Arts Programs for Justice-Involved Youth

Overview

With this solicitation, OJJDP seeks to support and strengthen collaborations between arts-based organizations and juvenile justice systems to develop, expand, or enhance promising and effective interventions that provide access to high-quality arts programs with and for current or previous justice-involved youth to reduce juvenile delinquency, recidivism, and/or other problem and high-risk behaviors. OJJDP defines justice-involved youth as those participating in courtordered diversion or community-based programs, serving on probation due to a delinquency finding by a juvenile court, or placed in detention, correctional, residential facilities, or other out of home placement in the juvenile justice system. OJJDP's guiding philosophy is to enhance the welfare of America’s youth and broaden their opportunities for a better future. To bring these goals to fruition, OJJDP is leading efforts to transform the juvenile justice system into one that will Treat Children as Children; Serve Children at Home, With Their Families, in their Communities; and Open Up Opportunities for System-Involved Youth. OJJDP encourages all proposed applications that work with youth to highlight how the proposed program aligns with these priorities.  

OJJDP envisions a juvenile justice system centered on the strengths, needs, and voices of youth and families. Young people and family members with lived experience are vital resources for understanding and reaching persons involved or at risk of involvement with youth-serving systems. OJJDP asks stakeholders to join us in sustainably integrating bold, transformative youth and family partnership strategies into our daily work. OJJDP believes in achieving positive outcomes for youth, families, and communities through meaningful engagement and active partnerships, ensuring they play a central role in collaboratively developing solutions.  

Applicants must describe how their proposed project/program will integrate and sustain meaningful youth and family partnerships into all sections of the proposal narrative — including the description of the issue, project design and implementation, capabilities and competencies, plan for collecting data — and the 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) 

Goals and Objectives 
Goal 1: Reduce juvenile delinquency, recidivism, and/or other problem and high-risk behaviors of justice-involved youth through the development, enhancement, and/or expansion of highquality, culturally relevant arts programs.  

Goal 2: Increase participation of justice-involved youth in high-quality arts programs that are in alignment with OJJDP’s overarching priority areas and that integrate and sustain meaningful youth and family partnerships in their program design and budget. 
 
Objective 1: Increase collaboration between arts-based organizations and juvenile justice systems through the development, enhancement, or expansion of partnerships.  

Objective 2: Increase high-quality arts programs that serve justice-involved youth.  

Objective 3: Increase the number of current or previous justice-involved youth participating in high-quality arts programs that seek to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors.  

Objective 4: Reduce risk factors and increase protective factors of justice-involved youth through participation in high-quality arts programs.  

Priority Areas  
In order to further OJP’s mission, OJP will provide priority consideration when making award decisions to the following:  
1A. Applications that propose project(s) that are designed to meaningfully advance equity and remove barriers to accessing services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.  

1B. Applicants that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed project(s) are enhanced because they (or at least one proposed subrecipient that will receive at least 40 percent of the requested award funding) are a population-specific organization that serves communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.  

For purposes of this solicitation, population-specific organizations are nonprofit, nongovernmental, or Tribal organizations that primarily serve members of a specific underserved population and have demonstrated experience and expertise providing targeted services to members of that specific underserved population.

An applicant may submit more than one application, if each application proposes a different project in response to the solicitation. Also, an entity may be proposed as a subrecipient (subgrantee) in more than one application.  

OJJDP will consider applications under which two or more entities (project partners) would carry out the federal award; however, only one entity may be the applicant for the solicitation. Any others must be proposed as subrecipients (subgrantees)

Awards, Amounts, and Durations  
Anticipated number of awards: 4  
Anticipated maximum dollar amount per award: Awards will be up to $50,000  
Period of performance start date: October 1, 2024  
Period of performance duration (months): The period of performance is 24 months. The awardee may use the first 6 months for planning and capacity-building activities. 
Anticipated total amount to be awarded under this solicitation: $200,000  

Additional information: While the maximum allowable funding amount is $50,000, organizations that are new or that have never before received a federal award may wish to submit a proposed budget at a lower amount to support the development, enhancement, and/or expansion of high-quality, culturally relevant arts programs for justice-involved youth.