Purpose

To provide training and technical assistance to State, local, and tribal law enforcement professionals seeking to increase juvenile accountability and improve their response systems as part of a collaborative effort to prevent and control juvenile crime and victimization and improve public safety.

Background

Juvenile crime and victimization present major challenges to law enforcement and other practitioners who are responsible for prevention, intervention, and enforcement efforts. Increases in violent crime arrests of juveniles, juvenile involvement in gangs and drugs, the victimization of juveniles, and decreasing fiscal resources are just a few of the challenges facing juvenile justice practitioners today.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has supported the Juvenile Justice Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance (JJLETTA) program since it entered into an interagency agreement with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in 1982. OJJDP's commitment to helping State, local, and tribal agencies and organizations and response to these challenges continues through a training and technical assistance program designed to enhance the juvenile justice system's ability to respond to juvenile crime and victimization. Although this assistance targets law enforcement agencies, participants also include representatives from school staff and administrators, judges, prosecutors, social service workers, corrections and probation personnel, and key community and agency leaders.

Fiscal year (FY) 1997 funds supported seven regional law enforcement training workshops: The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Forum; Managing Juvenile Operations (MJO); School Administrators for Effective Police Operations Leading to Improved Children and Youth Services (SAFE Policy); Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP); Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance; Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy; and Youth-Oriented Community Policing.

These training workshops have been offered in some combination during the past 15 years to assist law enforcement and community agencies and organizations in developing a combination of effective strategies to prevent, intervene with, and control juvenile crime and victimization. Review and revision of the training curriculum is an ongoing process that draws on assessments of law enforcement agencies and training participants, facilitators, consultants, and staff. Consistent with this standard, significant revisions are anticipated in several of the workshops during FY 1998 and 1999.

Guiding Principles

JJLETTA engages participants in a systems approach for developing collaborative, communitywide strategies to combat juvenile crime and victimization that are the most appropriate for their communities. With followup technical assistance provided by OJJDP, workshop participants will be prepared to devise, implement, modify, and evaluate community partnerships and programs in their localities. The JJLETTA recipient must understand and apply the following essential principles in support of a community's successful implementation of a systems approach to the prevention and control of juvenile crime and victimization:

