Comprehensive Program Plan for Fiscal Year 1998 and Availability of Discretionary Program Announcements and Application Kit

SUMMARY: The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is

publishing its Final Program Plan for fiscal year (FY) 1998 and

announces the availability of the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program

Announcements and the FY 1998 OJJDP Application Kit.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Eileen M. Garry, Director, Information

Dissemination Unit, at 202-307-5911. [This is not a toll-free number.]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is a component of the Office of Justice

Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice. Pursuant to the provisions

of Section 204(b)(5)(A) of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5601 et seq. (JJDP Act),

the Administrator of OJJDP published for public comment a Proposed

Comprehensive Plan describing the program activities that OJJDP

proposed to carry out during FY 1998. The Proposed Comprehensive Plan

included activities authorized in Parts C and D of Title II of the JJDP

Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. 5651-5665a, 5667, 5667a. The public was

invited to comment on the Proposed Plan by March 23, 1998. The

Administrator analyzed the public comments received, and that analysis

is provided below. Taking these comments into consideration, the

Administrator developed this Final Comprehensive Plan describing the

particular program activities that OJJDP intends to fund during FY

1998, using in whole or in part funds appropriated under Parts C and D

of Title II of the JJDP Act.

The FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program Announcements and the FY

1998 OJJDP Application Kit are now available. They can be obtained from

the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse by calling 800-638-8736 or by

sending an e-mail request to [email protected]. The publications are

also available online at OJJDP's home page, Grants and Funding section,

at www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Overview

After a decade of steady increases in juvenile crime and violence,

the trend is being reversed. The United States has experienced a

downturn in juvenile violent crime arrests for 2 straight years (3

years for murder arrests). Figures released in 1997 show that juvenile

arrests for murder declined 14 percent 2 years in a row--and 3 percent

the year before that. From 1995 to 1996, juvenile arrests for robbery

declined 8 percent; for the previous year, they decreased 1 percent.

The overall Violent Crime Index arrests of juveniles declined 6 percent

in 1996, following a 3-percent drop in 1995.

The decreases in juvenile Violent Crime Index arrests must be kept

in perspective, however. Even with the 2-year decline, the 1996 number

was 60 percent above the 1987 level. In comparison, adult Violent Crime

Index offense arrests rose 24 percent over the same period.

In the area of drug use violations, juveniles were involved in 14

percent of all drug arrests in 1996 (compared with 13 percent in 1995).

However, arrests of juveniles for drug abuse violations increased 6

percent from 1995 to 1996, a smaller increase than the previous year's

18 percent. In addition, between 1992 and 1996, juvenile arrests for

drug abuse violations increased 120 percent, compared with a 138-

percent increase between 1991 and 1995.

Thus, in the second half of the 1990's, juvenile violent crime and

drug use are still significantly higher than in the late 1980's but

beginning to show signs of trending downward. The juvenile justice

system needs to build on the positive momentum of these recent

decreases by continuing to focus on programs and strategies that work.

This requires a concerted effort on the part of Federal, State, and

local government, in partnership with private organizations and

community agencies, to ensure that available resources are used in a

way that maximizes their impact; decreases juvenile crime, violence,

and victimization; and increases community safety.

Federal leadership in responding to the problems confronting the

Nation's juvenile justice system is vested in OJJDP. Established in

1974 by the JJDP Act, OJJDP is the Federal agency responsible for

providing a comprehensive, coordinated approach to preventing and

controlling juvenile crime and improving the juvenile justice system.

OJJDP administers State Formula Grants, State Challenge Grants, and the

Title V Community Prevention Grants programs in States and territories;

funds gang and mentoring programs under Parts D and G of the JJDP Act;

funds numerous projects through its Special Emphasis Discretionary

Grant Program and its National Institute for Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention; and coordinates Federal activities related to

juvenile justice and delinquency prevention.

OJJDP also serves as the staff agency for the Coordinating Council

on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, coordinates the

Concentration of Federal Efforts Program, and administers both the

Title IV Missing and Exploited Children's Program and programs under

the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 13001 et

seq.

In the FY 1998 Appropriations Act, Congress provided funding for

two new OJJDP programs. These are not funded under Parts C and D of

Title II of the JJDP Act, which are the focus of this Proposed Program

Plan. However, mention of these new programs here, along with an

additional program that OJJDP will administer, may help to alert those

who work in the juvenile justice field to the existence of these new

programs. Recognizing that, ``while crime is on the decline in certain

parts of America, a dangerous precursor to crime, teenage drug use, is

on the rise and may soon reach a 20-year high,'' Congress provided $5

million in funds for the development, demonstration, and testing of

programs designed ``to reduce drug use among juveniles'' and ``to

increase the perception among children and youth that drug use is

risky, harmful, and unattractive.'' Funding for the drug prevention

program is discretionary, and the Appropriations Act directs OJJDP to

submit a program plan for the drug prevention program by February 1,

1998. This plan has been submitted. Twenty-five million dollars in

funds were also provided for an underage drinking program. Much of the

funding for the underage drinking program will be made available to the

States and the District of Columbia through formula grants of $360,000

each (total $18.36 million), with $5 million in discretionary funding,

and $1.64 million for training and technical assistance to support the

program. OJJDP will also administer the Juvenile Accountability

Incentive Block Grants program authorized in the FY 1998 Appropriations

Act. Of the $250 million

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available under this new block grant program, 3 percent is available

for research, evaluation, and demonstration activities related to the

program and 2 percent is available for related training and technical

assistance activities. Program Announcements have been issued for the

Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants Program and for the

Combating Underage Drinking Program. The Program Announcements are

available from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse and online. See the

information provided above on how to obtain copies of the FY 1998 OJJDP

Discretionary Program Announcements and the FY 1998 OJJDP Application

Kit. Further information on the Drug Prevention Program will be

provided to the field in the near future. Solicitations for OJJDP's

Mentoring program (Part G of the JJDP Act) and the Missing and

Exploited Children's Program (Title IV of the JJDP Act, the Missing

Children's Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. 5771 et seq.) were published

separately.

Cognizant of the trends in juvenile crime and violence and of its

responsibilities and mission, OJJDP has developed a Program Plan for FY

1998 for activities authorized under Parts C and D of Title II of the

JJDP Act, as described below.

Fiscal Year 1998 Program Planning Activities

The OJJDP program planning process for FY 1998 was coordinated with

the Assistant Attorney General, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), and

the four other OJP program bureaus: the Bureau of Justice Assistance

(BJA), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the National Institute

of Justice (NIJ), and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). The

program planning process involved the following steps:

Internal review of existing programs by OJJDP staff.

Internal review of proposed programs by OJP bureaus and

Department of Justice components.

Review of information and data from OJJDP grantees and

contractors.

Review of information contained in State comprehensive

plans.

Review of comments made by youth service providers,

juvenile justice practitioners, and researchers to provide OJJDP with

input in proposed new program areas.

Consideration of suggestions made by juvenile justice

policymakers concerning State and local needs.

Consideration of all comments received during the period

of public comment on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan.

Discretionary Program Activities

Discretionary Grant Continuation Policy

OJJDP has listed on the following pages continuation projects

currently funded in whole or in part with Part C and Part D funds and

eligible for continuation funding in FY 1998, either within an existing

project period or through an extension for an additional project

period. A grantee's eligibility for continued funding for an additional

budget period within an existing project period depends on the

grantee's compliance with funding eligibility requirements and

achievement of the prior year's objectives. The amount of award is

based on prior projections, demonstrated need, and fund availability.

The only projects described in the Proposed Program Plan were those

that are receiving Part C or Part D FY 1998 continuation funding and

programs that OJJDP was considering for new awards in FY 1998.

Consideration for continuation funding for an additional project

period for previously funded discretionary grant programs was based

upon several factors, including the following:

The extent to which the project responds to the applicable

requirements of the JJDP Act.

Responsiveness to OJJDP and Department of Justice FY 1998

program priorities.

Compliance with performance requirements of prior grant

years.

Compliance with fiscal and regulatory requirements.

Compliance with any special conditions of the award.

Availability of funds (based on appropriations and program

priority determinations).

In accordance with Section 262 (d)(1)(B) of the JJDP Act, as

amended, 42 U.S.C. 5665a, the competitive process for the award of Part

C funds is not required if the Administrator makes a written

determination waiving the competitive process:

1. With respect to programs to be carried out in areas in which the

President declares under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and

Emergency Assistance Act codified at 42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq. that a

major disaster or emergency exists, or

2. With respect to a particular program described in Part C that is

uniquely qualified.

Program Goals

OJJDP seeks to focus its assistance on the development and

implementation of programs with the greatest potential for reducing

juvenile delinquency and improving the juvenile justice system by

establishing partnerships with State and local governments, American

Indian and Alaska Native jurisdictions, and public and private agencies

and organizations. To that end, OJJDP has set three goals that

constitute the major elements of a sound policy that assures public

safety and security while establishing effective juvenile justice and

delinquency prevention programs:

To promote delinquency prevention and early intervention

efforts that reduce the flow of juvenile offenders into the juvenile

justice system, the numbers of serious and violent offenders, and the

development of chronic delinquent careers. While removing serious and

violent juvenile offenders from the street serves to protect the

public, long-term solutions lie primarily in taking aggressive steps to

stop delinquency before it starts or becomes a pattern of behavior.

To improve the juvenile justice system and the response of

the system to juvenile delinquents, status offenders, and dependent,

neglected, and abused children.

To preserve the public safety in a manner that serves the

appropriate development and best use of secure detention and

corrections options, while at the same time fostering the use of

community-based programs for juvenile offenders.

Underlying each of the three goals is the overarching premise that

their achievement is vital to protecting the long-term safety of the

public from juvenile delinquency and violence. The following discussion

addresses these three broad goals.

Delinquency Prevention and Early Intervention

A primary goal of OJJDP is to identify and promote programs that

prevent or reduce the occurrence of juvenile offenses, both criminal

and noncriminal, and to intervene immediately and effectively when

delinquent or status offense conduct first occurs. A sound policy for

juvenile delinquency prevention seeks to strengthen the most powerful

contributing factor to socially acceptable behavior--a productive place

for young people in a law-abiding society. Delinquency prevention

programs can operate on a broad scale, providing for positive youth

development, or can target juveniles identified as being at high risk

for delinquency with programs designed to reduce future juvenile

offending. OJJDP prevention programs take a risk and protective factor-

based delinquency prevention approach based

[[Page 33128]]

on public health and social development models.

Early interventions are designed to provide services to juveniles

whose noncriminal misbehavior indicates that they are on a delinquent

pathway or to first-time nonviolent delinquent offenders or nonserious

repeat offenders who do not respond to initial system intervention.

These interventions are generally nonpunitive but serve to hold a

juvenile accountable while providing services tailored to the

individual needs of the juvenile and the juvenile's family. They are

designed to both deter future misconduct and reduce the negative or

enhance the positive factors present in a child's life.

Improvement of the Juvenile Justice System

A second goal of OJJDP is to promote improvements in the juvenile

justice system and facilitate the most effective allocation of system

resources. This goal is necessary for holding juveniles who commit

crimes accountable for their conduct, particularly serious and violent

offenders who sometimes slip through the cracks of the system or are

inappropriately diverted. Activities to support this goal include

assisting law enforcement officers in their efforts to prevent and

control delinquency and the victimization of children through community

policing programs and coordination and collaboration with other system

components and with child caring systems. Meeting this goal involves

helping juvenile and family courts, and the prosecutors and public

defenders who practice in those courts, to provide a system of justice

that maintains due process protections. It requires trying innovative

programs and carefully evaluating those programs to determine what

works and what does not work. It includes a commitment to involving

crime victims in the juvenile justice system and ensuring that their

rights are considered. In this regard, OJJDP will continue to work

closely with the Office for Victims of Crime to further cooperative

programming, including the provision of services to juveniles who are

crime victims or the provision of victims services that improve the

operation of the juvenile justice system.

Improving the juvenile justice system also calls for strengthening

its juvenile detention and corrections capacity and intensifying

efforts to use juvenile detention and correctional facilities in

appropriate circumstances and under conditions that maximize public

safety, while at the same time providing effective rehabilitation

services. It requires encouraging States to carefully consider the use

of expanded transfer authority that sends the most serious, violent,

and intractable juvenile offenders to the criminal justice system,

while preserving individualized justice. It necessitates conducting

research and gathering statistical information in order to understand

how the juvenile justice system works in serving children and families.

Finally, the system can only be improved if information and knowledge

are communicated, understood, and applied for the purpose of juvenile

justice system improvement.

Corrections, Detention, and Community-Based Alternatives

A third OJJDP goal is to maintain the public safety through a

balanced use of secure detention and corrections and community-based

alternatives. This involves identifying and promoting effective

community-based programs and services for juveniles who have formal

contact with the juvenile justice system and emphasizing options that

maintain the safety of the public, are appropriately restrictive, and

promote and preserve positive ties with the child's family, school, and

community. Communities cannot afford to place responsibility for

juvenile delinquency entirely on publicly operated juvenile justice

system programs. A sound policy for combating juvenile delinquency and

reducing the threat of youth violence makes maximum use of a full range

of public and private programs and services, most of which operate in

the juvenile's home community, including those provided by the health

and mental health, child welfare, social service, and educational

systems.

Coordination of the development of community-based programs and

services with the development and use of a secure detention and

correctional system capability for those juveniles who require a secure

option is cost effective and will protect the public, reduce facility

crowding, and result in better services for both institutionalized

juveniles and those who can be served while remaining in their

community environment.

In pursuing these three broad goals, OJJDP divides its programs

into four broad categories: public safety and law enforcement;

strengthening the juvenile justice system; delinquency prevention and

intervention; and child abuse, neglect, and dependency courts. A fifth

category, overarching programs, contains programs that have significant

elements common to more than one category. Following the introductory

section below, the programs that OJJDP proposes to fund in FY 1998 are

listed and summarized within these five categories.

Summary of Public Comments on the Proposed Comprehensive Plan for

Fiscal Year 1998

OJJDP published its Proposed Comprehensive Plan for FY 1998 in the

Federal Register (Vol. 63, No. 25) on February 6, 1998, for a 45-day

public comment period. OJJDP received 78 letters from 84 individuals

commenting on the Proposed Plan. (Four of the letters were signed by

two individuals, and one was signed by three persons.) All comments

have been considered in the development of OJJDP's Final Comprehensive

Plan for Fiscal Year 1998.

The majority of the letters provided positive comments about the

overall plan or specific programs. A few letters criticized proposed

programs or expressed concern about the failure of the plan to address

certain program areas. The following is a summary of the substantive

comments received and OJJDP's responses to the comments. Unless

otherwise indicated, each comment was made by a single respondent. The

total number of comments reported here is greater than the number of

letters received because several letters included comments on two or

more issues.

