, timing, and means of delivery of training sessions; and identify trainers with relevant expertise and audiences with significant need. The applicant will include plans for evaluating training sessions, to include measuring changes in participants’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior.
- Develop publications and resources designed to enhance the coordinated multidisciplinary response to child abuse. The applicant will indicate the topics, types, quantity, audiences, and production schedule for proposed publications; and identify the authors and contributors. The applicant will create a plan to disseminate publications and measure their impact by, at a minimum, collecting data on the number of copies disseminated, the number of times online versions are accessed, and the types of users.
- Strategically collaborate with the VOCA-funded program partners to produce and annually maintain and update a 5-year strategic plan and a related operational plan to align efforts, maximize resources, and outline clear roles and responsibilities across the partners. Plans need to be delivered to OJJDP for review and approval by the 10th month of each year of the project following award. The successful applicant will be expected to participate in regularly scheduled VOCA program partner meetings with OJJDP.
The successful applicant is expected to coordinate its training and technical assistance activities with the previous training and technical assistance provider, VOCA regional CACs, and all other VOCA grantees, as OJJDP directs. Specifically, OJJDP will expect the successful applicant to leverage resources by incorporating deliverables previously developed under this program into its training and technical assistance project design. In addition, OJJDP may direct the successful applicant to enhance, disseminate, or build on existing program deliverables.
Funding Information
- Period of Performance Duration (Months): 36
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards: $3,000,000.00
Eligibility Criteria
National organizations that:
- have a diverse portfolio of training and technical assistance resources for the diverse professionals who respond to child abuse, including a digital library to promote evidence-informed practice, and
- have demonstrated experience in providing training and technical assistance for child abuse professionals, especially law enforcement officers, child protective service workers, prosecutors, forensic interviewers, medical professionals, victim advocates, and mental health professionals.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.