	Employ a multiagency, communitywide approach. Law enforcement strategies should be planned and implemented on a multiagency, communitywide basis. Law enforcement agencies are better prepared to extend the reach of limited resources when all the elements of the juvenile justice system and the community, including law enforcement, the courts, government officials, young people and their parents, educators, ethnic and minority groups, business people, human service providers, and civic groups, are mobilized to serve in a partnership to prevent delinquency and control juvenile offending and victimization. Through this process, all concerned segments of the community become stakeholders in a common effort to address these problems.
	Emphasize delinquency prevention. Properly implemented prevention is an essential part of any effective strategy to reduce the high levels of violent and criminal behavior among juveniles. Most juveniles involved in criminal activity do not have an official juvenile justice system record during their adolescent years, and only a small percentage of those offenders who enter the system receive appropriate intervention services before their problems become intractable. As a result, early, community-based prevention has great potential for reducing a significant portion of delinquency and subsequent adult criminality. Additionally, a greater emphasis on prevention results in a far smaller drain on public resources than the more costly alternative of system processing and restrictive placements. It is also essential for a community-based prevention system to take into account the needs of both juvenile victims and offenders.
	Conduct community risk and resource assessments. For a comprehensive strategy to work well in setting priorities and allocating resources, law enforcement managers and administrators should fully understand the extent of the community's needs and existing assets. The first step in community assessment involves the identification and ranking of prevalent risk factors operating at the community, family, school, and individual levels that contribute to delinquent behavior, including violence and substance abuse. The assessment also requires that a community identify prevention and early intervention resources and their effect on reducing risk and enhancing protective factors. The final step is to identify those areas where current resources fail to effectively address high-priority risks. The results of this assessment process will enable a community to focus its resources where they will have the maximum impact in preventing juvenile delinquency.
	Undertake strategic planning. Once a community risk and resource assessment has been conducted, key government and community leaders should develop a strategic plan to implement a comprehensive approach in a manner tailored to the community's needs and assets. The first step is to establish short-, medium-, and long-term, outcome-based goals and to formulate objectives for their accomplishment. The plan should be based on proven and appropriate interventions and focus on closing gaps between high-priority risk factors and the community resources available to address them. Specific, short-term tasks should be detailed and assigned and, additionally, timetables for their implementation. Finally, any effective strategic planning should incorporate ongoing fiscal and program evaluations in order to revise and improve juvenile justice programming.
	Develop resources. Communities should develop a two-pronged approach to securing fiscal resources. First, the community should identify and assure maximum use of available public funding streams and seek to develop new sources of funding from community agencies, the corporate sector, and private foundations. Second, the community should organize and implement a comprehensive approach in the most efficient manner possible by eliminating service duplication, streamlining management systems, and employing the most cost-effective prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions programs.
	Implement a management information system. A comprehensive program for preventing and controlling juvenile delinquency cannot function efficiently without a well-designed management information system. By establishing formal communication and information sharing within and among agencies, a management information system supports community efforts to track juvenile offenders, establish planning priorities, evaluate prevention and control programs, and manage scarce resources. Equally important, a well-implemented management information system generates information that constructively engages stakeholders in the comprehensive community strategy, committing them to a continuous learning process involving informed planning, implementation, and ongoing self-evaluation.
	Support youth accountability through a community case management system. At the community level, a comprehensive interagency and multiagency strategy should include a systemwide case management program that gives a single community case manager responsibility for monitoring the behavior of those youth identified as serious habitual offenders (SHO's) and those identified by certain factors as at greater risk of developing patterns of serious and violent offending. Case managers should also be responsible for monitoring a young offender's progress through the continuum of appropriate interventions and aftercare. Sound case management results in coordination of services, efficient use of intervention resources, and a high level of accountability.
	Function within a system of graduated sanctions. Current research indicates that juvenile justice system sanctions are more effective and affordable when the sanctions are graduated, humane, individualized, and combined with a continuum of increasingly intensive treatment and rehabilitation services that hold offenders accountable. To determine placement and service appropriateness, each youth should have a risk-focused needs assessment. As OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders advocates, a continuum of sanctions should be available, ranging from supervised group activity for minor offenders to secure placements for the most violent offenders and aftercare programs that provide a high level of behavioral control and community supervision.

Goals

The goals of the JJLETTA program are to reduce juvenile delinquency and violence by facilitating the use of effective law enforcement approaches, strategies, techniques, and programs in planning and delivering law enforcement services within the context of local community collaboration and provide a framework and strategy to increase juvenile accountability for delinquent and criminal behavior, reduce juvenile violence, and enhance public safety.

Objectives

The objectives of the program are to:

	Systematically assess, revise, manage, and deliver OJJDP's Law Enforcement and Training and Technical Assistance program, including the following workshops: CEO Forum; MJO; SAFE Policy; Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance; Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy; and Youth-Oriented Community Policing.
	Deliver the SHOCAP training curriculum and technical assistance workshops and disseminate a SHOCAP technical assistance and replication package to State and local law enforcement agencies and their community collaboratives.
	Deliver training curriculum and technical assistance workshops and disseminate a technical assistance package to State and local communities on the Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program.
	Develop and initiate an aggressive general marketing strategy for the training workshops, with specific focus on increasing the interest in implementation of SHOCAP and the Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program at State and local levels.
	Assess the juvenile justice needs of law enforcement at both the strategic decisionmaking and operational levels of participating agencies and organizations.
	Promote coordination among law enforcement, juvenile justice agencies, and community agencies and organizations.
	Assist law enforcement agencies in the development of comprehensive, multidisciplinary techniques and strategies to control and prevent juvenile delinquency and youth violence.
	Provide guidance to law enforcement on the legal context and use of discretion and information with respect to specific diversion strategies for youth.
	Support youth accountability through information exchange and a community case management system.
	Provide technical assistance in the development of concept and position papers, reports, and resource materials in furtherance of the goals of the law enforcement training initiatives and workshops.
	Provide onsite and online technical assistance in the development of local youth-oriented programs, policies, and procedures to enhance the law enforcement response in the care, handling, and treatment of juvenile offenders.
	Provide technical assistance in the assessment of local juvenile justice system capabilities to respond to gang, gun, and drug activity and to facilitate local project and program development in improving jurisdiction wide responses to school violence and serious juvenile offender crime.
	Provide technical assistance to increase the awareness of public officials of the need for juvenile justice system improvement.