Many writers not only commented on the proposed program plan but

also indicated interest in receiving funding for programs with which

they were associated or ones which they plan to develop. In addition to

responding to their comments on the Proposed Plan in individual letters

to all commenters, OJJDP informed those interested in funding that

program announcements requesting proposals for new programs would be

published shortly after publication of the Final Comprehensive Plan and

that copies of the program announcements could be obtained by calling

OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800-638-8736 or sending an e-

mail request to [email protected]. Program announcements will also be

available online at www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm. Commenters interested in

funding were also told that most of OJJDP's funding is not provided

under Parts C and D but is distributed to the States and territories

through OJJDP's Formula Grants, Challenge, and Title V (Community

Prevention) programs. These writers were provided with contact

information for the Juvenile Justice Specialists in their States, who

can help them explore possible sources of funding. Writers expressing

interest in arts-related programs were also given

[[Page 33129]]

contact information for the appropriate arts agency in their States.

Comment: Thirty-two letters were received in support of arts

programming. Of these, 13 letters supported the Arts Programs in

Juvenile Detention Centers, 9 supported the Arts and At-Risk Youth

Program, and 10 supported both of the proposed programs.

Response: Solicitations for these two art-related programs will be

issued. The title and focus of the Arts Programs in Juvenile Detention

Centers will be expanded to Arts Programs in Juvenile Detention and

Corrections. It came to the attention of OJJDP during the public

comment period that the longer stays common in correctional settings

maximize the opportunity for arts programs to make a difference in the

lives of young people.

The solicitations are available in the 1998 OJJDP Discretionary

Program Announcement: Discretionary Grant Program: Parts C and D.

Information on how to obtain a copy of the Program Announcement is

provided above under Supplementary Information.

Comment: Five of the arts-related letters mentioned above (one that

supported both arts programs and four that supported the Arts and At-

Risk Youth Program) also indicated approval of the Youth-Centered

Conflict Resolution Program. Another letter suggested that a social

skills component should be included in the Conflict Resolution Program.

Response: OJJDP will continue to fund the Youth-Centered Conflict

Resolution (YCCR) Program in FY 1998. As the Proposed Plan stated, the

program will be carried out by the current grantee, the Illinois

Institute for Dispute Resolution, and no additional applications will

be solicited this year. OJJDP recognizes the importance of social

(interpersonal) skills training as part of an effective conflict

resolution education (CRE) program. The goal of OJJDP's YCCR Program is

to help schools, juvenile facilities, and other youth-serving

organizations select and implement quality CRE programming. As such,

YCCR recommends that a social skills component should be one of the

features to look for in considering which conflict resolution program

to implement.

Comment: Thirteen letters favored the proposal for the National

Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center.

One of the 13 letters had 2 signatures and another one had 3.

Response: A solicitation for the National Juvenile Defender

Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource Center will be issued as

part of the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program Announcement:

Discretionary Grant Program: Parts C and D. Information on how to

obtain a copy of the Program Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Comment: Eight letters expressed support for the truancy reduction

program.

Response: A solicitation will be issued for this program, which

will be jointly funded by OJJDP and the Executive Office of Weed and

Seed with the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of

Justice and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program at the U.S.

Department of Education. Information on how to obtain a copy of the

Program Announcement containing this solicitation is provided above

under Supplementary Information.

Comment: One letter, signed by two individuals, called on OJJDP to

take more of a leadership role in addressing the mental health needs of

juveniles in the juvenile justice system.

Response: OJJDP shares the concern about the needs of a large

percentage of youth in the juvenile justice system who have mental

health problems. To address these problems, OJJDP has undertaken

several efforts. In 1995, OJJDP organized a Mental Health Task Group,

consisting of several experts in the field, to assist in defining the

problems and developing recommendations for action. Recommendations of

this group to form partnerships to study mental health issues for at-

risk and juvenile justice system youth have been addressed by OJJDP.

These recommendations are part of the background that led to the joint

programs outlined below.

To help to better understand the problems of youth, OJJDP has

transferred funds to support two studies that are being conducted by

the National Institute of Mental Health.

The first one, Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development,

is a large-scale prevention study involving hundreds of children and

several elementary schools located in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods

of Columbia, South Carolina. The Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention and the National Institute on Drug Abuse have also provided

funding for the program. The grantee is the University of South

Carolina. This large-scale project is designed to promote coping-

competence and reduce risk for conduct problems, aggression, substance

use, delinquency and violence, and school failure beginning in early

elementary school. The project also seeks to alter home and school

climates to reduce risk for adverse outcomes and to promote positive

youth development.

The second study is of various treatment modalities for attention

deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. Expanded followup

will assess substance abuse and use and related factors necessary for

evaluating changes in ADHD children's risk for subsequent substance use

and abuse attributable to their randomly assigned treatment conditions.

In addition, the multimodal treatment study of children with ADHD

affords the opportunity to assess the experience of study participants

with the legal system, e.g., contacts with the juvenile justice system,

acts of delinquency, court referrals, and other criminal and/or

precriminal activities.

OJJDP staff have participated in the Federal National Partnership

on Children's Mental Health, which was organized by the Center for

Mental Health Services (CMHS), and the subgroups on early intervention

and American Indian programs. As an outgrowth of this work, OJJDP has

transferred money to CMHS to support technical assistance to the

Comprehensive Children's Mental Health sites funded by CMHS. This

technical assistance is designed to enhance the involvement of the

sites with the juvenile justice system-involved youth who have mental

health problems. Also, OJJDP has entered into a partnership with the

National Institute of Corrections and the Substance Abuse and Mental

Health Services Administration to support technical assistance on co-

occurring disorders for juveniles in the juvenile justice system.

OJJDP will transfer funds to CMHS to support the newly announced

Circles of Care program that CMHS will fund this fiscal year. OJJDP

support will permit the funding of an additional site.

In addition, OJJDP is funding a demonstration effort to test the

efficacy of Community Assessment Centers to determine if this approach

will lead to more thorough and complete assessments and better service

and more effective case management for at-risk and juvenile justice

system-involved youth, including those with mental health and substance

abuse disorders.

OJJDP is working with the National Mental Health Association to

support the survey of mental health needs of juveniles in 17 States.

This survey will be conducted by the GAINS Center.

On the issue of family involvement in developing policy and

programs for their children with mental health needs in the juvenile

justice system, OJJDP has been a strong advocate for this since the

early 1980's when the Office developed

[[Page 33130]]

the first research and demonstration program to address juvenile

violence. OJJDP recognizes that no program effort can be truly

successful at turning troubled youth around unless it involves family,

broadly defined, in the development of policy and programs.

To support the development of a system of care for at-risk children

and delinquents and to test the efficacy of its Comprehensive Strategy,

OJJDP has funded the SafeFutures program in six sites. This funding,

$1.4 million per site, includes $200,000 for the enhancement of mental

health services for at-risk and delinquent youth.

All of these programs represent OJJDP's commitment to addressing

the mental health issues of at-risk and delinquent youth. OJJDP shares

the concerns about this issue, as expressed in the letter. OJJDP

recognizes that these programs will not take the development of policy

and programs to the scale that will address the needs of all at-risk

and delinquent youth. OJJDP anticipates, however, that the programs and

studies that have been funded will help define policy and best

practices. At the appropriate time, OJJDP will disseminate the results

of these efforts and encourage States and localities to adopt

progressive, family-inclusive mental health policies and programs.

Comment: Another letter related to mental health programs discussed

the ``lack of validity of any of the disruptive behavior disorders

(ADHD, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder) and any of the

learning disabilities, dyslexia included, as organic/biologic; as

diseases/medical syndromes.''

Response: OJJDP has a strong interest in understanding all risk

factors for delinquent behavior. Among these risk factors are mental

disorders, both emotional and behavioral. These disorders pose a

complex and unsolved challenge to the juvenile justice and mental

health systems. In an effort to understand how to prevent youth with

these disorders from ending up in the justice system and how to treat

more effectively those who do, OJJDP has supported in the past and will

continue to encourage research on mental health issues. A key issue is

identification and treatment of mental health illnesses. OJJDP believes

that its cosponsorship with the National Institute of Mental Health of

research on ADHD and conduct disorders will greatly expand knowledge of

the impact of these conditions and of appropriate treatment options.

The Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of children with ADHD will be

funded this fiscal year.

Comment: Four individuals urged OJJDP to include the Community

Volunteer Coordinator Program in the Comprehensive Plan.

Response: The Community Volunteer Coordinator Program will be

supported. The program will not provide funds for new programs, but

will support the coordination of existing program activities. This

program will be funded noncompetitively, and sites selected for the

program will have underway ongoing publicly and/or privately funded

community-based initiatives. The sites chosen also will have

demonstrated a commitment to volunteerism and programming in nonschool

hours, previous collaborative experience, organizational capacity, and

an ability and willingness to collect relevant data.

Comment: One letter from two individuals asked that OJJDP give

funding priority to home visitation programs this year and in the

foreseeable future as a cost-effective way of preventing child abuse

and neglect and future criminal behavior.

Response: OJJDP appreciates the writers' interest in home

visitation programs as a means to help prevent child abuse and neglect

and thus prevent future delinquency and crime. As can be seen in the

Proposed Plan, OJJDP considers research in the area of nurse home

visitation as being critically important. Currently, OJJDP is funding

Dr. David Olds of the Center for Prevention Research, University of

Colorado, to continue his groundbreaking nurse home visitation

programming and research, which has shown positive effects on maternal

and child health, teen pregnancy, welfare dependency and workforce

participation, and crime and delinquency. OJJDP has partnered with the

Executive Office of Weed and Seed to implement Dr. Olds' nurse home

visitation program nationwide, at six Weed and Seed sites. OJJDP is

also working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to

evaluate the outcomes at these sites.

OJJDP also funds the University of Utah's Strengthening America's

Families project. This project provides national training and technical

assistance to identify and disseminate information about model family

strengthening programs for the prevention of delinquency and other

problems associated with youth. Of the 25 model programs identified,

Dr. Olds' nurse home visitation program was deemed exemplary.

Comment: Two individuals wrote one letter expressing concern about

``three important limitations'' in the proposed Blueprints for Violence

Prevention: Training and Technical Assistance program. Their concerns

are summarized as follows: (1) communities need to assess their risk

and protective factors and then select the appropriate effective

program; (2) the Blueprint program models as designated by the

University of Colorado are too limited; and (3) the program should only

be made available in communities that have taken a comprehensive

approach to preventing juvenile violence.

Response: OJJDP's responses are presented in order below.

1. Communities applying for Blueprints funding will have to provide

an assessment demonstrating that the proposed program is needed. The

proposed application includes a feasibility component that will ensure,

among other factors, that the Blueprint program selection and the

target population have been matched. The feasibility component will

help assess the need for developing a Blueprint model program and the

capacity of the community or agency to implement the selected program

with integrity. Several screening methods will be employed to ensure

that communities and providers are sufficiently informed, prepared, and

equipped to undertake a specific program implementation. A prescreening

application adapted to each Blueprint program will determine local

commitment and support for implementing the program. A conference call

between community representatives will be used to provide evidence of

community and/or institutional support. Finally, a site visit will be

made to determine whether or not an appropriate match has been made

between the community and the specific Blueprint program. The

feasibility phases will look at (1) the need of the community for that

specific Blueprint program, (2) the financial resources that have

already been designated for conducting the program and the potential

for additional funding in the long term, and (3) the human resources

available for conducting the program, including qualified personnel to

direct the program and to manage daily operations.

2. Blueprint programs are ``gold standard'' programs that meet

rigorous effectiveness criteria. They are the first 10 of many

potential programs to be identified. OJJDP is not saying that they are

the only effective programs and acknowledges there may be many more

that have shown promising results.

OJJDP has made a conscious decision to support these replications

because of the high standards set for inclusion in the program. More

than 400 delinquency, drug, and violence prevention programs were

reviewed,

[[Page 33131]]

and an advisory board narrowed the selection to 10 programs chosen for

Blueprint status. These programs came the closest to meeting all four

individual criteria: strong research design, evidence of significant

prevention or deterrent effects, sustained effects, and multiple site

replication.

3. OJJDP will give this suggestion serious consideration. Limiting

the program to a select group of communities, however, could severely

limit the potential for helping troubled children, youth, and families

on a larger scale. OJJDP believes that these model programs are so

effective that offering them to all communities is the wisest path to

follow.

Comment: One writer praised the overall plan and suggested ``an

area which is directly related to many, if not all, of the initiatives

outlined'': unified family court initiatives.

Response: OJJDP appreciates the writer's thoughtful discussion of

the work being done by the American Bar Association's (ABA's) Standing

Committee on Substance Abuse in developing and implementing unified

family courts. The Office is also enthusiastic about the potential of

the unified court initiative to bring together diverse segments of the

court and the community to collaborate on effective approaches to

families in crisis.

The Office of Justice Programs through the Violence Against Women

Grants Office and the Director of OJJDP's Concentration of Federal

Efforts Program provided support and served as faculty at the ABA

Summit on Unified Family Courts: Exploring Solutions for Families,

Women and Children in Crisis recently held in Philadelphia. OJJDP is

looking forward to hearing about the outcomes of the Summit and

learning how to possibly collaborate on providing training and

technical assistance to the ABA's most promising sites.

OJJDP and the State Justice Institute (SJI) are planning to

implement a training and technical assistance project that will help

communities involve the courts in effective teambuilding strategies.

This may be of interest to the ABA and its work with the unified family

court projects. SJI will be administering the program, and OJJDP will

make sure that the ABA sites are aware of this opportunity.

OJJDP also encourages the unified family court projects to access

information through OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse on potential

funding opportunities. The writer mentioned two specific programs that

would be of interest to the ABA projects, the Drug Prevention Program

and the Drug-Free Communities Support Program. Both programs will

provide an opportunity for communities to enhance their efforts in

reducing substance abuse among youth by addressing specific risk

factors for substance abuse.

OJJDP is also working with the National Institute of Justice to

convene a 1-day meeting of leading experts in juvenile and criminal

justice, including judges, lawyers, social service providers,

academics, and others to discuss the issues addressed above and

consider a plan for further improving the juvenile court. The goals of

this meeting will be (1) to map out the numerous trends, philosophies,

and directions apparent in the juvenile and criminal justice field, (2)

to begin identifying common ground among various efforts in the field,

and (3) to forge new partnerships among organizations interested in

collaborating on juvenile justice programs and projects.

This is a major opportunity for OJJDP to fulfill its role of

shaping national policy regarding juvenile justice. OJJDP expects to

have an opportunity to launch new initiatives as a result of this

meeting and as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the

juvenile court. The ABA Standing Committee on Substance Abuse has been

instrumental in many of these efforts, and OJJDP will continue to work

with them in planning the national meeting and further explore

opportunities to work with the Standing Committee on Substance Abuse.

