This week's Office of Justice grant writing tips, puts the focus on understanding the process of matching/cost-sharing requirements and how to account for them.  For additional tips about building a better budget for grant writing please see FamCare's blog, Funding Tips From the OJP...Building a Better Budget. 

As social workers keep their heads down tirelessly toiling away on individual case work, we thought it might be helpful to share with them the "big picture" perspective of their profession published by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) as its 2021 Blueprint of Federal Social Policy Priorities. It articulates meaningful actions our society should take to address the COVID-19 crisis, promote mental and behavioral health, eliminate systemic racism, and ensure civil and human rights for all. In case you missed it, here is a summary of your profession's "big picture" wish list for 2021.

We truly enjoy sharing with our readers not only grant funding opportunities but resources and information that might make the grant writing process seem less cumbersome. This week the OJP is highlighting their Glossary of Terms that are associated with the JustGrants system. 

Recent discussions with social workers from six different disciplines around the country centered around the lasting effects this dreadful pandemic has had on their constituents. Everyone agreed that the novel coronavirus and associated diseases have caused unprecedented - disruption.

This week's Office of Justice Programs Funding News features helpful training information on the navigation of JustGrants.  Grant writing can be an overwhelming and intimidating process, this resource provides self-guided videos, reference guides, checklists, and infographics to help with the various stages of the government grant writing process.  

Your response to last week's blog on the social worker's role in juvenile justice was overwhelmingly positive but many of you thought that the issues might be better clarified in context. So, let's try to put juvenile justice in some historical perspective.

The following funding news release from the Office of Justice has important information to ensure your application is submitted correctly in the Justice Grants System (JustGrants).  Some of the resources included were the DOJ Application Submission Checklist, an eLearning Video and the Job Aid Reference Guide: Application Submission. 

• During a single year, an estimated 2.1 million youth under the age of 18 are arrested in the United States.
• Though overall rates have been declining over the past years, approximately 1.7 million delinquency cases are disposed in juvenile courts annually.
• Youth are referred to the juvenile justice system for different types of offenses.
• The majority of youth processed through the juvenile court are adjudicated (i.e., declared by a judge to be) delinquent, for most offenses.

Grant writing is not easy, but sharing helpful tips and information is.... The following funding news release from the Office of Justice has resources to use when you're filling out an application in the Justice Grant System (JustGrants).  It includes multiple detailed resources for completing the Budget Detail Form plus updated (2021) resources and guides for the application process. 

Government social service agencies are transitioning from being providers of services to entities that predominantly commission, facilitate, or broker services. This transition requires new skills in government – such as agility, innovation, transparency and connectedness – and new capabilities for facilitating relationships with external partners – such as flexibility, co-venturing, co-creation.