Program Strategy

OJJDP will competitively select an organization with expertise in the design, development, and delivery of law enforcement training and technical assistance and award a cooperative agreement for an initial 1-year budget period. Subsequent awards will be made annually for two additional 1-year budget periods during a 3-year project period.

FY 1998 funds will support the continuation of the seven regional training workshops and a new offering, Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program. This program and a revised SHOCAP curriculum and technical assistance package will support the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant (JAIBG) program, currently being implemented by States and local jurisdictions pursuant to Public Law 105-119, the Appropriations Act of 1998. Revisions to the SHOCAP curriculum, the technical assistance packages, and the development of the curriculum and technical assistance package for the Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program will be completed by a separate grantee tasked with delivering these products. The expectation is that these products will be "handed off" to the JJLETTA recipient for delivery and dissemination at a point that coincides with award of the cooperative agreement. In addition to supporting this developmental work, JAIBG program funds will be used in FY 1998 to expand the number of statewide and regional SHOCAP workshops and to develop and deliver the new Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program workshop.

Support for the JAIBG program will also involve participation in the Consultant Exchange Data Base and the training and technical assistance tracking system to be developed by the national JAIBG training and technical assistance recipient.

Online technical assistance and workshop information will be available online at OJJDP's home page. A full schedule of training is anticipated for FY 1999.

Applicants are expected to present a design for the continuation of OJJDP's JJLETTA program, detailing how each of the objectives will be achieved. Applicants must also provide an implementation schedule that reflects assignment of tasks and critical milestones related to the required deliverables and a description of how the proposed training and technical assistance deliverables can be expected to impact the stated goals of the program. The design should reflect a thorough understanding of law enforcement organizational practices and procedures, familiarity with a cross-section of the Nation's major law enforcement agencies, knowledge of issues being dealt with in law enforcement agencies, knowledge of OJJDP programs with which law enforcement activities interface, and knowledge of community youth-serving agencies with which effective law enforcement agencies collaborate.

The recipient shall provide all of the necessary personnel, facilities, equipment, materials, and services required to accomplish the tasks listed below. Tuition, student materials, instructional costs, and lodging for these training programs will also be provided under the award. Participants are responsible for all costs associated with transportation, meals, and incidental expenses. When providing onsite technical assistance, the recipient is responsible for consultant fees and the travel and per diem for facilitators providing onsite services. The community requesting technical assistance is responsible for the costs of hotel rooms, meals, and ground transportation.

Scope of Work

The level of training activity will include the design and delivery of current, modified, and new regional training and technical assistance workshops, including the development of training and technical assistance workshops on Youth-Oriented Community Policing and Tribal Juvenile Justice.

The basic training components include eight regional training workshops identified below followed by customized onsite or online technical assistance, if requested. Requests for training and technical assistance, which usually originate with law enforcement agencies, will be approved in accordance with available resources and potential impact.

Training is provided through approximately 14 regional training sessions per year, which consist of 2 workshops offered at each scheduled session. Workshops are conducted in various locations throughout the United States. The length of the workshops ranges from 2 to 4½ days. Approximately 40 professionals attend each workshop.

Training may also be offered on a State-by-State basis at the request of a U.S. Attorney or State executive agency, e.g., a State commission on crime and delinquency.

Over the years, a highly qualified group of facilitators has been used to design and deliver the training supported under the program. Although OJJDP anticipates that many of these facilitators will be used in the continuation of the program, it is incumbent upon the recipient to develop a pool of qualified consultants and facilitators to enhance and facilitate the design and delivery of the program and to provide procedures for certification of its ability to deliver the required programs at the high level of competence established for the program.

The major elements of the law enforcement training program that the recipient is expected to support are discussed below.

Workshops

OJJDP offers training workshops to a wide variety of professionals who work with juveniles at risk and who are involved in the juvenile justice system. Workshop training sessions are interactive, involving extensive information-sharing and problem-solving components. Surveys of participant needs and priorities help determine the emphases in particular workshops.

Within its specialized focus, each workshop will assist participants in planning and implementing changes in law enforcement organizations; acting within local violence prevention collaborations; developing comprehensive, multiagency strategies to control and prevent youth violence, gangs, and drug trafficking; coordinating and integrating existing and new Federal, State, local, and tribal initiatives, juvenile justice efforts, and human services; and mobilizing community residents in targeted sites to assist law enforcement in identifying and controlling serious, violent, and chronic offenders.