Comment: Five letters expressed support for or interest in funding

for gender-specific programming for female juvenile offenders.

Response: OJJDP will continue to provide funding for the Training

and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific Programming

for Female Juvenile Offenders, which will be implemented by the current

grantee, Greene, Peters and Associates. In addition, we are exploring

ways to build on the work being done in Cook County, Illinois. This

work has involved developing a gender-specific needs and strengths

assessment instrument and a risk assessment instrument for female

juvenile offenders, providing training in implementing gender-

appropriate programming, and designing a pilot program that includes a

community-based continuum of care with a unique case management system.

Addressing gender-specific needs is also a focus of OJJDP's SafeFutures

sites, which are developing comprehensive community partnerships to

provide extensive prevention, intervention, and treatment services to

at-risk and delinquent juveniles and their families.

Comment: One writer asked for information about a central

repository of information, if one exists, and suggested creating one,

if such an entity does not exist.

Response: OJJDP recognizes that the work of juvenile justice

practitioners, policymakers, and the general public can be enhanced by

a central repository of information. OJJDP supports such a resource in

the form of the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC). A component of

the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, JJC is OJJDP's central

source for the collection, synthesis, and dissemination of information

on all aspects of juvenile justice. Among its many support services,

JJC offers toll-free telephone access to information, prepares

specialized responses to information requests, maintains a

comprehensive juvenile justice library--which includes videotapes, and

administers several electronic information resources, including OJJDP's

listserv, JUVJUST, and home page. A brochure describing the

Clearinghouse and its functions in more detail was sent to the writer.

Comment: One letter requested that OJJDP ``review the critical

situation regarding information on juveniles in Federal custody and

supervision.''

Response: Two efforts are underway to address the increasing number

of juveniles in Federal custody:

1. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has convened a working

group to address the lack of facilities available for juveniles in

Federal custody and is also revising current program and educational

standards for those facilities with juveniles under Federal

jurisdiction.

2. The majority of juveniles in Federal custody are from Indian

tribes. Through the DOJ's Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ) and the Office

of Justice Program's American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Affairs

Office, OJJDP is developing a series of responses to juveniles in

Federal custody. For example, OJJDP is working with OTJ, AI/AN Affairs

Office, and the National Institute of Justice to develop an initiative

in Indian country that could potentially address the critical issues

raised in the report on juveniles in Federal custody. Also, the DOJ

Tribal Court Project assists Indian tribes in the improvement of their

tribal justice systems and has secured limited training and funding for

45 Tribal Court-DOJ Partnership Projects.

In addition to these efforts, OJJDP is enhancing the current

training and technical assistance being provided to law enforcement to

also include Federal

[[Page 33132]]

law enforcement officers or agents. The focus will be to increase

consistency and understanding of Federal policies regarding juveniles

in Federal custody. Another area of activity within DOJ is working to

provide access to accurate information, which is a main focus of

concern in the letter. The Bureau of Justice Statistics is working with

several other Federal agencies to revise the Federal agency data

collection systems. This effort includes consideration of the lack of

information available on juveniles in Federal custody.

OJJDP's proposed field-initiated research program provides an

opportunity for researchers to consider the critical issues raised in

the letter. In formulating its research priorities, OJJDP will consider

the specific areas the writer identified as possible research topics.

Comment: One letter commented on the Proposed Plan's ``impressive

array of programs to assist at-risk youth, as well as those already

involved in the criminal justice system.'' The writer also described a

prevention initiative being spearheaded by the New York/New Jersey High

Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and provided information on the

recently opened 168th Street Armory Youth Center.

Response: OJJDP thanked the writer for his positive comments, asked

to be put on the mailing list to receive a copy of the Center's

evaluation when it is available, and referred him to the Juvenile

Justice Specialists for New York and New Jersey for information about

possible sources of funding.

Comment: One writer noted that only a ``small number of our teens

can be construed as violent teens'' and that the children and youth in

low-income families in her area ``need opportunities to develop into

good citizens.'' She added that she ``would encourage that we not spend

a lot of money researching methods--we know what works.'' The writer

would like most funds to be spent on youth development and intervention

programming.

Response: It is important to recognize, as the writer did in

writing about her community, that ``the majority of our youth are

productive, hard working and a credit to the community.'' A 1995 survey

conducted for OJJDP's Teens, Crime, and the Community program found

that 86 percent of the young people in this survey were willing to

participate in helping to create solutions to problems that affect

their lives. They expressed interest in a variety of volunteer programs

to help reduce crime and violence in their communities, including

communication programs (ads, posters, newsletters); youth leadership

programs, such as tutoring or being a mentor to a younger student;

antiviolence and antidrug programs; programs to avoid fights, such as

conflict resolution; and local cleanup projects, neighborhood watches,

or citizen patrols.

OJJDP agreed that an exclusive focus on studying problems will

never solve them, but OJJDP's focus is a comprehensive one. Those who

work in juvenile justice and youth-serving agencies know what works in

certain communities, but replication of programs that work has been a

great challenge. Quality research and data are critical to ensuring the

success of OJJDP's efforts. OJJDP's support for community prevention

and juvenile justice intervention activities is well balanced. Funded

programs range from research on the causes and correlates of

delinquency, to demonstrations that pilot solutions, to evaluation of

those pilots to check their efficacy, to training and technical

assistance, and to formula funds that seed programs nationwide.

Comment: Two writers wrote to support the Learning Disabilities

Among Juveniles At-Risk of Delinquency or in the Juvenile Justice

System. One of these letters provided information about a program,

Partnership for Learning, that ``screens first time juvenile offenders

with learning disabilities'' in Baltimore, Maryland.

Response: OJJDP is committed to addressing the increasing number of

juveniles identified with learning disabilities in juvenile facilities.

More important, OJJDP is supporting effective programs that divert

these juveniles from entering the system for minor offenses that would

best be addressed in the community. OJJDP will not fund a demonstration

program this year. However, OJJDP's activities this year will include a

focus on developing a program designed to (1) prevent delinquency and

incarceration of youth at risk of learning disabilities through early

assessment and intervention coordinated across school, police, court,

probationary, and other community-based services, and (2) prevent

recidivism by ensuring that students with learning disabilities in

correctional settings receive appropriate, specially designed

instructional services that address their individual needs.

OJJDP will be working with the U.S. Department of Education's

(ED's) Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and

Office of Vocational and Adult Education to initiate a variety of

activities, including plans to develop the model demonstration program.

The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services, in

conjunction with ED's Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, recently

combined site visits and focus group meetings to identify promising

practices for safe, drug-free, and effective schools for all students.

OJJDP will coordinate with ED to disseminate the information developed

in these meetings.

Comment: One writer enclosed a report on ``vertical'' prosecution

of most juvenile firearm offenses in Seattle, Washington, which the

writer indicated OJJDP ``might find interesting considering the content

of the plan, especially the Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit

program.''

Response: The OJJDP Administrator was impressed with the project's

vertical prosecution approach, the comprehensiveness and utility of the

juvenile gun incident data, and the outcomes. Copies of the report were

shared with several individuals and groups that might be able to

include this approach in their ongoing work:

OJJDP staff who work on gang- and prosecution-related

projects.

Program Manager, OJJDP's Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile

Gun Violence Initiative.

COSMOS Corporation, the evaluator of OJJDP's Gun Violence

Initiative, for possible inclusion in a report COSMOS is producing for

the U.S. Department of Justice on promising approaches to this critical

issue.

David Kennedy, Kennedy School of Government, a researcher

deeply engaged in the issue of reducing youth gun violence.

The American Prosecutors Research Institute (APRI), the

grantee implementing the Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit. APRI's work

in 1998 will include the presentation of workshops and seminars and

development of new reference materials for prosecutors. The material in

the report should be helpful to this group.

OJJDP will follow up with the writer and the author of the report

to learn more about the Seattle project and to explore ways in which

this approach might be included in OJJDP's Gun Violence Initiative

sites.

Comment: One letter suggested that the Program Plan ``should

include efforts to prevent lead poisoning because excess lead exposure

has been found to be associated with increased risk for antisocial and

delinquent behavior.''

Response: OJJDP recognizes the significance of lead poisoning as

one of the myriad risk factors linked to antisocial behavior and

delinquency--an association discussed in the article that the writer

enclosed with his letter. Moreover OJJDP agrees that more

[[Page 33133]]

research needs to be conducted to further unravel causality; that is,

does lead exposure cause a child to become a delinquent and/or a

criminal? Accordingly, OJJDP is keeping abreast of research in this

area and notes that agencies with larger medical research budgets

(e.g., the National Institutes of Health) are best equipped to take on

such significantly complex research. Similarly, agencies such as the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have initiatives to

prevent lead exposure and by association the negative effects

associated with lead poisoning. Nevertheless, OJJDP's Field-Initiated

Research program could conceivably include research that might, for

example, evaluate the effectiveness of a crime prevention program that

integrates lead exposure prevention.

Comment: The governor of an American Indian pueblo expressed

concern about two specific points: (1) the Proposed Plan notes the

coordinated effort but fails to mention ``involvement of the American

Indian & Alaska Native Affairs office'' and (2) a discussion of

improving the juvenile justice system does not mention ``the training

of judges to issues specific to juvenile justice.''

Response: OJJDP's responses are presented in order below.

1. The reference to coordination with the Assistant Attorney

General, Office of Justice Programs (OJP), was meant to include all of

the various OJP components; only the four other program bureaus were

mentioned by name. OJJDP works closely with the American Indian and

Alaska Native (AI&AN) Affairs Office on all of its programs and

particularly on those programs that have the greatest interest to

American Indians and Alaska Natives. A representative from OJJDP serves

on a U.S. Department of Justice American Indian Task Group, and the

Director of the AI&AN Affairs Office reviews and comments on OJJDP

programs. OJJDP staff have also consulted with the Director of the

AI&AN Affairs Office on such programs as the Combating Underage

Drinking Program to assure that the solicitation for funding is

sensitive to the needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

2. OJJDP is committed to providing the necessary resources for

training judges in issues specific to juvenile justice. Since 1974,

OJJDP, at the direction of Congress, has funded the National Council of

Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to provide comprehensive

skill-based training and technical assistance to juvenile court judges

throughout the country. The name of this program was listed on page

6342 of the Proposed Plan as one of a number of programs identified for

funding consideration by Congress. Program descriptions were not

included for these programs.

NCJFCJ, now in its 62d year, is dedicated to improving the Nation's

juvenile justice system. NCJFCJ does this through an extensive effort

toward improving the operation and effectiveness of juvenile and family

courts through highly developed, practical, and applicable training.

NCJFCJ conducts more than 100 training sessions a year with support

from OJJDP and from State, local, and foundation funds. These trainings

are provided at locations throughout the United States to make them

accessible and cost effective for the participants. Like all OJJDP

grantees and contractors, NCJFCJ gives careful consideration to

requests for assistance outside the specific mandates of the award.

Comment: One letter expressed support for several programs,

including the Arts and At-Risk Youth Program, the Youth-Centered

Conflict Resolution Program, and programming for female offenders. This

support was counted with other letters of support for these programs,

which were addressed previously. The writer also supported the program

to combat underage drinking, the Communities In Schools--Federal

Interagency Partnership program, and OJJDP's gang prevention/

intervention activities.

Response: OJJDP's Proposed Plan included five programs that address

the gang problem: the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program; Evaluation of the

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,

and Suppression Program; Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Technical Assistance and

Training; Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention

Component (Boys & Girls Clubs); and Rural Youth Gang Problems--Adapting

OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach. Of these, only the last one was

proposed as a new program for this fiscal year. The programs mentioned

by this writer will all be funded. A solicitation for the Rural Youth

Gang Problems program will be issued as part of the FY 1998 OJJDP

Discretionary Program Announcement: Discretionary Grant Program: Parts

C and D. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under Supplementary Information.

Comment: One writer made four general points about the Proposed

Plan, which are summarized and responded to below.

Comment 1: Use of percentage of change conveys nothing ``without

knowing numbers of juveniles convicted of offenses and the categories

of offense in which they occur.''

Response: OJJDP assumes that the writer is referring to some of the

comparisons made in the Overview section. Although this point is valid

in a general sense, OJJDP believes that in the context of an overview,

the comparisons offered serve the intended purpose, that is, to give a

sense of the relative progress being made in the effort to reduce

juvenile crime and delinquency. OJJDP makes more detailed statistics

available in a variety of publications, including the following:

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update on Violence

(Statistics Summary)

Juvenile Arrests 1996 (Bulletin)

The Youngest Delinquents: Offenders Under Age 15

(Bulletin)

Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1995 (Bulletin)

Person Offenses in Juvenile Court, 1986-1995 (Fact Sheet).

These and other publications related to juvenile justice can be

obtained from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse by calling 800-638-

8736. Most of the recent publications are also available online at

OJJDP's Web site at http://www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Another source of data is the National Juvenile Court Data Archive,

which collects, stores, and analyzes data about young people referred

to U.S. courts for delinquency and status offenses. The national

delinquency estimates produced with the Archive's data files are made

available in an easy-to-use software package, Easy Access to Juvenile

Court Statistics. With the support of OJJDP, the Archive distributes

this package to facilitate independent analysis of Archive data while

eliminating the need for other analysis packages. This software can be

ordered directly from the Archive (412-227-6950) or downloaded from

OJJDP's Web site.

Comment 2: ``Number arrested means nothing. Number convicted would

be significant.''

Response: Data from the National Juvenile Court Data Archive

indicate that of the 122,000 robbery and aggravated assault cases

disposed of by juvenile courts in 1994, nearly three-fourths were

formally petitioned, and more than half were adjudicated (i.e.,

``convicted'') or waived to criminal court. Together these violent

juvenile cases accounted for 94 percent of all

[[Page 33134]]

Violent Crime Index cases processed by juvenile courts in 1994.

For those juveniles charged with person offenses (a broader range

of crimes than Index offenses), more than 60 percent received some

disposition other than ``release,'' whether processed through formal

(petition) or informal methods. Although there is a dropoff from arrest

to disposition for these offenses, OJJDP finds that the outcomes of

court processing have not changed substantially over the years.

Therefore, the trends that OJJDP is describing would be essentially the

same whether arrest data or court data are used to describe changes.

Comment 3: The number of juveniles who commit violent crimes is

small.

Response: Just \1/2\ of 1 percent of juveniles ages 10 to 17 were

arrested for a violent crime in 1996, but these often high-profile

crimes help to fuel public fear and concern about the threat of

juvenile violence and influence legislative and policy decisions.

OJJDP's programming does not focus disproportionately on the most

violent juveniles but instead includes the entire spectrum of juvenile

offenders and youth at risk of delinquency. OJJDP supports a

comprehensive strategy that incorporates two principal components:

Preventing youth from becoming delinquent by focusing

prevention programs on at-risk youth.

