Agency Solicitation:
Through this opportunity, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) seeks applications to fund the development and testing of a new or innovative approach to improving community safety and trust that is an alternative to traditional enforcement mechanisms for neighborhoods experiencing high rates of less serious and low-level criminal offenses. This model will involve coordination with law enforcement entities to improve public safety and community residents’ perceptions of law enforcement and procedural fairness and legitimacy.
Additional Notes:
Applicants are expected to design a plan that includes the following components:
– A proposed locality or one or more economically disadvantaged neighborhoods within a locality experiencing a precipitous increase in crime, or type(s) of crime, to develop and test the model.
– A process for recruiting and identifying partner organizations and entities within the locality or neighborhood(s) that will receive subawards and technical assistance to implement the plan.
– A proposed strategy for engaging residents and leaders in the locality or economically disadvantaged neighborhood (s)in the development of a community-based safety model that will address a precipitous increase in crime, or type(s)of crime, and build capacity among community institutions and service providers to address less serious and lower-level crimes. BJA encourages the applicant to detail how it will engage community residents, leadership, local government agencies such as social service and community development agencies, local institutions such as schools and faith-based institutions, and those most impacted by community safety strategies, including those with lived experience and crime victims, in its strategy.
– A process for collaborating with all of the subawardee partners to execute their community engagement strategy and develop the community safety model within 1 year of the award.
The resulting community safety model should include, but is not limited to, the development of new programs, expansion of existing programs, building of capacity at partner organizations and entities, as well as expansion of the role of local government agencies other than law enforcement agencies, and close and active collaboration between all partners to address less serious and lower-level criminal offenses. The model will be expected to serve as an alternative but complementary model to traditional enforcement processes and functions, such as arrest, prosecution, sentencing, and court supervision, and collaborating entities are expected to coordinate with law enforcement for more serious or violent offenses.