The training design seeks to mirror the collaborative planning that should occur within communities among law enforcement agencies, youth services providers, and community organizations.

The content and approach for each workshop and the Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program are described below.

	Chief Executive Officer Forum. The CEO Forum is an intensive 2-day workshop that provides an executive overview of OJJDP's comprehensive youth violence strategy and risk-focused approach to the prevention and control of juvenile violence. The workshop is designed for executives who represent law enforcement and a broad range of elected officials and local and civic agencies. Participants will discuss community strategies for use with juvenile offenders, examine the complex causes of youth violence and explore the impact of violence on children when it occurs in the community, in school, and in the family. The CEO Forum also focuses on the decisionmaking process at the interagency, strategic, and operational levels in support of police commanders and other key community leaders. The Forum's objectives are to expand and refine the use of youth-oriented community policing and enhance its application in interagency and multiagency operations and to help community leaders solve strategic problems through information sharing and the use of technology.
	Managing Juvenile Operations. MJO is a 3½-day workshop designed to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity of law enforcement juvenile units within the overall framework of a comprehensive communitywide strategy to prevent and control juvenile delinquency. The workshop also examines Supreme Court cases in the area of juvenile law. Its major objectives are to assist juvenile unit managers to (1) make the juvenile unit an integral part of department wide operations; (2) improve services and maximize resources through the collection, analysis, and use of improved management information; (3) mobilize community resources to solve youth problems; (4) strengthen existing youth resources and develop new ones; (5) provide case and program coordination; (6) promote positive programs to remedy conditions that breed delinquency; (7) understand juvenile court and probation services; and (8) monitor youth behavior and involve youth in the decisionmaking process. Participants examine a wide range of organizational, staffing, and procedural issues.
	School Administrators for Effective Police Operations Leading to Improved Children and Youth Services. SAFE Policy is a 3½-day workshop designed to reduce delinquency and violence in schools through targeted, interagency and multiagency programs that involve law enforcement, the schools, and human services agencies in the community. Participants explore the multiple risk factors associated with school-based violence and delinquency, including factors related to schools themselves, the community, the home, and the individual. Participants are trained in the fundamentals of conducting an appropriate risk and needs assessment and in developing a comprehensive strategy to address school violence.
	Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program. SHOCAP is an intensive 4½-day interagency information-sharing and problem-solving workshop designed to improve public safety and increase youth accountability through a strategy that identifies the small number of youth in jurisdictions who are responsible for a disproportionate amount of serious crime and delinquency, and intervenes, following arrest, with informed assessments of delinquency patterns and family functioning. Based on objective assessments, SHOCAP supports implementation of interventions determined to be effective in impacting those youth who demonstrate habitual serious criminal offenses. The workshop assists participants in enhancing collaborative services to correct disruptive patterns within dysfunctional families, support development of youth-competency skills, and make available graduated sanctions to counteract escalating serious criminal behavior. As a part of the discussion about development and utilization of community resources, the multidisciplinary teams who attend the SHOCAP training will consider jurisdictional responsibility for developing and utilizing early prevention services for siblings of SHO's and other youth who are identified as being subjected to environmental, physical, and familial risk factors or who exhibit behaviors that, if not addressed, have substantial potential of moving youth into serious habitual criminal patterns of behavior. SHOCAP's objective is to assist communities in implementing information-sharing and case management systems that improve the identification, arrest, prosecution, and intervention with serious offending youth, while using community resources to provide intervention services to those youth at high risk of becoming SHO's.
	Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance. The Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance workshop is expected to be a 3½-day program to assist Native-American law enforcement and human service agencies in the development and implementation of a comprehensive strategy to address youth crime, violence, and victimization in tribal communities. It will be designed to enhance the abilities of participating tribal teams to conduct a risk and needs assessment, implement coordinated case management, undertake strategic planning and resource development, and implement prevention and juvenile accountability programs, policies, and strategies.
	Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy. Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy is a 3½-day workshop designed to enable communities to develop and implement effective comprehensive strategies for the prevention of, intervention with, and control of youth gangs and the co-occurring problems of illegal gun possession and substance abuse. The workshop promotes interagency and intergovernmental cooperation and collaboration and explores a range of promising and proven youth gang, gun, and drug strategies that can be employed by the participating jurisdictional teams. For the purpose of this training, a jurisdictional team is a small, multidisciplinary group of people authorized to represent a State, municipality, tribe, or system with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, approach, and set of performance goals for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Jurisdictional teams will conduct risk and needs assessments, undertake strategic planning, and assess community resources. Jurisdictional teams will also develop site-specific, multiagency strategies to prevent and control gang, gun, and drug activity.
	Youth-Oriented Community Policing. Youth-Oriented Community Policing is a 3½-day workshop that brings the principles and approaches of community policing to bear on the issues of juvenile delinquency and victimization. The workshop familiarizes participants with risk and needs assessments, strategic planning, established youth-oriented initiatives and programs, resource development, juvenile diversion programs, police training to handle juveniles, and appropriate deployment patterns that are specifically geared to youth-focused community policing. The workshop offers approaches to promoting police-community partnerships that build positive relationships with residents and strengthen a community's ability to serve as its own guardian against youth crime, violence, and victimization. This workshop also explores strategies that have been successfully implemented in many localities.
	Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program. The Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program is expected to be a 3½-day strategic workshop to promote replication of the successful Boston juvenile crime reduction strategy. It will be designed to help build the capacity of local communities to use Federal, State, and local law enforcement and other resources in innovative ways, under strategic plans, to address youth violence and delinquency. Participants will formulate communitywide youth violence and delinquency prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions plans and identify ways in which collaborative partnerships including police, probation, and a wide range of community organizations can use communitywide, systemic approaches for the prevention of youth crime. Participants will learn how to develop youth violence prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions programs and integrate them under a communitywide strategy to reduce youth violence and delinquency. Participants will also apply community mobilization principles and practices to specific problems such as youth gangs, SHO's, underage substance abuse, school violence, the availability of lethal weapons, and the effects of violence on children.