Improving the response of the juvenile justice system to

delinquent offenders through a system of graduated sanctions, including

a continuum of treatment alternatives that provide immediate

intervention, intermediate sanctions, and community-based and secure

corrections, incorporating aftercare services when appropriate.

This comprehensive strategy also recognizes that an effective

system of graduated sanctions must protect the public by including the

option of transfer to the criminal justice system for those serious,

violent, or chronic juvenile offenders who are not amenable to

treatment in the juvenile justice system or whose criminal acts are so

egregious as to justify transfer.

Comment 4: Thousands of children are at risk for abuse and neglect

and are ``more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, than to

commit one.''

Response: OJJDP shares the writer's concern for children and youth

who are abused and neglected and who are victims of crime. One of the

publications listed above, Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update

on Violence, provides the latest statistics, not only on juvenile

offenders, but also on juvenile victims. OJJDP supports a wide array of

prevention programming, including family strengthening and nurse home

visitation programs that address the problems of abuse and neglect. As

the Proposed Plan stated: ``These programs can build the foundation for

law-abiding lives for children and interrupt the cycle of violence that

can turn abused or neglected children into delinquents.''

Comment: One writer applauded OJJDP's ``efforts in addressing the

juvenile problem'' and described a proposed Community Renaissance

strategy and specific programs to help deter high-risk youth from

delinquency and violence. The writer stated that he was looking to

OJJDP as a potential partner in this venture.

Response: It is commendable that the members of the Prisoner

Advisory Committee want to use their experience to help young people

avoid involvement with the justice system. OJJDP suggested that the

most practical approach to accomplish the Committee's objectives would

be through collaboration with a local agency or organization that works

with at-risk or delinquent juveniles. The writer was referred to the

Juvenile Justice Specialist for Michigan as one possible source of

information about local programs that might be interested in working

with the Committee.

Comment: One letter supported the proposed programming in two

specific areas: gender-specific programming for female juvenile

offenders and Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention

Component (Boys & Girls Clubs). The support for gender-specific

programming was counted with other letters of support for this type of

program, addressed previously.

Response: Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention

Component (Boys & Girls Clubs), is a continuation program, and no

additional applications will be solicited this fiscal year. OJJDP

expects that 10 new sites--all in rural areas--will receive gang

prevention training and technical assistance. The Boys & Girls Clubs of

America will choose the new sites.

Comment: One letter expressed support for the Community Volunteer

Coordinator Program and for the Rural Youth Gang Problems--Adapting

OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach program, while encouraging OJJDP not to

rely solely on Boys & Girls Clubs for some programs because they do not

reach or serve many populations, especially in rural areas. The support

for the Community Volunteer Coordinator Program was counted and

responded to with other letters in favor of that program.

Response: In regard to the comment that OJJDP should not rely

solely on Boys & Girls Clubs for some programs, especially in rural

areas, the writer can be assured that OJJDP has a high level of

confidence in the Boys & Girls Clubs but is also well aware of the need

for a variety of partners in various aspects of its mission to prevent

delinquency and criminal behavior among juveniles. OJJDP is also

cognizant of the special needs of rural areas. The Rural Youth Gang

Problems--Adapting OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach program will be

funded. A solicitation will be issued as part of the FY 1998 OJJDP

Discretionary Program Announcement: Discretionary Grant Program: Parts

C and D. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Program

Announcement is provided above under Supplementary Information.

Comment: One letter made comments in four specific areas, three of

which are listed and responded to below. The fourth area, Gender

Specific Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders, was responded to

above, and this writer's interest in this type of programming was

counted among the letters that commented on that topic.

Comment 1: Training and Technical Assistance. The writer expressed

the hope that the training and technical assistance activities in the

Program Plan ``include the provision of training to people who work

with females both at risk and within the system.''

Response: Wherever appropriate, OJJDP-funded training and technical

assistance programs address the specific concerns of female juveniles.

Specifically, OJJDP will continue to provide funding for the Training

and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific Programming

for Female Juvenile Offenders, which will be implemented by the current

grantee, Greene, Peters and Associates.

Comment 2: Field-Initiated Research and Field-Initiated Evaluation.

The writer supported both these proposed programs.

Response: Only the Field-Initiated Research program is being funded

this year. OJJDP believes that this type of outreach to the field can

result in creative and innovative proposals. A solicitation will be

issued as part of the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program Announcement:

Discretionary Grant Program: Parts C and D. Information on how to

obtain a copy of the Program Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Comment 3: Introduction to Fiscal Year 1998 Program Plan. The

writer was critical of the mention of a ``single agency with reference

to prevention.''

[[Page 33135]]

Response: The point about either mentioning other agencies as

illustrative of prevention programs or mentioning none is, generally

speaking, a valid one. Obviously, OJJDP cannot possibly list all the

effective national programs. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America--one of

the largest and best-known providers of afterschool programs for youth

and an organization whose work has been evaluated and found to be

successful--was used as a convenient reference point for readers.

However, in response to this comment, we will use a more general

reference in this part of the program plan.

Comment: Another writer supported four specific program areas:

afterschool and summer arts for at-risk youth, a planning and

demonstration project to address issues surrounding learning

disabilities and delinquency, a juvenile defender center, and gender-

specific programming for female juvenile offenders.

Response: All of these programs were addressed above. The writer's

support for these programs was counted among the letters that commented

on those topics.

Comment: One writer was generally pleased about the direction OJJDP

is taking in 1998 but suggested that the Technical Assistance for State

Legislators program should be expanded. The writer proposed that OJJDP

establish a Technical Assistance for County Officials program.

Response: OJJDP appreciates the writer's recognition of the

importance of its ongoing work with the National Conference of State

Legislatures. Through the Title V Program--popularly known as the

Community Prevention Grants Program, OJJDP has been working closely

with communities nationwide to provide them with the framework, tools,

and initial funding to develop and begin to implement comprehensive,

sustainable delinquency prevention strategies. More than 470

communities across the Nation have embraced the rigorous community

assessment and delinquency prevention planning process and received

prevention grants.

In regard to the suggestion to amend the Proposed Plan to include a

Technical Assistance for County Officials program, OJJDP agrees that

county-level officials are important policymakers and need to be well-

informed on management and policy issues. Indeed, over the years, OJJDP

has worked closely with the National Association of Counties (NACO),

with which the writer's organization is affiliated. Although OJJDP will

not include the requested program in the 1998 Final Plan, a meeting

will be held at OJJDP with the writer and a representation of NACO to

talk about opportunities for future partnerships, cooperation, and

collaboration among the parties.

Comment: One writer praised OJJDP's information dissemination but

expressed concern about the program goals in the Proposed Plan.

Specifically, the writer called for ``a needs-assessment and systematic

evaluation of court services''; more attention to ``multimodal and

longitudinal interventions, programs that address the first time

offender, and efforts to address the unique needs of different

subgroups within the juvenile justice, such as the adolescent sex

offender''; and ``development and evaluation of multicomponent

interventions whose content is based on the results of the OJJDP-funded

studies on the Causes and [Correlates] of Delinquency.'' The writer

also found the field-initiated research section to be ``virtually

nonexistent.''

Response: OJJDP appreciates the kind words about the value of its

information dissemination through the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse.

It is always helpful to receive feedback on the services OJJDP

provides.

In regard to the concerns expressed about the program goals

outlined in the Proposed Plan, OJJDP shares the writer's perspective on

most of the issues raised and regrets that the writer did not find this

agreement clearly reflected in the plan. OJJDP is involved in many

activities that support the desired approaches described in the letter.

The brief summaries below present examples of efforts that OJJDP

believes are in accord with the direction the writer would like to see

OJJDP take.

Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency.

This longitudinal study is being conducted by research teams (the

University at Albany, State University of New York; the University of

Colorado, and the University of Pittsburgh) in three sites: Rochester,

New York; Denver, Colorado; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The three

research teams have interviewed 4,000 participants at regular intervals

for nearly a decade, recording their lives in detail and accumulating a

substantial body of knowledge about delinquency and its causes. OJJDP

has recently increased its investment in this research.

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders. The foundation for OJJDP's program planning for the past 3

years has been the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders, which draws heavily on the findings of the

Causes and Correlates study. The Comprehensive Strategy recognizes the

need for coordination and collaboration among agencies and

organizations that serve children. The Comprehensive Strategy has two

main components: (1) prevention and (2) graduated sanctions that begin

with early interventions within the community for first-time nonviolent

offenders, intermediate sanctions within the community for more serious

offenders, and secure care for the most serious, violent, and chronic

juvenile offenders. Through training and technical assistance, OJJDP is

supporting more than 30 communities in their efforts to create a

continuum of care that integrates services provided by schools and

social services with those offered by law enforcement, courts, and

corrections. Part of this OJJDP assistance is targeted at the

development of risk and needs assessments that can be used by the

juvenile justice system to effectively change the nature of its service

delivery.

The SafeFutures program, discussed below, is another example of

OJJDP's support for this comprehensive approach. Here, OJJDP used

multiple funding streams and collapsed them into one program

application as a way of encouraging the coordination and integration of

service delivery at the community level.

SafeFutures. The SafeFutures Initiative, a 5-year demonstration

project currently in the second year of implementation, was

specifically designed to address collaboration. The demonstration's

main premise is that juvenile delinquency can be most effectively

addressed through a combined approach of prevention, intervention,

treatment, and sanctions. This collaborative approach takes place at

two levels: the strategic planning level with policymakers and agency

heads and the direct service integration level. SafeFutures sites are

actively working to plan a continuum of services and integrate

frontline service delivery across a multidisciplinary, interagency team

of professionals including the court system, mental health, social

services, probation, law enforcement, education, and housing. This

effort is being evaluated nationally through OJJDP and through local

evaluations in each of the six sites.

Community Assessment Center (CAC) Program. This multicomponent

demonstration initiative is designed to test the efficacy of the CAC

concept of providing a 24-hour centralized, single point of intake and

assessment for juveniles who have or are likely to come into contact

with the juvenile justice

[[Page 33136]]

system. A CAC facilitates earlier and more efficient prevention and

intervention service delivery at the ``front end'' of the juvenile

justice system. OJJDP will provide an additional year's funding to

further support the implementation of CAC enhancements and provide

additional support to the sites awarded grants in FY 1997. This funding

would enable these sites to begin implementing the CAC's planned for

with OJJDP funding support or to enhance existing operations. OJJDP is

also funding a CAC evaluation component and a technical assistance

component.

Study Group on the Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offender.

Originally charged with producing a report on critical areas of

interest about these offenders, including prevention, intervention,

gangs, and other topics, which it submitted in 1997, the Study Group is

currently focusing on the youngest offenders and the pathways to

delinquency. OJJDP is continuing to fund this effort, which began in FY

1995.

The writer is also encouraged to review the field-initiated

research funding opportunities available through OJJDP's interagency

agreements with the National Institute of Justice under the Juvenile

Accountability Incentive Block Grants Program and the Bureau of Justice

Statistics through the Statistical Analysis Centers component.

Additionally, OJJDP still plans to fund the field-initiated research

effort referenced in the Proposed Plan. The writer may also want to

look for the results of OJJDP's recently funded research project on the

development of a juvenile sex offender typology.

Comment: One writer expressed concern about three items that he

would like to see included in the Program Plan. These issues are

summarized and responded to below.

Comment 1: An initiative aimed at high-level municipal and county

policymakers and others would consist of a collaborative strategic

planning process that could lead to more comprehensive community

approaches to children's victimization.

Response: As the writer noted, this first item falls under OJJDP's

Missing and Exploited Children's Program (MECP). One of MECP's

priorities is the expansion and enhancement of training as it relates

to child victimization. Goals for the coming years include the

incorporation of results of research and demonstration programs into

the overall training program (including the American Bar Association's

(ABA's) study of effective community-based approaches for missing and

exploited children); the expansion of existing training curriculums to

focus on broader child victimization issues; the development of more

comprehensive and integrated training programs that are based on the

most current knowledge and information about best practices,

approaches, and research; and continued emphasis on providing high

level policymakers with the necessary information, tools, and

strategies to effectively identify and address child victimization

issues in their community. The writer was encouraged to continue to

discuss his concerns about missing and exploited children's issues with

the Director of OJJDP's Missing and Exploited Children's Program.

Comment 2: The topic of criminal record screening of adults working

or volunteering with children needs to be addressed, with research on

how States are implementing screening laws and technical assistance to

States.

Response: This is another issue of interest to OJJDP. Under a 1992

grant to the ABA Center on Children and the Law, the writer and the

Center conducted a legal review of the laws and policies governing this

issue. Many laws have changed since then. The National Child Protection

Act of 1993 and laws such as Jacob Wetterling and Megan's Law have also

impacted this field. OJJDP recently released Guidelines for the

Screening of Persons Working With Children, the Elderly, and

Individuals With Disabilities in Need of Support. The writer's

suggestion of conducting further research into the implementation of

screening laws and the development of technical assistance is a good

one and potentially eligible for funding under the Field-Initiated

Research Program.

Comment 3: Programs relating to early ``status offense''

misbehavior by children under 12 and the operation of ``parental

responsibility'' laws might help in the early identification of and

intervention with predelinquent children.

Response: Some ongoing OJJDP programs address this issue. In the

research area, OJJDP is supporting the work of a Study Group on Very

Young Offenders, which is focusing on the pathways to delinquency.

Chaired by Dr. Rolf Loeber and Dr. David Farrington, the Study Group

will examine the available research on youth who start offending before

13, an understudied population. The goals of the research are to

identify the prevalence of such offending and to determine how this

offending affects later offending behavior and how society can best

deal with these young offenders to prevent future criminality. Status

offenders are also being studied in the context of school truancy as

part of an evaluation of truancy interventions that include a parental

component.

Another program that is somewhat related to this issue is the Child

Welfare League of America (CWLA) project entitled Assessment and

Decisionmaking Guidelines for Dealing With Chemically Involved

Children, Youth, and Families. This program receives funding from both

OJJDP and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and is

part of a larger ONDCP parent-focused initiative.

CWLA will produce a state-of-the-art assessment instrument along

with decisionmaking guidelines for use by frontline child welfare

professionals who work with clients involved with alcohol and other

drugs and their families (parents). These resource materials will

assist child welfare professionals to determine the most appropriate

casework approach, placement option, and permanency plan for children

of substance abusers.

This assessment instrument and the decisionmaking guidelines will

be problem-solving tools derived from integrating original research,

lessons learned from actual cases, and the training needs of child

welfare staff. The foundation for the guidelines are basic principles

of successful family strengthening models, such as maintaining respect

for parents and children while working with them and promoting honesty

and clarity regarding choices and consequences.

