Description
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Executive Office of the President, is seeking applications from a non-profit entity as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code with expert knowledge and extensive experience in training drug court and other criminal justice practitioners on the application of evidence-based practices to address addiction among people involved in the criminal justice system. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION ONDCP’s Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance Grant supports training and technical assistance (TTA) that helps states, state courts, local courts, units of local government with drug courts or considering drug courts develop, maintain, and enhance alternatives to incarceration for individuals with addiction. The President’s priority is to enhance public safety by providing those who have engaged in criminal activity with greater opportunities to lead productive lives by addressing a range of issues, including mental health, vocational training, job creation, after-school programming, substance use, and mentoring through evidence-based rehabilitation programs. ONDCP seeks to reduce drug use and its consequences through evidence-based practices, and this grant will apply these principles to the criminal justice system. The purpose of this grant is to: (1) educate, train, and produce materials to improve adherence to best practices, (2) decrease justice costs and recidivism, (3) improve access to services and service delivery, and (4) reduce disproportionality of punishment in the criminal justice system. The grant recipient shall: · Use expert practitioners in the fields engaged in the science of addiction, criminal justice, healthcare, and drug courts. · Provide in-person training, online training, and jurisdiction-specific technical assistance to a variety of demographically composed areas at the state, local, and tribal levels. · Include ONDCP policy priorities in the development and execution of training and technical assistance programs and educational materials: o Applying a comprehensive approach to addressing opioid use disorders, including overdose prevention and naloxone administration training, and programs that provide access to medication for opioid use disorder. o Diversion programming with evidence-based and comprehensive case management, treatment for substance use disorders, recovery and other necessary services. o Consistency of practice among drug courts. · Collect and analyze data from jurisdictions engaged in grantee programming on alternatives to incarceration to determine the effectiveness of the trainings and on-site assistance. All portions of the application must reflect these objectives and subject matter areas. Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables Goal. The program’s goals are: (1) to provide TTA to criminal justice practitioners to develop, maintain, and enhance evidence-based interventions from arrest to reentry; (2) to educate criminal justice professionals on substance use disorders; and (3) to develop TTA on medication for opioid use disorder treatment and overdose reversal medications to expand use in drug courts, to support recovery, and to prevent overdose deaths. Program Objectives. The objectives of the program are as follows: · To provide tools that educate and train on statewide, regional, and national levels of no-cost, on-request curricula on evidence-based interventions at all points of engagement with the criminal justice system to ensure systematic implementation. · To provide nationally, discipline specific training for drug court practitioners. · To provide statewide, regionally, and nationally for no-cost evidence-based training for treatment providers working with drug court. • To provide TTA to drug court practitioners on the evidence-based drug court standards for adult drug courts including training of census expansion with a focus on probation violators. • To develop educational materials to address emerging issues that affect delivery of substance use disorders treatment, opioid treatment strategies and drug court operations. • To conduct evaluations of trainings provided under this grant. ORGANIZATION INVOLVEMENT & DELIVERABLES Deliverables. The program narrative should reflect how the applicant would accomplish the activities. Subsequent deliverables may be developed according to need and funding ability. When the project ends, ONDCP will require the awardee to transfer products to ONDCP. The successful applicant will develop the following: 1. Project Plans • A work plan that describes how the grantee will incorporate data, materials, and processes from the current service provider into the new program approach, including the collaboration and interface needed during the startup phase. • A strategic plan (including timelines, performance measures, and benchmarks for measuring internal progress) that specifies which activities the grantee will conduct to achieve the program goals and objectives. • A plan of action for the TTA requests to assist in developing a comprehensive strategic plan and the capacity to collect and use program evaluation management data. 2. Marketing • A program marketing strategy that outlines the development of products and materials that will inform state, local, and tribal justice systems of the available TTA services. 3. Technical Assistance • Training, technical assistance, and evaluation protocols to ensure consistency and quality of service delivery. • A directory of TTA experts in each field identified in this FOA, who possess skills and abilities relevant to the subject matter areas identified in this FOA. • A projected plan for onsite technical assistance visits. 4. Training • A training proposal that includes the experts/organizations that will develop and provide training; locations for regional/statewide trainings; and projected materials and modules that will be available for those unable to attend in-person training. 5. Materials · Applicant should identify at least two materials to be produced each year of the grant award period. The materials produced should support the training and technical assistance relating to the two issue areas in this FOA: o Emerging issues that affect delivery of substance use disorders, opioid treatment strategies and drug court operations; and o The Adult Drug Court Best Practice Standards (found here: http://www.nadcp.org/Standards). • Materials that will need to be produced to support the objectives of the grant should be described in the application materials to the best extent possible and may include fact sheets, workbooks, manuals, toolkits, brochures, project plans for individual jurisdictions, and/or other materials. Applicants should be realistic in estimating the cost of deliverables and in detailing the implementation schedule. ONDCP also encourages applicants to be innovative and expects applicants to propose alternative approaches to the delivery of TTA to maximize resources. Evidence-based Programs or Practices ONDCP places a strong emphasis on the use of data and evidence in policymaking and program development. ONDCP considers programs and practices to be evidence-based when their effectiveness has been demonstrated by causal evidence, generally obtained through one or more outcome evaluations. Causal evidence documents a relationship between an activity or intervention (including technology) and its intended outcome, including measuring the direction and size of a change, and the extent to which a change may be attributed to the activity or intervention. Causal evidence depends on the use of scientific methods to rule out, to the extent possible, alternative explanations for the documented change. The strength of causal evidence, based on the factors described above, will influence the degree to which ONDCP considers a program or practice to be evidence-based. Authorizing Statutes and Governing Regulations Applicable to this Funding Opportunity: The authorities for this funding opportunity are Public Laws 116-260, 117-103 and 21 U.S.C. 1704(e). The Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for federal awards are applicable to the government and applicants, grant applications, and grant awards to non-federal entities. See, 2 CFR Part 200, et seq., as adopted in full by ONDCP at 2 CFR Part 3603, et seq. FEDERAL AWARD INFORMATION Estimated Amount and Length of Award Grant Amount: $6,000,000 Project Period: 24 months ONDCP expects to award one federal grant of $6,000,000 under the Drug Court Training and Technical Assistance program for a 2-year period, beginning approximately October 2022. All applications and awards are subject to such additional requirements expressed in governing law. See, 2 CFR Part 200, et seq. ONDCP anticipates that it will make any award from this FOA in the form of a cooperative agreement, which is a particular type of grant used if ONDCP expects to have substantial ongoing involvement in award activities. Substantial involvement includes direct oversight and coordination with the grantee organization in the implementation of the grant but does not involve day-to-day project management. Match Requirement This solicitation does not require a match.