Technical Assistance

OJJDP offers online and onsite technical assistance to aid local agencies in developing and improving programs to prevent, intervene in, and control juvenile delinquency. Technical assistance is available as a followup to regional training workshops to help participants implement new approaches, strategies and programs. Technical assistance is also provided on a case-by-case basis at the request of U.S. Attorneys and State, local, and tribal agencies. Case-specific services can embrace specialized training in a given area and assist in assessing a community's juvenile justice needs, strategic planning, resource development, and individualized problem solving.

Requests for technical assistance should reflect a significant community problem or need regarding the prevention of, intervention with, and suppression of juvenile crime and violence. At a minimum, OJJDP's technical assistance services will address the following areas:

Onsite or online

	Site-specific followup assistance for jurisdictions and communities that have attended regional training workshops on subjects such as prevention strategies, case management and information systems development, use of assessment tools in applying graduated sanctions, community mobilization, and resource development.
	Individualized problem solving regarding the implementation of programs and strategies covered in materials provided by OJJDP.
	Abbreviated training in response to a request for information encompassed by a particular workshop or beyond the scope of an existing workshop.
	Community needs assessments to assist a community in evaluating its prevalent risk factors and the current status of intergovernmental cooperation, coordination, and collaboration.

Onsite only

	"State-Assisted Training," where, at the request of a State or one of its subdivisions, a U.S. Attorney or a State law enforcement agency presents an entire, abbreviated, or modified version of a regional workshop.
	Special presentations of selected workshop modules at conferences or meetings.

Online only

	Interactive computer training where OJJDP training materials and other information available online provide the basis for a thorough response to the request for technical assistance.
	Interagency conference groups associated with each of the eight regional training workshops, which permit participants to share information and develop and sustain collaborative relationships.

Each of OJJDP's workshops may be integrated into different training settings and customized as technical assistance to meet the needs of diverse agencies and community institutions. Jurisdictions may request that workshops be conducted online and onsite as technical assistance programs. The requesting jurisdiction or agency must provide all program recruitment, participant notification, the training facility, and other related logistics.

Coordination of Technical Assistance Requests

Requests for technical assistance may originate with the JJLETTA recipient, the State Point of Contact for the JAIBG program, OJJDP, or the national JAIBG program grantee. Should the program involve support for the JAIBG program, the request will be coordinated with the national JAIBG program grantee regardless of its point of origination. Other requests will be processed by the JJLETTA recipient with the approval of OJJDP. In the interest of efficiency, a master schedule should be developed early in each grant year, approved by OJJDP, and used as the basis for delivering service.