Another OJJDP initiative that is expected to contribute to better

identification of predelinquent children and help improve the response

to their needs is the Community Assessment Center (CAC) program. This

multicomponent demonstration initiative is designed to test the

efficacy of the CAC concept of providing a 24-hour centralized, single

point of intake and assessment for juveniles who have or are likely to

come into contact with the juvenile justice system. A CAC facilitates

earlier and more efficient prevention and intervention service delivery

at the ``front end'' of the juvenile justice system.

Comment: One writer praised OJJDP's leadership and expressed

support for various OJJDP programs. The writer also expressed interest

in the new drug prevention program and suggested that OJJDP consider

``highlighting the juvenile crime that currently exists within the

Latino youth population and to create ethnic-specific delinquency

prevention initiatives.''

[[Page 33137]]

Response: OJJDP appreciates the kind words about its leadership

role in addressing the needs of juveniles in this time of limited

resources. The Office is also pleased to know of the writer's support

for the prevention and intervention programs listed in the Proposed

Plan; for OJJDP projects such as the National Youth Gang Center,

Communities in Schools, and Family Strengthening Programs; and for the

risk and protective factors prevention model that is incorporated in

OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic

Juvenile Offenders.

OJJDP will be implementing several new alcohol and other drug

programs this fiscal year. As stated in the Proposed Plan, two of the

new programs being developed, Combating Underage Drinking and the Drug

Prevention Program, will be awarded competitively. Program

announcements can be obtained by calling OJJDP's Juvenile Justice

Clearinghouse (JJC) at 800-638-8736 or by sending an e-mail request to

[email protected]. Program announcements will also be available online

at www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Another program that OJJDP will be administering and that may be of

interest to the writer is the Drug-Free Communities Support program to

support the development and expansion of community antidrug coalitions.

Information on this program is also available through JJC.

In regard to the suggestion for ethnic-specific delinquency

prevention initiatives, OJJDP programs are developed to serve the

diversity of youth in this country. Therefore, most OJJDP-funded

projects target youth of all races and both genders. Specifically, most

of OJJDP's discretionary projects focus on implementing services and

activities to address juvenile crime, violence, and abuse in their

local communities and on efforts to improve the lives of children

residing in abusive living environments. In identifying youth most in

need of prevention and intervention programs, some OJJDP projects have

targeted Latino youth. The following are brief descriptions of several

current OJJDP discretionary projects targeting Latino youth:

SafeFutures. The main premise of this 5-year demonstration project

(currently in the second year of implementation) is that juvenile

delinquency can be most effectively addressed through a combined

approach of prevention, intervention, treatment, and sanctions. Two of

the six demonstration sites are serving a largely Latino population.

The Imperial County, California, SafeFutures program

serves youth of all races, but the project predominately serves Latino

youth because approximately 69 percent (in 1995) of the county's

population is Latino.

The SafeFutures project in Contra Costa County,

California, also serves a significant number of Latino youth. The goal

of this project is to create a continuum of care for at-risk youth in

Contra Costa, specifically West Contra Costa County. This program also

serves African-American, Asian, and other youth.

Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP). The goals of this one-to-one

mentoring program are to reduce juvenile delinquency and gang

participation by at-risk youth, improve their school performance, and

reduce their dropout rate.

The Latino Mentoring Program, Family Services, Inc., in

Providence, Rhode Island, links high-risk Latino adolescents with

mentors from the business and education community. Priority is given to

gang-involved youth, adjudicated delinquents, and adolescents in

abusive or neglected home situations.

The Mentors Matter collaborative of Tulare County,

Community Services and Employment Training, Inc., in Visalia,

California, is serving many students who live in a migrant labor

settlement where Hispanic students (99 percent of the school-age

population in the settlement) are at risk for poor academic

achievement, dropping out of school, juvenile crime, involvement with

gangs, and teenage pregnancy.

Big Sisters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serves Hispanic

females, ages 10 to 18, by helping them to develop self-esteem and

self-confidence, exposing them to educational and career opportunities,

and working to prevent teen pregnancy, dropping out of school, and

delinquency.

The George Gervin Youth Center, San Antonio, Texas, serves

Mexican youth, most of whom live in Victoria Courts, where

approximately 34 percent of the youth are dropouts and teen parents and

where the largest number of crimes in the city occurred in 1993. The

youth are introduced to the world of work, summer jobs, and other new

experiences to motivate them to stay in school and out of gangs and

other delinquent activities.

The Rowland Unified School District (La Punente,

California) JUMP program participants are 80 percent Latino and 90

percent male.

Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters of Phoenix, Arizona,

serves students in grades seven and eight, most of whom are Latino.

Service for Adolescent & Family Enrichment (Santa Barbara,

California) serves Latino youth, mostly males between the ages of 10

and 15.

Pathways to Success

Aspira of Florida serves a target group of 130 Latino migrant youth

from rural South Dade. Services provided to these youth include career

planning and art, dance, and recreation activities.

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program (IAP)

This is a demonstration effort in three sites: Denver, Colorado;

Las Vegas, Nevada; and Norfolk, Virginia. The model being tested is

designed to assist high-risk youth returning to their community from

secure confinement. In all three sites, the target population includes

Latino youth.

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression Program

This program is currently being tested in five demonstration sites:

Mesa and Tucson, Arizona; Riverside, California; Bloomington, Illinois;

and San Antonio, Texas. Latino youth are among those being served in

each of the sites. Some of these programs incorporate issues of

Hispanic or Chicano heritage, and most of the programs have or have had

Hispanic staff.

Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component

(Boys & Girls Clubs of America)

The programs of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America provide services

to many Latino youth. OJJDP has supported the Targeted Outreach program

for several years. The program provides training and support to local

clubs to provide outreach to those youth at risk of gang involvement.

Many of the Targeted Outreach programs provide services to Latino

youth. In 1997, 45 percent of the youth served were of Hispanic origin,

45 percent were African-American, and 10 percent were of other races

and ethnic backgrounds.

Latino communities are among the many areas throughout the Nation

where OJJDP is supporting community-based projects in schools,

neighborhoods, and the juvenile justice arena in urban, suburban, and

rural cities and counties.

Introduction to Fiscal Year 1998 Program Plan

An effective juvenile justice system must implement a sound

comprehensive strategy and must

[[Page 33138]]

identify and support programs that work to further the objectives of

the strategy. These objectives include holding the juvenile offender

accountable; enabling the juvenile to become a capable, productive, and

responsible citizen; and ensuring the safety of the community.

For juveniles who come to the attention of police, juvenile courts,

or social service agencies, a strong juvenile justice system must

assess the danger they pose, determine what can help put them back on

the right track, deliver appropriate treatment, and stay with them when

they return to the community. When necessary, a strong juvenile justice

system also must appropriately identify those serious, violent, and

chronic juveniles offenders who are beyond its reach and ensure their

criminal prosecution and incapacitation.

Research has shown that what works to reduce juvenile crime and

violence includes prevention programs that start with the earliest

stages of life: good prenatal care, home visitation for newborns at

risk of abuse and neglect, steps to strengthen parenting skills, and

initiatives to prepare children for school. These programs can build

the foundation for law-abiding lives for children and interrupt the

cycle of violence that can turn abused or neglected children into

delinquents.

Prevention programs work for older children, too: opportunities for

youth after school and on weekends, such as programs that offer a

variety of activities and those that focus on mentoring, can reduce

juvenile alcohol and drug use, improve school performance, and prevent

youth from getting involved in crime and violent behavior.

Another focal point for juvenile justice efforts is the community.

Without healthy communities, young people cannot thrive. The key

leaders in the community, including representatives from the juvenile

justice, health and mental health, schools, law enforcement, social

services, and other systems, as well as leaders from the private

sector, must be jointly engaged in the planning, development, and

operation of the juvenile justice system. Attempts to improve the

juvenile justice system must be part of a broad, comprehensive,

communitywide effort--both at the leadership and grassroots level--to

eliminate factors that place juveniles at risk of delinquency and

victimization, enhance factors that protect them from engaging in

delinquent behavior, and use the full range of resources and programs

within the community to meet the varying needs of juveniles. It is also

important to provide increased public access to the system to ensure an

appropriate role for victims, a greater understanding of how the system

operates, and a higher level of system accountability to the public.

The recent decreases in all measures of juvenile violence known to

law enforcement (number of arrests, arrest rates, and the percentage of

violent crimes cleared by juvenile arrests) should encourage

legislators, juvenile justice policymakers and practitioners, and all

concerned citizens to support ongoing efforts to address juvenile crime

and violence through a comprehensive approach.

Three documents published during the past 5 years provide the

framework for a comprehensive approach to an improved, more effective

juvenile justice system. OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (1993) and Guide for

Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders (1995) were followed in 1996 by the

Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's

Combating Violence and Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice

Action Plan. The first of these publications defined the elements of

the comprehensive strategy. The second provided States and communities

with a more detailed explanation of what would constitute the elements

of a comprehensive strategy, including strategic and programmatic

information on risk and protective factor-based prevention and a system

of graduated sanctions. The third prioritized Federal, State, and local

activities and resources under eight critical objectives that are

central to reducing and preventing juvenile violence, delinquency, and

victimization.

The OJJDP FY 1998 Program Plan is rooted in the principles of the

Comprehensive Strategy and the objectives of the Action Plan. Like the

OJJDP Program Plans for FY's 1996 and 1997, the FY 1998 Program Plan

supports a balanced approach to aggressively addressing juvenile

delinquency and violence through establishing graduated sanctions,

improving the juvenile justice system's ability to respond to juvenile

offending, and preventing the onset of delinquency. The Program Plan,

therefore, recognizes the need to ensure public safety and support

children's development into healthy, productive citizens through a

range of prevention, early intervention, and graduated sanctions

programs.

Proposed new program areas were identified for FY 1998 through a

process of engaging OJJDP staff, other Federal agencies, and juvenile

justice practitioners in an examination of existing programs, research

findings, and the needs of the field. In a departure from past

practice, OJJDP presented for public comment more proposed programs

than it expected to be able to fund with the resources available. It

was OJJDP's intent to stimulate discussion of the best use of its FY

1998 discretionary funding and to seek guidance from the field as to

which programs, among the many described in the Proposed Program Plan,

would most effectively advance the goals of promoting delinquency

prevention and early intervention, improving the juvenile justice

system, and preserving the public safety.

OJJDP will provide funding for a wide variety of new programs,

including training and technical assistance coordination for the

SafeFutures initiative, and training and technical assistance for the

Blueprints for Violence Prevention project and for a school safety

program. New programs also involve OJJDP collaboration with other

agencies to address problems such as truancy, develop arts programs

directed toward at-risk youth and youth held in juvenile detention and

corrections, and support the planning and development of systems of

care for American Indian and Alaska Native youth with mental health and

substance abuse needs. In addition, OJJDP will provide funding for

initial planning and implementation of a Juvenile Defender Center,

coordination of youth-related volunteer services, support for programs

designed to build infrastructure for programming for female juvenile

offenders and teen mothers, and support for additional work in the area

of disproportionate minority confinement in secure juvenile facilities

and other institutions.

OJJDP considered, but is not funding demonstration projects

designed to intervene early with students with learning disabilities to

prevent delinquency and also to prevent recidivism by those students in

correctional settings. See the Learning Disabilities Among Juveniles At

Risk of Delinquency or in the Juvenile Justice System program

description below for a discussion of why this program is not being

funded.

In addition, OJJDP has identified for FY 1998 funding a range of

research and evaluation projects designed to expand knowledge about

juvenile offenders; the effectiveness of prevention, intervention, and

treatment programs; and the operation of the juvenile justice system.

New evaluation initiatives that will be undertaken include the

[[Page 33139]]

Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders; the Boys & Girls Clubs of America's TeenSupreme Career

Preparation Initiative; analysis and interpretation of juvenile

justice-related data from nontraditional sources; and field-initiated

research. Field-initiated evaluation, which was included in the

Proposed Plan, will not be funded this fiscal year. See the Field-

Initiated Evaluation program description below for a discussion of why

this program is not being funded. Combined with new OJJDP programs and

programs being continued in FY 1998, OJJDP's new demonstration and

evaluation programs form a continuum of programming that supports the

objectives of the Action Plan and mirrors the foundation and framework

of the Comprehensive Strategy.

OJJDP's continuation activities and the new FY 1998 programs are at

the heart of OJJDP's categorical funding efforts. For example, while

focusing on new areas of programming such as the Juvenile Defender

Center and the role of the arts for juveniles in detention centers and

for at-risk youth, continuing to offer training seminars in the

Comprehensive Strategy, and looking to the SafeFutures program to

implement a continuum of care system, OJJDP will be supporting programs

that reduce the likelihood of juvenile involvement in hate crimes,

reduce juvenile gun violence, promote positive approaches to conflict

resolution, and explore the mental health needs of juveniles. Together,

these and other activities provide a comprehensive approach to

prevention and early intervention programs while enhancing the juvenile

justice system's capacity to provide immediate and appropriate

accountability and treatment for juvenile offenders, including those

with special treatment needs.

OJJDP's Part D Gang Program will develop a rural gang prevention

and intervention program and will continue to support a range of

comprehensive prevention, intervention, and suppression activities at

the local level, evaluate those activities, and inform communities

about the nature and extent of gang activities and effective and

innovative programs through OJJDP's National Youth Gang Center.

Similarly, activities related to the identification of school-based

gang programs and the evaluation of the Boys & Girls Clubs gang

outreach effort, along with an evaluation of selected youth gun

violence reduction programs, will complement existing law enforcement

and prosecutorial training programs by supporting and informing

grassroots community organizations' efforts to address juvenile gangs

and juvenile access to, carriage of, and use of guns. This programming

builds on OJJDP's youth-focused community policing, mentoring, and

conflict resolution initiatives and programming, including the work of

the Congress of National Black Churches in supporting local churches to

address the prevention of drug abuse, youth violence, and hate crime.

In support of the need to break the cycle of violence, OJJDP's Safe

Kids/Safe Streets demonstration program, currently being implemented in

partnership with other OJP offices and bureaus, will improve linkages

between the dependency and criminal court systems, child welfare and

social service providers, and family strengthening programs and will

complement ongoing support of Court Appointed Special Advocates, Child

Advocacy Centers, and prosecutor and judicial training in the

dependency field, funded under the Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990,

as amended.

The Program Plan's research and evaluation programming will support

many of the above activities by filling in critical gaps in knowledge

about the level and seriousness of juvenile crime and victimization,

its causes and correlates, and effective programs in preventing

delinquency and violence. At the same time, OJJDP's research efforts

will also be geared toward efforts that monitor and evaluate the ways

juveniles are treated in the juvenile and criminal justice systems,

particularly in relation to juvenile violence and its impact.

As described below, OJJDP is also utilizing its national

perspective to disseminate information to those at the grassroots

level: practitioners, policymakers, community leaders, and service

providers who are directly responsible for planning and implementing

policies and programs that impact juvenile crime and violence. An

additional OJJDP goal is to help practitioners and policymakers

translate this information into action through its training and

technical assistance providers as part of its mission to stimulate and

assist in the replication of successful and promising strategies and

programs.

