OJJDP FY 17 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative | OJJDP 2017 10945

Opportunity Information: Apply for OJJDP 2017 10945

The OJJDP FY 17 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), focused on strengthening legal representation and broader access to justice for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. The initiative is built around the idea that improving the quality of juvenile defense, building system-level capacity, and addressing the legal barriers young people face when returning to the community can lead to fairer outcomes and reduce repeat justice involvement. The program was released December 29, 2016, with an original closing date of March 2, 2017, and sits under CFDA 16.836 in the Law, Justice, and Legal Services area. OJJDP anticipated making around eight awards, with an award ceiling of up to $1,500,000.

Eligibility is centered on organizations that can operate at a high level of competence and scale in juvenile justice work. Eligible applicants include nonprofits with 501(c)(3) status, public and private institutions of higher education (including tribal institutions), and for-profit organizations, including tribal for-profit entities. A key restriction is that for-profit recipients must agree to waive any profit or management fee, reinforcing that funds are intended to support direct public benefit and system improvement rather than generate revenue. The opportunity is divided into three distinct categories, each targeting a different but related gap in youth access to justice.

Category 1 funds a national training and technical assistance (TTA) provider to work directly with states on juvenile defense reform. The intent is not just general training, but intensive assistance that helps states develop and implement strong, well-resourced statewide strategic plans for juvenile defense improvement. This includes building systems that ensure effective indigent defense, explicitly including post-disposition representation (legal advocacy after adjudication, such as during probation, placement, or other downstream proceedings where youth still face significant liberty and service consequences). The TTA provider is expected to raise the overall level of systemic advocacy by equipping the juvenile defense bar with practical, cost-effective tools such as innovative training programs, practice guidelines, technical support, and capacity-building assistance. Leadership development and opportunities for collaboration are also emphasized, with the provider engaging experts and stakeholders to align reform efforts and accelerate adoption of best practices.

Category 2 supports State and Tribal Juvenile Defender Resource Centers designed to strengthen defense systems closer to the ground. These centers are meant to help state, tribal, and local juvenile defense programs improve the quality of representation by offering expertise, coordination, and support that individual offices or jurisdictions may not be able to sustain alone. A major focus is leveraging resources and improving the use of data: the centers are expected to help jurisdictions collect and analyze information that can demonstrate service effectiveness, identify gaps, and guide continuous improvement. In practice, this category is aimed at building durable infrastructure for better defense practice, stronger oversight, and more consistent standards across jurisdictions, including tribal communities with distinct legal contexts and service delivery needs.

Category 3, authorized under the Second Chance Act, focuses on Juvenile Reentry Legal Services and takes a direct-services approach. Grants under this category are intended for community-based nonprofit organizations that can provide civil legal services, mentoring, and reentry planning for youth who are transitioning, or have recently transitioned, back to their families and communities after secure confinement or out-of-home placement. The core goal is to address the collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement and to remove practical barriers that frequently derail reentry, especially in housing, education, and employment. The model described combines individual legal assistance (for example, resolving documentation issues, addressing school re-enrollment problems, or handling housing-related barriers) with mentoring and collective advocacy strategies that tackle patterns affecting groups of youth, not just single cases. By stabilizing young people during the reentry period and clearing legal and administrative obstacles that limit opportunity, this category is designed to support successful reintegration and ultimately reduce recidivism.

Taken together, the three categories reflect a coordinated strategy: build statewide reform capacity through expert training and technical assistance, strengthen state and tribal systems through resource centers and data-driven improvement, and provide hands-on civil legal support to youth during reentry so that legal problems outside the delinquency case do not become long-term roadblocks. The overall emphasis is on improving representation, increasing fairness and effectiveness in juvenile justice decision-making, and creating better long-term outcomes for young people and their communities.

• The Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "OJJDP FY 17 Smart on Juvenile Justice: Enhancing Youth Access to Justice Initiative" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.836.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 29, 2016.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 02, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for OJJDP 2017 10945

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