The JJLETTA recipient will cooperate with and receive guidance from OJJDP staff, designated evaluators, and other training and technical assistance providers working in Federal and State agencies and local and tribal communities.

Although these workshops have been well accepted by the law enforcement community, the applicant will enhance their quality by offering options for improving the content, organization, or structure of the current offerings. Applicants should also suggest other training and technical assistance offerings that, in their experience, will effectively meet current or emerging needs in law enforcement agencies or address barriers to effective use of existing programs.

Deliverables

The recipient shall develop and implement a training workshop delivery strategy within 30 days of the award. The workshop delivery strategy will list the training and technical assistance workshops proposed, the regions and specific communities where training is recommended, and the expected impact of providing the proposed training in the locations where training is recommended. Within this context, the recipient shall:

	Receive and process student applications for each program in order to develop a class roster for each program 30 days before conducting the program.
	Communicate with local officials regarding information requests related to the regional training and technical assistance workshops.
	Conduct, at a minimum, the following training and technical assistance workshops and activities during each year of the cooperative agreement: Two of each of these workshops: CEO Forum; MJO; SAFE POLICY; Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance Program; Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy; and Youth-Oriented Community Policing. The recipient also shall conduct at least five of each of these workshops: SHOCAP and Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program. Twenty-four 2-day onsite technical assistance actions using consultant services only. One 2-day planning workshop and one 1-day Policy and Strategy workshop. Two visits per year to OJJDP in Washington, D.C., if appropriate. Each visit will require at least one recipient representative for 2 days. To facilitate realistic costing of deliverables, OJJDP's experience with costing workshops is provided below: The approximate number of consultants/facilitators per workshop is as follows: CEO Forum-5 facilitators and 25 participants. MJO-6 facilitators and 40 participants. SAFE Policy-6 facilitators and 40 participants. SHOCAP-5 facilitators and 40 participants. Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance-5 facilitators and 40 participants. Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy-8 facilitators and 60 participants. Youth-Oriented Community Policing-6 facilitators and 40 participants. Youth Violence Reduction Integrated Action Program-6 facilitators and 50 participants. The estimated average cost for recipient and facilitator staff air and ground transportation is $500 per round trip. The estimated cost for recipient and consultant lodging and per diem is $110 per day. Participant lodging expenses (double occupancy) are estimated at $110 per room per day.
	Design and develop the CEO Forum, Youth-Oriented Community Policing, and Tribal Juvenile Justice Training and Technical Assistance workshops within 120 days of the cooperative agreement award date.
	Provide a schedule for revision of the SAFE Policy and Youth Gang, Gun, and Drug Policy workshops during the first year of the cooperative agreement, and as OJJDP directs thereafter. Additionally, each of the other regional training workshops may either be updated or revised during the 3-year project period.
	Make up to 10 consultant days available to jurisdictional teams for developmental assignments and special requests made by the OJJDP National Training and Technical Assistance Center in relation to OJJDP-approved assignments.
	Within 3 months of the award date, develop and maintain systems for online access to reference and referral services and create structures that enable users to engage in online discussions about training workshop and juvenile justice issues, with the recipient as broker.
	Establish a home page on the World Wide Web, where users can access information about OJJDP's law enforcement training and technical assistance program offerings.

OJJDP does not intend to support a significant physical plant. However, the project's office, location, equipment needs, and resources are significant considerations to be covered in the application. Applicants are encouraged to be realistic in costing out the deliverables and in developing timelines for the implementation schedule. Applicants are also encouraged to be creative and innovative in their proposals to implement the overall project.

Eligibility Requirements

OJJDP invites applications from public and private agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals. Private, for-profit organizations must agree to waive any profit or fee. Joint applications from two or more eligible applicants are welcome; however, one applicant must be clearly indicated as the primary applicant (for correspondence, award, and management purposes) and the others indicated as coapplicants.

Selection Criteria

Applications will be evaluated and rated by a peer review panel according to the criteria outlined below.