OJJDP will continue to fund longitudinal research on the causes and

correlates of delinquency. Even more important, however, OJJDP will

regularly share the findings from this research with the field through

OJJDP's publications, Home Page on the World Wide Web, and JuvJust (an

electronic newsletter); utilize state-of-the-art technology to provide

the field with an interactive CD-ROM on promising and effective

programs designed to prevent delinquency and reduce recidivism; air

national satellite teleconferences on key topics of relevance to

practitioners; and publish new reports and documents on timely topics.

Some examples of these publication topics include youth action to

prevent delinquency; family strengthening; juvenile substance abuse

(prevention, intervention, and testing); balanced and restorative

justice; developmental pathways in delinquent behavior, gang migration,

capacity building for substance abuse treatment, youth gangs,

restitution programs, school safety, and conditions of confinement.

The various contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and

interagency fund transfers described in the Program Plan form a

continuum of activity designed to address youth violence, delinquency,

and victimization. In isolation, this programming can do little.

However, the emphasis of OJJDP's programming is on collaboration. It is

through collaboration that Federal, State, and local agencies; American

Indian tribes; national organizations; private philanthropies; the

corporate and business sector; health, mental health, and social

service agencies; schools; youth; families; and clergy can come

together to form partnerships and leverage additional resources,

identify needs and priorities, and implement innovative strategies. In

the past few years, the combined efforts of these varied groups have

brought about the beginnings of change in the prevalence of juvenile

crime, violence, and victimization. Now is the time to strengthen old

partnerships and forge new ones to develop support for a long-term,

comprehensive approach to a more effective juvenile justice system.

Fiscal Year 1998 Programs

The following are brief summaries of each of the new and

continuation programs projected to receive funding in FY 1998,

including ongoing projects identified for supplemental funding since

the publication of the Proposed Plan, which are grouped under the

heading New Supplemental Funding at the end of the program list.

Programs that appeared in the Proposed Plan but that will not receive

funding are also listed but are marked with asterisks. In the program

descriptions, brief discussions are provided as to why some proposed

programs will not be funded this fiscal year.

As indicated above, the program categories are public safety and

law enforcement; strengthening the juvenile

[[Page 33140]]

justice system; delinquency prevention and intervention; and child

abuse and neglect and dependency courts. However, because many programs

have significant elements of more than one of these program categories

or generally support all of OJJDP's programs, they are listed in an

initial program category, called overarching programs. The specific

program priorities within each category are subject to change with

regard to their priority status, sites for implementation, and other

descriptive data and information based on grantee performance,

application quality, fund availability, and other factors.

A number of OJJDP programs have been identified for funding

consideration by Congress with regard to the grantee(s), the amount of

funds, or both. These programs, which are listed below, are not

included in the program descriptions that follow.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

Teens, Crime, and the Community

Parents Anonymous, Inc.

Juvenile Offender Transition Program

Suffolk University Center for Juvenile Justice

Center for Crimes and Violence Against Children

Crow Creek Alcohol and Drug Program

Metro Denver Gang Coalition

In addition, OJJDP has been directed by Congress to examine each of

the following proposals, provide grants if warranted, and report to the

Committees on Appropriations of both the House and the Senate on its

intention for each proposal:

Coalition for Juvenile Justice

The Hamilton Fish National Institute on School/Community Violence

Low Country Children's Center

Vermont Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services

Grassroots Drug Prevention Program

Dona Ana Camp

Center for Prevention of Juvenile Crime and Delinquency at Prairie View

University Project O.A.S.I.S.

KidsPeace--The National Centers for Kids in Crisis, North America

Consortium on Children, Families, and Law

New Mexico Prevention Project

No Hope in Dope Program

Study of the Link Between Child Abuse and Criminal

Behavior in Alaska

Gainesville Juvenile Assessment Center

Lincoln Council on Alcohol and Drugs

Hill Renaissance Partnership

National Training and Information Center

Culinary Arts Training Program for At-Risk Youth

Women of Vision Program for Youthful Female Offenders

Violence Institute of New Jersey

Delancy Street Foundation

Law-Related Education

Fiscal Year 1998 Program Listing

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency

Evaluation of SafeFutures

Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency

OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development

Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement

OJJDP National Training and Technical Assistance Center

Technical Assistance for State Legislatures

Telecommunications Assistance

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--Juvenile Justice Resource

Center

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

Insular Area Support

Community Assessment Centers (CAC's)

Training and Technical Assistance Coordination for SafeFutures

Initiative

Public Safety and Law Enforcement

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,

and Suppression Program

Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program

Targeted Outreach With A Gang Prevention and Intervention Component

(Boys & Girls Clubs)

National Youth Gang Center

Evaluation of the Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program

The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention

Safe Start--Child Development-Community-Oriented Policing (CD-CP)

Juvenile Justice Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance

Program

Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,

and Suppression Technical Assistance and Training

Rural Youth Gang Problems: Adapting OJJDP's Comprehensive Approach

Case Studies and Evaluation Planning of OJJDP's Rural Youth Gang

Initiative

Delinquency Prevention and Intervention

Youth-Centered Conflict Resolution

Communities In Schools--Federal Interagency Partnership

The Congress of National Black Churches: National Anti-Drug Abuse/

Violence Campaign (NADVC)

Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development

Training and Technical Assistance for Family Strengthening Programs

Hate Crime

Strengthening Services for Chemically Involved Children, Youth, and

Families

Diffusion of State Risk-and Protective-Factor Focused Prevention

Multisite, Multimodal Treatment Study of Children With ADHD

Evaluation of the Juvenile Mentoring Program

Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program

Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program

Arts and At-Risk Youth

Community Volunteer Coordinator Program

* Learning Disabilities Among Juveniles At Risk of Delinquency or in

the Juvenile Justice System

Advertising Campaign--Investing in Youth for a Safer Future

Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System

Development of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

Balanced and Restorative Justice Project (BARJ)

Training and Technical Assistance Program To Promote Gender-Specific

Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders

Juvenile Transfers to Criminal Court Studies

Replication and Extension of Fagan Transfer Study

The Juvenile Justice Prosecution Unit

Due Process Advocacy Program Development

Quantum Opportunities Program (QOP) Evaluation

Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Demonstration and Technical

Assistance Program

Evaluation of the Intensive Community-Based Aftercare Program

Training and Technical Assistance for National Innovations To Reduce

Disproportionate Minority Confinement (The Deborah Ann Wysinger

Memorial Program)

Training for Juvenile Corrections and Detention Management Staff

Training for Line Staff in Juvenile Detention and Corrections

[[Page 33141]]

Training and Technical Support for State and Local Jurisdictional Teams

To Focus on Juvenile Corrections and Detention Overcrowding

National Program Directory

Interagency Programs on Mental Health and Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Residential Facility Census

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 97

TeenSupreme Career Preparation Initiative

Technical Assistance to Native Americans

Youth Court: A Training & Technical Assistance Delivery Program

School Safety Training and Technical Assistance

Disproportionate Minority Confinement

Arts Programs for Juvenile Offenders in Detention and Corrections

``Circles of Care''--A Program To Develop Strategies To Serve Native

American Youth With Mental Health and Substance Abuse Needs

National Juvenile Defender Training, Technical Assistance, and Resource

Center

Gender-Specific Programming for Female Juvenile Offenders

Evaluation Capacity Building

Field-Initiated Research

* Field-Initiated Evaluation

Analysis of Juvenile Justice Data

Evaluation of the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and

Chronic Juvenile Offenders

Blueprints for Violence Prevention: Training and Technical Assistance

Teambuilding Project for Courts Evaluation of Youth-Related Employment

Initiative

Child Abuse and Neglect and Dependency Courts

Safe Kids/Safe Streets: Community Approaches to Reducing Abuse and

Neglect and Preventing Delinquency

National Evaluation of the Safe Kids/Safe Streets Program

Secondary Analysis of Childhood Victimization

Evaluation of Nurse Home Visitation in Weed and Seed Sites

Supplemental Funding for Programs Not Included in the Proposed Plan

The following new or ongoing programs, which will require

supplemental funding in FY 1998, were not included in the Proposed Plan

because the need for funding had not been identified. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

GAINS Center

OJJDP will transfer funds to the National Institute of Corrections

to support a jointly funded effort under which the GAINS Center will

provide training and technical assistance on juvenile offenders with

co-occurring disorders. This is the second year of funding of a 3-year

effort.

The Academy

OJJDP is funding a followup study on disproportionate minority

confinement that expands a field-initiated program study that looked at

court decisionmaking to include examining police decisionmaking and its

impact on the confinement of minorities.

Pathways to Success

OJJDP provided continuation funding in FY 1998 to two sites (Aspira

in Miami, Florida, and Stopover Services in Providence, Rhode Island)

under the Pathways to Success program. This continuation funding will

permit program evaluators to collect important data on the outcomes of

the afterschool programming implemented at these two sites.

Do the Write Thing

OJJDP will continue funding the National Campaign to Stop Violence

to expand its Do the Write Thing program. Do the Write Thing promotes

the development of student ideas and solutions to reduce crime and

violence through the written word. The program is currently operating

in 12 cities and reaches more than 5,000 children.

Evaluation of the Youth Substance Use Prevention Program

The program evaluator (University of New Hampshire) for the Youth

Substance Use Prevention Program, funded by the President's Crime

Prevention Council under the Ounce of Prevention grants program, will

receive additional funding to complete an evaluation of 10 youth-led

substance use prevention projects.

Intergenerational Transmission of Antisocial Behavior

This research grant, administered by the National Institute of

Mental Health (NIMH), tracks the development of delinquent behavior

among children of youth from Rochester, New York, who were research

subjects under OJJDP's Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates

of Delinquency, an ongoing longitudinal study in three cities. OJJDP

will transfer funds to NIMH to support this research.

Study Group on Very Young Offenders

The OJJDP Study Group on Very Young Offenders, funded under a grant

to the University of Pittsburgh, will explore what is known about the

prevalence and frequency of very young offending under the age of 13;

whether such offending predicts future delinquent or criminal careers;

how these youth are handled by various systems including juvenile

justice, mental health, and social services; and what are the best

methods of preventing very young offending and persistence of

offending.

Standards for Juvenile Confinement Facilities

Support will be provided to the Council of Juvenile Correctional

Administrators to continue the Performance-Based Standards for Juvenile

Confinement Facilities program, expanding the number of demonstration

sites that are testing the impact of the performance-based standards

process as a means of improving confinement conditions and treatment

services for juvenile offenders.

San Diego Comprehensive Strategy Program

An award to San Diego County (CA) will support the San Diego

Comprehensive Strategy program's establishment of a coordinator

position to facilitate implementation of the comprehensive strategy

plan in San Diego County.

University of Michigan Data Archive

Supplemental funding will be provided to the University of Michigan

Data Archive to support the archiving of data sets produced by OJJDP

grantees.

Training and Technical Assistance to Juvenile Detention and

Corrections

OJJDP will provide funds to the American Correctional Association

(ACA) to support technical assistance and training to juvenile

correctional agencies. ACA will conduct a National Forum on Juvenile

Corrections/Detention for agency administrators, facilitate information

exchange in the field, provide workshops on emerging issues, and

develop and disseminate papers and monographs to the field.

National Violence Prevention Training

OJJDP will transfer funds to the U.S. Department of Education to

support a collaborative training project sponsored by the Harvard

School of Public Health, the Education Development Center, Inc., the

Prevention Institute, Inc., the Massachusetts Corporation for

Educational Telecommunication, and several Federal agencies including

the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Maternal and Child

Health

[[Page 33142]]

Bureau, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Center for Injury

Prevention, and Indian Health Service and OJJDP. This six-part

satellite training makes use of satellite technology, the Internet, and

hands-on facilitation and highlights an array of successful initiatives

across the country with a particular emphasis on reduction of violence

in schools and communities.

Overarching

SafeFutures: Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency

OJJDP is awarding grants of up to $1.4 million annually to each of

six communities for a 5-year project period that began in FY 1995, to

assist in implementing comprehensive community programs designed to

reduce youth violence and delinquency. Boston, Massachusetts; Contra

Costa County, California; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri;

Imperial County, California (rural site); and Fort Belknap, Montana

(tribal site) were competitively selected to receive awards under the

SafeFutures program on the basis of their substantial planning and

progress in community assessment and strategic planning to address

delinquency.

SafeFutures seeks to prevent and control youth crime and

victimization through the creation of a continuum of care in

communities. This continuum enables communities to be responsive to the

needs of youth at critical stages of their development through

providing an appropriate range of prevention, intervention, treatment,

and sanctions programs.

The goals of SafeFutures are (1) to prevent and control juvenile

violence and delinquency in targeted communities by reducing risk

factors and increasing protective factors for delinquency; providing a

continuum of services for juveniles at risk of delinquency, including

appropriate immediate interventions for juvenile offenders; and

developing a full range of graduated sanctions designed to hold

delinquent youth accountable to the victim and the community, ensure

community safety, and provide appropriate treatment and rehabilitation

services; (2) to develop a more efficient, effective, and timely

service delivery system for at-risk and delinquent juveniles and their

families that is capable of responding to their needs at any point of

entry into the juvenile justice system; (3) to build the community's

capacity to institutionalize and sustain the continuum by expanding and

diversifying sources of funding; and (4) to determine the success of

program implementation and the outcomes achieved, including whether a

comprehensive program involving community-based efforts and program

resources concentrated on providing a continuum of care has succeeded

in preventing or reducing juvenile violence and delinquency.

Each of the six sites will continue to provide a set of services

that builds on community strengths and existing services and fills in

gaps within their existing continuum. These services include family

strengthening; after school activities; mentoring; treatment

alternatives for juvenile female offenders; mental health services; day

treatment; graduated sanctions for serious, violent, and chronic

juvenile offenders; and gang prevention, intervention, and suppression.

A national evaluation is being conducted by the Urban Institute to

determine the success of the initiative and track lessons learned at

each of the six sites. OJJDP has also committed a cadre of training and

technical assistance (TTA) resources to SafeFutures through a full-time

TTA coordinator for SafeFutures and a host of partner organizations

committed to assisting SafeFutures sites. The TTA coordinator also

assists the communities in brokering and leveraging additional TTA

resources. In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban

Development has provided interagency support of $100,000 for training

and technical assistance targeted to violence and delinquency

prevention in public housing areas of SafeFutures sites. Thus,

operations, evaluation, and TTA have been organized together to form a

joint team at the national level to support local site efforts.

SafeFutures activities will be carried out by the six current

grantees. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of SafeFutures

In FY 1995, OJJDP funded six communities under the SafeFutures:

Partnerships To Reduce Youth Violence and Delinquency program. The

program sites are Boston, Massachusetts; Contra Costa County,

California; Fort Belknap Indian Community, Harlem, Montana; Imperial

County, California; Seattle, Washington; St. Louis, Missouri. The

SafeFutures Program provides support for a comprehensive prevention,

intervention, and treatment program to meet the needs of at-risk

juveniles and their families. In total, up to $8.4 million is being

made available for annual awards over a 5-year project period to

support the efforts of these jurisdictions to enhance existing

partnerships, integrate juvenile justice and social services, and

provide a continuum of care that is designed to reduce the number of

serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders.

The Urban Institute received a competitive 3-year cooperative

agreement award with FY 1995 funds to conduct Phase I of the national

evaluation of the SafeFutures program. OJJDP agreed to consider 2 years

of additional funding for Phase II. The evaluation addresses the

program implementation process and measures performance outcomes across

the six sites. The process evaluation focuses primarily on the

development and implementation of a strategic plan designed to

establish a continuum of care and integrated services for young people

in high-risk communities. The evaluation will identify obstacles and

key factors contributing to the successful implementation of the

SafeFutures program. The evaluator is responsible for developing a

cross-site report documenting the process of program implementation for

use by other funding agencies or communities that want to develop and

implement a comprehensive community-based strategy to address serious,

violent, and chronic delinquency.

In FY 1996, the Urban Institute developed a logic model that links

program activities and outputs to desired intermediate and long-term

outcomes. Their evaluator also held a cross-site cluster meeting and

conducted site visits at each of the six SafeFutures sites.

In FY 1997, in addition to continuing its onsite monitoring, the

Urban Institute, in collaboration with the OJJDP SafeFutures program

management team, developed the national evaluation plan and introduced

it to the sites at the cluster meeting on information technology held

in Oakland, CA, in September 1997.

In FY 1998, the Urban Institute will continue the process

evaluation and will conduct interviews with key stakeholders, service

providers, and youth in order to assess the extent to which a community

and its policy board have mobilized to implement a continuum of care

and develop an integrated system of services over the course of

SafeFutures program implementation. The research team will also

complete the development of performance measures to be used by all

sites to monitor the outcomes for targeted populations within and

across sites. They will compile and process the results of the

performance outcomes from the sites and provide feedback to both the

sites and to OJJDP. Beginning in FY 1998, the national evaluator will

[[Page 33143]]

design and conduct sample surveys of youth in the community to assist

in monitoring community-level changes in the prevalence and incidence

of certain risk factors as well as developmental and community assets

on levels of delinquency and violence in the targeted community. In

addition, longitudinal samples of youth and their families will be

followed over time to observe the extent to which multiple needs are

identified and responded to over the course of the SafeFutures program

interventions.

The evaluation will be implemented by the current grantee, the

Urban Institute. No additional applications will be solicited in FY

1998.

Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency

Three project sites participate in the Program of Research on the

Causes and Correlates of Delinquency (Causes and Correlates): The

University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Pittsburgh, and

the University at Albany, State University of New York. Results from

this longitudinal study have been used extensively in the field of

juvenile justice and have contributed significantly to the development

of OJJDP's Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic

Juvenile Offenders and other OJJDP program initiatives.

OJJDP began funding this program in 1986 and has invested

approximately $10.3 million to date. Currently, OJJDP is supporting

site data analyses under three-year project period grants awarded to

each site in FY 1996. The Causes and Correlates program has addressed a

variety of issues related to juvenile violence and delinquency. These

include developing and testing causal models for chronic violent

offending and examining interrelationships among gang involvement, drug

selling, and gun ownership/use. To date, the program has produced a

massive amount of information on the causes and correlates of

delinquent behavior.

Although there is great commonality across the Causes and

Correlates project sites, each has unique design features.

Additionally, each project has disseminated the results of its research

through a broad range of publications, reports, and presentations.

With FY 1996 funding, each site of the Causes and Correlates

program was provided funds to further analyze the longitudinal data.

Among the numerous analyses conducted were risk factors for teenage

fatherhood, patterns of illegal gun carrying among young urban males,

and factors associated with early sexual activity among urban

adolescents. Two publications were developed as part of the newly

launched Youth Development Series of OJJDP Bulletins.

In FY 1997, the sites continued both their collaborative research

efforts and site-specific research. The cross site analysis was on the

early onset and co-occurrence of persistent serious offending. Site

specific analyses were produced on victimization, over time changes in

delinquency and drug use, impact of family changes on adolescent

development, and neighborhood, individual, and social risk factors for

serious juvenile offending.

In FY 1998, at least one major cross site analysis will be

undertaken as well as three site specific analyses per study site.

This program will be implemented by the current grantees: Institute

of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder; Western

Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh; and

Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, University at Albany, State

University of New York. No additional applications will be solicited in

FY 1998.

OJJDP Management Evaluation Contract

OJJDP's Management Evaluation Contract was competitively awarded in

1995 for a period of 3 years. Its purpose is to provide OJJDP with an

expert resource capable of performing independent program evaluations

and assisting the Office in implementing evaluation activities. The

management evaluation contract currently provides the following types

of assistance to OJJDP:(1) assists OJJDP staff in the determination of

evaluation needs of programs, program areas, or projects to assist the

agency in determining when to invest its evaluation resources; (2)

develops evaluation designs that OJJDP can use in defining requirements

for a grant or contract to implement the evaluation; (3) provides

technical assistance with regard to evaluation techniques to other

jurisdictions involved in the evaluation of programs to prevent and

treat juvenile delinquency; (4) responds to the needs of OJJDP by

providing evaluations based on available data or data that can be

readily developed to support OJJDP decisionmaking under whatever

schedule is required by the decisionmaking process. Evaluations under

this contract are program evaluations, that is, evaluations of either

individual grants or contracts or groups of grants or contracts that

are designed to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the

program; (5) conduct a full-scale evaluation research project; and (6)

provide training to OJJDP program managers and other staff on

evaluation-related topics such as the different kinds of evaluation

data and their uses, planning for program or project information

collection and evaluation, and the role of evaluation in the agency

planning process.

Under this contract, evaluations may be conducted on OJJDP-funded

action programs, including demonstrations, tests, training, and

technical assistance programs and other programs, not funded by OJJDP,

designed to prevent and treat juvenile delinquency. Evaluations are

carried out in accordance with work plans prepared by the contractor

and approved by OJJDP. Because the evaluations vary in terms of program

complexity, availability of data, and purpose of the evaluation, the

time and cost of each varies. Each evaluation is defined by OJJDP and

costs, method, and time are determined through negotiations between

OJJDP and the contractor. Because the purpose of many evaluations is to

inform management decisions, the completion of an evaluation and

submission of a report may be required in a specific and, often, short

time period.

This contract will be implemented by the current contractor,

Caliber Associates. A new competitive contract solicitation will be

issued during FY 1998, and a new contract awarded in FY 1999.

Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development

The Juvenile Justice Statistics and Systems Development (SSD)

program was competitively awarded in FY 1990 to the National Center for

Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) to improve national, State, and local

statistics on juveniles as victims and offenders. Over the last seven

years, through continuation funding, the project has focused on three

major tasks: (1) assessing how current information needs are being met

with existing data collection efforts and recommending options for

improving national level statistics; (2) analyzing data and

disseminating information gathered from existing Federal statistical

series and national studies; and (3) providing training and technical

assistance for local agencies in developing or enhancing management

information systems.

Under the second task, OJJDP released the seminal analysis Juvenile

Offenders and Victims: A National Report in September 1995, Juvenile

Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence in March 1996, and

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update on Violence in

[[Page 33144]]

October 1997. A training curriculum, Improving Information for Rational

Decisionmaking in Juvenile Justice, was drafted for pilot testing, and

future documents will be produced based on this effort.

In FY 1998, NCJJ will: (1) complete a long-term plan for improving

national statistics on juveniles as victims and offenders, including

constructing core data elements for a national reporting program for

juveniles waived or transferred to criminal court; (2) update the

Compendium of Federal Statistical Programs on juvenile victims and

offenders and work with the Office of Justice Programs' Crime

Statistics Working Group and other Federal interagency statistics

working groups; (3) provide technical support to OJJDP in enhancing the

availability and accessibility of statistics on the OJJDP web site; (4)

make recommendations to fill information gaps in the areas of juvenile

probation, juvenile court and law enforcement responses to juvenile

delinquency, violent delinquency, and child abuse and neglect; and (5)

produce a second edition of Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A National

Report.

This project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCJJ. No

additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement

The Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) is

replacing the biennial Census of Public and Private Juvenile Detention,

Correctional, and Shelter Facilities, known as the Children in Custody

census. This newly designed census will collect detailed information on

the population of juveniles who are in juvenile residential placement

facilities as a result of contact with the juvenile justice system.

Over the past 3 years, OJJDP and the Bureau of the Census, with the

assistance of a Technical Advisory Board, have developed the CJRP to

more accurately represent the numbers of juveniles in residential

placement and to describe the reasons for their placement. A new method

of data collection, tested in FY 1996, involves gathering data in a

roster-type format, often by electronic means. The new methods are

expected to result in more accurate, timely, and useful data on the

juvenile population, with less reporting burden for facility

respondents.

In FY 1997, OJJDP funded initial implementation of the CJRP,

including form preparation, mailout, and processing of census forms. In

October 1997, the first census using the revised methodology was

conducted.

OJJDP will continue funding this project in FY 1998 to clean the

data files, allowing the production of new data products based on the

1997 census.

This program will be implemented through an existing interagency

agreement with the Bureau of the Census. No additional applications

will be solicited in FY 1998.

OJJDP National Training and Technical Assistance Center

The National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Training

and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) was established in FY 1995

under a competitive 3-year project period award to Community Research

Associates. NTTAC serves as a national training and technical

assistance clearinghouse, inventorying and coordinating the integrated

delivery of juvenile justice training/technical assistance resources

and establishing a data base of these resources.

In FY 1995, work involved organization and staffing of the Center,

orientation for OJJDP training/technical assistance providers regarding

their role in the Center's activities, and initial data base

development.

NTTAC's funding in FY 1996 provided services in the form of

coordinated technical assistance support for OJJDP's SafeFutures and

gang program initiatives, continued promotion of collaboration between

OJJDP training/technical assistance providers, developed training/

technical assistance materials, and completed and disseminated the

first OJJDP Training and Technical Assistance Resource Catalog. In

addition, NTTAC assisted State and local jurisdictions and other OJJDP

grantees with specialized training, including the development of

training-of-trainers programs. NTTAC continued to evolve as a central

source for information pertaining to the availability of OJJDP-

supported training/technical assistance programs and resources.

In FY 1997, NTTAC completed the first draft of the jurisdictional

team training/technical assistance packages for gender-specific

services and juvenile correctional services; provided training/

technical assistance in support of OJJDP's SafeFutures and Gangs

programs; updated and disseminated the second Training and Technical

Assistance Resource Catalog; created a Web site for the Center and a

ListServe for the Children, Youth and Affinity Group; held three focus

groups on needs assessments; and coordinated and provided 38 instances

of technical assistance in conjunction with OJJDP's training/technical

assistance grantees and contractors.

In FY 1998, NTTAC will finalize, field test, and coordinate

delivery of the jurisdictional team training/technical assistance

packages on critical needs in the juvenile justice system, update the

resource catalog, facilitate the annual OJJDP training/TA grantee and

contractor meeting, continue to update the repository of training/TA

materials and the electronic data base of training/TA materials, and

continue to respond to training/TA requests from the field.

The current grantee, Community Research Associates, will complete

its work under the award in FY 1998. A solicitation will be issued as

part of the FY 1998 OJJDP Discretionary Program Announcement:

Discretionary Grant Program: Parts C and D. Information on how to

obtain a copy of the Program Announcement is provided above under

Supplementary Information.

Technical Assistance for State Legislatures

Since FY 1995, OJJDP has awarded annual grants to the National

Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to provide relevant and timely

information on comprehensive approaches in juvenile justice that are

geared to the legislative environment. The purpose of this project is

to aid State legislators in improving State juvenile justice systems

when crafting legislative responses to youth violence. State

legislatures have a unique role and responsibility in establishing

State policy and approaches and appropriating funds for juvenile

justice. Nearly every State has enacted, or is considering, statutory

changes affecting the juvenile justice system. Historically, State

legislatures have lacked the information needed to comprehensively

address juvenile justice issues. Experience with this project indicates

that policymakers find it has helped them understand the ramifications

and nuances of juvenile justice reform.

Since OJJDP began funding this project, NCSL has conducted three

invitational Legislator's Leadership Forums; sponsored sessions on

juvenile justice reform at the NCSL annual meetings; expanded

clearinghouse and juvenile justice enactment reporting; and produced

and distributed a publication, Legislator's Guide to Comprehensive

Juvenile Justice. The invitational meetings were attended by more than

100 legislators and additional legislative staff from 34 States

selected as key decisionmakers on juvenile justice reform. Meeting

sessions and information services reached at least 500 legislators or

legislative staff in all

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States. In addition, project publications were distributed to more than

2,000 legislative members, staff, and agencies to provide for further

broad distribution of information central to comprehensive strategies

in juvenile justice to a State legislative audience throughout the

States.

The grant has improved capacity for the delivery of information

services to legislatures, with the number of information requests

handled for legislators and staff having increased to about 500 per

year. It is expected that the Children and Families and Criminal

Justice programs will respond to another 500 information requests in FY

1998.

In FY 1998, NCSL will further identify, analyze, and disseminate

information to assist State legislatures to make more informed

decisions about legislation affecting the juvenile justice system. A

complementary task involves supporting increased communication between

State legislators and State and local leaders who influence

decisionmaking regarding juvenile justice issues. NCSL will provide

intensive technical assistance to four States, continue outreach

activities, and maintain its clearinghouse function. Additionally, NCSL

will assist in the production of a live satellite videoconference

directed primarily to State legislators.

The project will be implemented by the current grantee, NCSL. No

additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Telecommunications Assistance

Developments in information technology and distance training have

expanded and enhanced OJJDP's capacity to disseminate information and

provide training and technical assistance. The advantages of these

technologies include increased access to information and training for

professionals in the juvenile justice system, reduced travel costs to

conferences, and reduced time attending meetings away from one's home

or office. OJJDP uses this cost-effective medium to share with the

field the salient elements of the most effective or promising

approaches to various juvenile justice issues. The field has responded

positively to these live satellite teleconferences and has come to

expect them at regular intervals.