Conceptualization of Need (10 points)

The applicant must convey a clear understanding of the purpose of the workshops, work requirements, and related issues addressed in this solicitation. The applicant should discuss the issues and problems related to youth reflected in law enforcement practice in recent years. Problems and obstacles associated with delivery of training and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies should also be addressed. The applicant must demonstrate the capability to engage the appropriate stakeholders in its planning process and a clear understanding of how best to address these issues and impediments. The applicant must further demonstrate knowledge of law enforcement best practices and promising policies, programs, services, and strategies and must convey an understanding of the expected results of this effort and of possible obstacles to their achievement.

Goals and Objectives (10 points)

The applicant must outline its vision for providing training and technical assistance in relation to the stated goals and objectives of the program. The applicant must also provide justification for the development of recommended training and technical assistance sites and explain the proposed effort based on an assessment process. Major issues and obstacles related to achieving the goals and objectives of this project should be delineated and prioritized.

Project Design (30 points)

The applicant must include an implementation plan that provides a workplan with specific tasks and procedures to be carried out, projected performance schedules, expected accomplishments, and products. The plan should include protocols for delivery of training, technical assistance, and evaluation; resource needs and potential barriers and measures that can be taken to overcome them; and timelines for annual updates of the plan.

The performance schedule should include a detailed milestone chart that specifies the objectives in relation to milestones and the related tasks as well as the lead staff responsible and a timeline with interim benchmark dates and end dates for task completion. The plan must enhance the project's training goals and objectives and reflect the conceptualization of the stated need. Project design elements should link directly to the achievement of specific objectives. Obstacles for achieving expected results should be identified with alternative plans and rationale included.

Applicants must address the requirement for coordination and collaboration with the JAIBG grantee and the OJJDP National Training and Technical Assistance Center and propose approaches to avoid duplication and to maximize utilization of Federal resources.

OJJDP will consider recommendations for modification and enhancement of the products to be delivered to accommodate cost considerations. Where such recommendations are made, justification and alternatives should be proposed. Modifications or enhancements must reflect the concept, must be sound, and must be innovative.

Management and Organizational Capability (40 points)

Applicants must describe a sound management structure capable of carrying out the proposed initiative and demonstrate readiness to immediately train and provide technical assistance. The applicant should discuss the organization's history of collaboration and planning with law enforcement agencies as it is addressed or addresses the workshops offered in this solicitation. Participants, major milestones, and the process of conducting training needs assessments, training, and technical assistance should be described. Applicants must demonstrate strong experience in delivery of training and technical assistance in law enforcement and the systems improvement field.

The project's management structure and staffing must be appropriate for the successful implementation and management of the Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance cooperative agreement. Factors to be considered include the reasonableness of the staffing plan, the appropriateness of staffing in terms of onsite work, and the specific skills and knowledge of staff.

Emphasis also will be placed on the applicant's detailed description of organizational and management capabilities to support the cooperative agreement. Applicants should give consideration to geographic, regional, and other factors related to the cultural proficiency needs of Federal, State, local, and tribal communities.

In addition to expertise in the subject area of juvenile justice law enforcement practice, key project staff must also demonstrate substantive experience in program, training, and technical assistance management, curriculum development, and understanding and knowledge of the cultural and ethnic diversity that characterize those State, local, and tribal communities where high levels of youth crime and delinquency occur.

Résumés of key staff and consultants must be included in the appendix. For proposed staff, the applicant must include résumés and letters of commitment in the appendix. Job descriptions and staff qualifications should also be included.

Organizational ability to administer and support the project successfully must be clearly demonstrated in the application. The documentation must include organizational experience in the subject areas (as described under the Program Strategy) and with projects of the type and scope described in this solicitation. Applicants must also describe and demonstrate an organizational infrastructure that would support the technological and resource requirements of this project.

Budget (10 points)

The proposed budget must be reasonable, allowable, and cost-effective in relation to the activities to be undertaken.

Format

The narrative must not exceed 50 pages in length (excluding forms, assurances, and appendixes) and must be submitted on 8½- by 11-inch paper, double spaced on one side of the paper in a standard 12-point font. This is necessary to maintain fair and uniform standards among all applicants. If the narrative does not conform to these standards, OJJDP will deem the application ineligible for consideration.

Award Period

This project will be funded for 3 years in 1-year budget periods. Funding of the project in each subsequent budget period will be contingent upon OJJDP's assessment of continuing need, performance of the recipient, and availability of funds.

Award Amount

Up to $1,300,000 is available for the award of a cooperative agreement for the first 1-year budget period. It is anticipated that a consistent level of funding will be available for each year of the 3-year project.