OJJDP selected Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) through a

competitive program announcement in FY 1992 to conduct a feasibility

study on using this technology in its programming. In FY 1995, EKU was

awarded a competitive grant to undertake production of live satellite

videoconferences. Since the inception of this grant in FY 1995, EKU has

produced 13 live satellite teleconferences, with an average of 360

downlink sites participating in each. The project produced four

teleconferences in FY 1995 (Juvenile Boot Camps, Reducing Youth Gun

Violence, Youth Out of the Education Mainstream, and Conflict

Resolution for Youth), four in FY 1996 (Community Collaboration,

Effective Programs for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile

Offenders, Youth-Oriented Community Policing, Leadership Challenges for

Juvenile Detentions and Corrections), and five in FY 1997 (Has the

Juvenile Court Outlived Its Usefulness?, Youth Gangs in America,

Preventing Drug Abuse Among Youth, Mentoring for Youth, and Treating

Drug-Involved Youth).

In FY 1998, OJJDP will continue the cooperative agreement with EKU

in order to provide program support and technical assistance for a

variety of information technologies, including audioconferences, fiber

optics, and satellite teleconferences, producing four to five

additional live national satellite teleconferences. The grantee will

also continue to provide technical assistance to other grantees

interested in using this technology and explore linkages with key

constituent groups to advance mutual information goals and objectives.

This project will be implemented by the current grantee, EKU. No

additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

OJJDP Technical Assistance Support Contract--Juvenile Justice

Resource Center

This contract provides technical assistance and support to OJJDP,

its grantees, and the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention in the areas of program development, evaluation,

training, and research. OJJDP extended the current contract until a new

contract can be competitively awarded. Applications have been solicited

and received, and the new contract is expected to be awarded shortly.

This contract will be implemented by the current contractor, Aspen

Systems Corporation, until a new contract is awarded.

Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse

A component of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service

(NCJRS), the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) is OJJDP's central

source for the collection, synthesis, and dissemination of information

on all aspects of juvenile justice, including research and evaluation

findings; State and local juvenile delinquency prevention and treatment

programs and plans; availability of resources; training and educational

programs; and statistics. JJC serves the entire juvenile justice

community, including researchers, law enforcement officials, judges,

prosecutors, probation and corrections staff, youth-service personnel,

legislators, the media, and the public.

Among its many support services, JJC offers toll-free telephone

access to information; prepares specialized responses to information

requests; produces, warehouses, and distributes OJJDP publications;

exhibits at national conferences; maintains a comprehensive juvenile

justice library and data base; and administers several electronic

information resources. Recognizing the critical need to inform juvenile

justice practitioners and policymakers on promising program approaches,

JJC continually develops and recommends new products and strategies to

communicate more effectively the research findings and program

activities of OJJDP and the field. The entire NCJRS, of which the

OJJDP-funded JJC is a part, is administered by the National Institute

of Justice (NIJ) under a competitively awarded contract to Aspen

Systems Corporation.

This program will continue to be implemented by the current

contractor, Aspen Systems Corporation, until the new contract is

awarded. NIJ has issued a new competitive solicitation, and a new

contract will be awarded during FY 1998.

Insular Area Support

The purpose of this program is to provide support to the U.S.

Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Trust Territory of the

Pacific Islands (Palau), and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana

Islands. Funds are available to address the special needs and problems

of juvenile delinquency in these insular areas, as specified by Section

261(e) of the JJDP Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5665(e).

Community Assessment Centers (CAC's)

The Community Assessment Center (CAC) program is a multicomponent

demonstration initiative designed to test the efficacy of the Community

Assessment Center concept. CAC's provide a 24-hour centralized point of

intake and assessment for juveniles who have or are likely to come into

contact with the juvenile justice system. The main purpose of a CAC is

to facilitate earlier and more efficient prevention and intervention

service delivery at the ``front end'' of the juvenile justice

[[Page 33146]]

system. In FY 1997, OJJDP funded two planning grants and two

enhancement grants to existing assessment centers for a 1-year project

period, a CAC evaluation project, and a technical assistance component.

The planning grants were awarded to the Denver Juvenile Court in

Denver, Colorado, and to the Lee County Sheriff's Office in Fort Myers,

Florida, to support a 1-year intensive planning process for the

development and implementation of a CAC in each community. In Denver,

community leaders are assessing the feasibility of a CAC and building

on existing infrastructure developed with support from the Center for

Substance Abuse Treatment's Juvenile Justice Integrated Treatment

Network program. In Fort Myers, community leaders are completing an

initial planning process and are planning to open their CAC in the near

future. Planning in this site will continue after implementation and

will focus on enhancing the CAC in Fort Myers to become more consistent

with the CAC concept and on developing linkages with the community's

Comprehensive Strategy initiative.

The enhancement component of the CAC program is designed to

increase the effectiveness and efficiency of existing assessment

centers by supporting various and specific program enhancements and to

provide support to existing assessment centers in an effort to create

consistency with OJJDP's CAC concept.

Also in FY 1997, two communities received 1-year awards to help

existing assessment centers provide enhanced services and to

demonstrate the effectiveness of the CAC concept overall. Jefferson

Center for Mental Health in Jefferson County, Colorado, and Human

Service Associates, Inc., in Orlando, Florida, were competitively

selected to receive awards under the CAC program on the basis of their

demonstrated commitment to specifically implement an enhancement that

makes the existing CAC more consistent with the CAC concept. The

Jefferson Center for Mental Health is developing improved case

management procedures and an improved management information system.

Human Services Associates, Inc., is creating an intensive integrated

case management system for high-risk youth referred to the CAC, an

enhancement also consistent with the OJJDP CAC concept.

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide additional funding to support the

full and continued implementation of selected CAC enhancements and

additional support to the sites awarded planning grants in FY 1997.

This funding will enable these sites to begin implementing the CAC's

planned for with OJJDP funding support or to enhance existing

operations.

The CAC initiative evaluation component, being conducted by the

National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and the technical assistance

component, being delivered by the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse

Association, were funded in FY 1997 for 2-year project periods and will

not require additional funds in FY 1998.

These programs will be implemented by the current grantees,

Jefferson Center for Mental Health, Human Service Associates, Inc.,

Denver Juvenile Court, and Lee County Sheriff's Office. No additional

applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Training and Technical Assistance Coordination for SafeFutures

Initiative

OJJDP will provide funding for long-term training and technical

assistance (TA) for the remaining 3 years of the SafeFutures

initiative. The purpose of this TA effort will be to build local

capacity for implementing and sustaining effective continuum of care

and systems change approaches to preventing and controlling juvenile

violence and delinquency in the six SafeFutures communities. Project

activities will include assessment, identification, and coordination of

the implementation of training and TA needs at each SafeFutures site

and administration of cross-site training.

OJJDP will continue funding under a grant for the provision of

training and technical assistance coordination to the six SafeFutures

sites. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Public Safety and Law Enforcement

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention,

Intervention, and Suppression Program

This program supports the implementation of a comprehensive gang

program model in five jurisdictions. The program was competitively

awarded with FY 1994 funds under a 3-year project period. The

demonstration sites implementing the model, which was developed by the

University of Chicago with OJJDP funding support, are Bloomington,

Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Riverside, California; San Antonio, Texas; and

Tucson, Arizona. Implementation of the comprehensive gang program model

requires the mobilization of the community to address gang-related

violence by making available and coordinating social interventions,

providing social/academic/vocational and other opportunities, and

supporting gang suppression through law enforcement, probation, and

other community control mechanisms.

During the past year, the demonstration sites began full-scale

implementation of the program model and began serving gang-involved

youth in the targeted areas. In each site, a multidisciplinary team has

been established to coordinate the services that project youth receive.

Teams are made up of various community institution representatives,

including police, probation, outreach or street workers, court

representatives, service providers, and others. The services provided

through this team--or recommended by them--include social interventions

such as outreach, case management, counseling, substance abuse

treatment, anger management, life skills, cultural awareness,

controlled recreation activities, access to educational, social, and

economic opportunities such as GED attainment, school reintegration,

vocational training, and job development and placement. Also included

in the service mix is accountability or social control. This is

provided through traditional suppression from law enforcement and

probation, and also accountability through the schools, community-based

agencies, parents, families, and community members. The team meets

regularly to go over progress with each youth, so that each team member

is aware of prevailing risks and positive developments and can use this

information to be supportive of the youth when contacted in the field

by providing additional services, modifying ``treatment plans,'' or

invoking accountability measures ranging from values clarification and

general motivational support to arrest and prosecution. In addition to

core team members, other agencies also support the programs, such as

the faith community, local Boys & Girls Clubs, and alternative and

mainstream schools.

In some sites, prevention components have been established to work

hand-in-hand with the intervention and suppression program. For

example, in one site a mentoring program has been established for youth

who are younger siblings of gang members targeted in the intervention

components.

The demonstration sites also participated in training and technical

assistance activities, including cluster conferences sponsored by OJJDP

and site-specific consultations on issues such as information sharing

and outreach activities.

[[Page 33147]]

In FY 1998, OJJDP will provide a fourth year of funding to selected

demonstration sites to target up to 200 youth prone to gang violence in

each site through continuing implementation of the program model and

work with the independent evaluator of this demonstration program.

This project will be implemented by the current demonstration

sites. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang

Prevention, Intervention, and Suppression Program

The University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration,

received a competitive cooperative agreement award in FY 1995. This 4-

year project period award supports the evaluation of OJJDP's

Comprehensive Community-Wide Approach to Gang Prevention, Intervention,

and Suppression Program. The evaluation grantee assisted the five

program sites (Bloomington, Illinois; Mesa, Arizona; Riverside,

California; San Antonio, Texas; and Tucson, Arizona) in establishing

realistic and measurable objectives, documenting program

implementation, and measuring the impact of a variety of gang program

strategies. It has also provided interim feedback to the program

implementors.

In FY 1997, following 2 years of program development and evaluation

design, the grantee trained the local site interviewers; gathered and

tracked data from police, prosecutor, probation, school, and social

service agencies; collected individual gang member interviews from both

the program and comparison areas; provided onsite technical assistance

to the local sites; consulted with local evaluators on development and

implementation of local site parent/community resident surveys; and

coordinated ongoing efforts with local researchers.

In FY 1998, the grantee will continue to gather and analyze data

required to evaluate the program; monitor and oversee the quality

control of data; provide assistance for completion of interviews; and

provide ongoing feedback to project sites.

This project will be implemented by the current grantee, the

University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration. No

additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Targeted Outreach With a Gang Prevention and Intervention Component

(Boys & Girls Clubs)

This program is designed to enable local Boys & Girls Clubs to

prevent youth from entering gangs, intervene with gang members in the

early stages of gang involvement, and divert youth from gang activities

into more constructive programs. In FY 1997, Boys & Girls Clubs of

America provided training and technical assistance to 30 existing gang

prevention and 4 intervention sites and expanded the gang prevention

and intervention program to 23 additional Boys & Girls Clubs. A

national evaluation of this program, through Public/Private Ventures,

was also started in FY 1997 under this award.

In FY 1998, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America will provide training

and technical assistance to 20 existing gang prevention sites, 3

existing intervention sites, and OJJDP's gang and SafeFutures

demonstration sites. The national evaluation of the Targeted Outreach

program will continue in FY 1998. The Targeted Outreach program will

also provide training and technical assistance to up to 10 new rural

Targeted Outreach sites and will consider implementing two new pilot

programs: Targeted Reintegration, which involves working with youth

coming out of institutional placements, and another developmental pilot

project with the Violence Impact Forums of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation

(TKF). The latter project is a collaborative effort of OJJDP, the

Office for Victims of Crime, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, TKF,

and other organizations.

This program will be implemented by the current grantee, the Boys &

Girls Clubs of America. No additional applications will be solicited in

FY 1998.

National Youth Gang Center

The proliferation of gang problems in large inner cities, smaller

cities, suburbs, and even rural areas over the past two decades led to

the development by OJJDP of a comprehensive, coordinated response to

America's gang problem. This response involved five program components,

one of which was the implementation and operation of the National Youth

Gang Center (NYGC). The NYGC was competitively awarded in FY 1995 for a

3-year project period. The NYGC was created to expand and maintain the

body of critical knowledge about youth gangs and effective responses to

them.

In FY 1997, NYGC continued to assist state and local jurisdictions

to collect, analyze and exchange information on gang-related

demographics, legislation, literature, research and promising program

strategies. It also supported the work of the National Gang Consortium,

a group of federal agencies, gang program representatives and

researchers. A major activity was a survey of all federal agencies and

the presentation of data on their programs, planning cycles and other

resources. It continued to promote the collection and analysis of gang

related data and published the results of its first National Youth Gang

Survey of 2,000 law enforcement agencies.

OJJDP will extend the project an additional year and provide FY

1998 funds to NYGC to conduct more indepth analyses of the first and

second National Youth Gang Survey results that track changes in the

nature and scope of the youth gang problem. NYGC, through its Focus

Group on Data Collection and Analysis, will continue its efforts to

foster integration of gang-related items into other relevant surveys

and national data collection efforts. NYGC will also provide technical

assistance to OJJDP's new Rural Gang program sites.

Fiscal year 1998 funds will support an additional year of funding

to the current grantee, the Institute for Intergovernmental Research.

No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

Evaluation of the Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence

Program

COSMOS Corporation received a competitive award in FY 1997. This 3-

year project period award supports OJJDP's Evaluation of the

Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence Program. The program will

document and evaluate the process of community mobilization, planning,

and collaboration needed to develop a comprehensive, collaborative

approach to reducing gun violence involving juveniles in four sites.

The sites are Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Oakland, California: Shreveport,

Louisiana; and Syracuse, New York.

In FY 1997, the grantee conducted onsite technical assistance

workshops with partner organizations and assisted the sites in planning

and developing local Partnerships To Reduce Juvenile Gun Violence.

In FY 1998, the grantee will develop data collection protocols,

conduct a process evaluation, and continue to provide onsite technical

assistance to the sites. In addition to the four sites listed above,

the grantee will also identify additional promising/effective programs

underway in communities across the country and evaluate a select

[[Page 33148]]

number of these programs. With an expanded base of youth gun violence

programs, there is greater opportunity to identify sites that are

employing similar strategies with different targeted populations.

This evaluation will be implemented by the current grantee, COSMOS

Corporation. No additional applications will be solicited in FY 1998.

The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention

The Chicago Project for Violence Prevention's primary goal is the

development of a citywide, accelerated, long-term effort to reduce

violence in Chicago. In addition, the Chicago Project serves to

demonstrate a comprehensive, citywide violence prevention model.

Overall project objectives include reductions in homicide, physical

injury, disability and emotional harm from assault, domestic abuse,

sexual abuse and rape, and child abuse and neglect.

The Chicago Project is a partnership among the Chicago Department

of Public Health, the Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence,

the University of Illinois, and Chicago communities. The project began

in January 1995 with joint funding from OJJDP and the Centers for

Disease Control and prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury

Prevention and Control (NCIPC), the Bureau of Justice Assistance, and

the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The project currently

provides technical assistance to a variety of community-based and

citywide organizations involved in violence prevention planning. The

majority of the technical assistance supports community leve

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