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number

For this program, the CFDA number, which is required on Standard Form 424, Application for Federal Assistance, is 16.542. This form is included in OJJDP's Application Kit, which can be obtained by calling the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800-638-8736 or sending an e-mail request to puborder@ncjrs.org. The Application Kit is also available online. (See the Introduction for more contact information.)

Coordination of Federal Efforts

To encourage better coordination among Federal agencies in addressing State and local needs, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is requesting applicants to provide information on the following: (1) active Federal grant award(s) supporting this or related efforts, including awards from DOJ; (2) any pending application(s) for Federal funds for this or related efforts; and (3) plans for coordinating any funds described in items (1) or (2) with the funding sought by this application. For each Federal award, applicants must include the program or project title, the Federal grantor agency, the amount of the award, and a brief description of its purpose.

"Related efforts" is defined for these purposes as one of the following:

	Efforts for the same purpose (i.e., the proposed award would supplement, expand, complement, or continue activities funded with other Federal grants).
	Another phase or component of the same program or project (e.g., to implement a planning effort funded by other Federal funds or to provide a substance abuse treatment or education component within a criminal justice project).
	Services of some kind (e.g., technical assistance, research, or evaluation) to the program or project described in the application.

Delivery Instructions

All application packages must be mailed or delivered to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, c/o Juvenile Justice Resource Center, 2277 Research Boulevard, Mail Stop 2K, Rockville, MD 20850; 301-519-5535. Note: In the lower left corner of the envelope,you must clearly write, "Juvenile Justice Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Program."

Due Date

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the original and five copies of the application package are received by 5 p.m. ET, on August 17, 1998.

Contact

For further information, call Bob Hubbard, Program Manager, Training and Technical Assistance Division, 202-616-3567, or send an e-mail inquiry to hubbard@ojp.usdoj.gov.

References

Benjamin, M. 1995. Effective Collaboration as the Key to Understanding and Reducing Youth Violence: A Mental Health Perspective. Washington, DC: National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health.

Brady, T. 1996. Measuring What Matters: Parts I & II, Research in Action. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Comer, J. Haynes, N, Joyner, E., and Ben-Avie, M. 1996. Rallying the Whole Village. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

Conly, C., and McGillis, D. 1996. The Federal role in revitalizing communities and preventing and controlling crime and violence. National Institute of Justice Journal 231:2430.

Dunkle, M. 1994. Linking Schools with Health & Social Services. Washington, DC: The Institute for Educational Leadership.

Goldstein, H. 1990. Problem-Oriented Policing. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing.

Goldstein, A., and Huff, R. 1993. The Gang Intervention Handbook. Champaign, IL: Research Press.

Goldstein, A. 1991. Delinquent Gangs A Psychological Perspective. Champaign, IL: Research Press.

Kagan, S., and Neville, P. 1993. Integrating Human Services: Understanding the Past to Shape

The Future. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Kelling, G., and Coles, C. 1996. Fixing Broken Windows. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Kotter, J. 1996. Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Marans, S. 1995. The Police-Mental Health Partnership: A Community-Based Response to Urban Violence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Melaville, A., and Blank, M. 1991. What it Takes: Structuring Interagency Partnerships to Connect Children and Families with Comprehensive Services. Washington, DC: Education and Human Services Consortium.

Melaville, A., and Blank, M. 1993. Together We Can: A Guide for Crafting A Profamily System of Education and Human Services. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

McCall, M. 1998. High Flyers. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

NCSI Consortium Conference. 1993. Going to Scale with a Comprehensive Services Strategy. New York: National Center For Services Integration.

NCREL Report. 1996. Specific Issues States Need to Address. Policy Briefs Report 1, 1996. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Osofsky, J. 1997. Children in a Violent Society. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Soler, M. 1992. Interagency services in juvenile justice systems. In I. Schwartz (ed.), Juvenile Justice and Public Policy. New York: Lexington Books, 134-150.

Spergel, I. 1995. The Youth Gang Problem. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Together We Can Initiative Report. 1996. Coordinating Federal Technical Assistance to Comprehensive Community-Based Initiatives. Washington, DC: TWC.

Travis, J. 1996. Communities and criminal justice: A powerful alignment. National Institute of Justice Journal 231:2-3.