The Office of Justice Programs has awarded $82.6 million in Fiscal Year 2017 grant funding to support state, local and tribal jurisdictions’ efforts to protect children and respond to juvenile victimization.
OJP’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention have awarded grants to more than 170 sites, jurisdictions and task forces throughout the United States.
The funds will help communities find missing children, provide tailored treatment and rehabilitative services, and increase public safety, according to OJJDP Acting Administrator Eileen M. Garry.
“Having a safe space for our children is a hallmark of civil society and one of the most important steps we can take toward ensuring public safety,” said Garry.
“These awards will give our state, local and tribal partners the tools and support they need to protect kids, find missing children, combat abuse and exploitation and serve victims of child maltreatment.”
Of the $82.6 million awarded, more than $34.4 million will support missing and exploited children programs and services; $27.6 million will help combat and prevent internet crimes against children; more than $19.5 million will fund services for victims of child abuse; and $1.1 million will support communities’ response to youth sexual misconduct.
The amounts above include a total of $12.6 million for academic, non-profit, research and health organizations and corporations to conduct training and technical assistance with first responders and others who come into frequent contact with juvenile offenders, victims, patients and their families.
Specific grant programs, amounts to be awarded, and the jurisdictions that will receive funding include:
Missing and Exploited Children ($34.4 million)
- More than $28.3 million will be awarded to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
- The Center was created to build a coordinated national response to missing and sexually exploited children, establish a missing children hotline, and serve as the national clearinghouse for information and resources related to these children.
- OJJDP has partnered with NCMEC for more than 30 years to bring children home safely.
- This grant will fund the Center’s operations and provide support, technical assistance and training to assist law enforcement in locating and recovering missing and exploited children.
(The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s mission has been to help bring missing children home. To help fight child predators, promote prevention, combat child sexual exploitation, and assist law enforcement as they fight child sex trafficking. Courtesy of The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and YouTube)
- An additional $1.8 million will be awarded to Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin to develop and distribute training and technical assistance for missing and exploited children’s programs, with special emphasis on underserved rural and tribal communities.
- Another $1.9 million will be awarded to three non-profit organizations under OJJDP’s Fiscal Year 2017 Mentoring for Child Victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Domestic Trafficking grant program.
- Awardees include the Volunteers of America of Los Angeles ($450,000)
- The Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans ($450,000)
- The YWCA of Greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. ($450,000).
- These funds also include $521,523 for training and technical assistance to the Mid-Atlantic Network of Youth and Family Services, Inc.
- Grant funds totaling $2.4 million will be awarded to Fox Valley Technical College under the National AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program.
- This program is a partnership among law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation agencies, emergency management agencies, telecommunications centers, public safety agencies and child protection organizations to recover missing and abducted children.
- The training and technical assistance support will help the National AMBER Alert network improve law enforcement response to these children; increase the recovery rate of abducted children; and encourage public participation in their recovery.
Internet Crimes Against Children ($27.6 million)
- Approximately $22 million will fund the national network of 61 multiagency, multi-jurisdictional Internet Crimes Against Children task forces.
- These task forces conduct forensic examinations and investigate and prosecute technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation throughout the United States.
- These task forces arrested 1,012 suspected child predators from more than 40 states during a nationwide operation in April and May following the investigation of more than 69,000 cases.
- Additionally, $5 million will be awarded to ICAC task force training and technical assistance providers across five categories and three law enforcement agencies will be awarded a total of $600,000 under the ICAC – Forensic Hiring Capacity Program for Wounded Veterans.
(Learn More. The arrest of a parent can have a significant and potentially long-term traumatic impact on children, including shock, immense fear, anxiety, and anger toward the arresting officers. Courtesy of the Office of Justice Programs and YouTube)
Victims of Child Abuse ($19.5 million)
A total of nearly $20 million will be awarded under OJJDP’s Victims of Child Abuse grant programs.
- These grants support new and current children’s advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams of professionals who respond to children’s maltreatment.
- An award of $900,000 will be provided to the Huntsville, Alabama-based National Children’s Advocacy Center under the Training and Technical Assistance for Child Abuse Professionals program.
- $12.4 million will be awarded to enable previous award recipients to continue supporting a sub-grant program for local children’s advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams across the United States.
- Of that $12.4 million, $2 million provided by the Office for Victims of Crime through the Domestic Trafficking Victims Fund will be awarded to offer services for victims of child pornography.
- Additional funding through continuation VOCA grants includes the following:
- Four awards of $1.2 million each under the Victims of Child Abuse Act Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers Program, enabling continuing operations at the following children’s advocacy centers:
- National Children’s Advocacy Center (Huntsville, Alabama)
- Philadelphia Children’s Alliance
- Rady Children’s Hospital (San Diego, California)
- Children’s Health Care, Inc. (Minneapolis, Minnesota).
- Four awards of $1.2 million each under the Victims of Child Abuse Act Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers Program, enabling continuing operations at the following children’s advocacy centers:
(Learn More about how violence and trauma affect children, including the serious and long-lasting consequences for their physical and mental health; signs that a child may be exposed to violence or trauma; and the staggering cost of child maltreatment to families, communities, and the Nation. Victims lend their voices to this video to provide first-hand accounts of how their exposure to violence as children affected them. Courtesy of Office for Victims of Crime)
- Another $750,000 to the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys under the VOCA Training and Technical Assistance to Child Abuse Prosecutors grant program.
- A $700,000 award to allow the National Children’s Alliance, based in Washington, D.C., to ensure that children’s advocacy centers are in compliance with established national accreditation standards.
Youth with Sexual Behavior Problems ($1.1 million)
- Another $1.1 million in OJJDP-awarded grants will be used to support two program sites under the Youth with Sexual Behavior Problems Program, which helps communities develop multidisciplinary, comprehensive approaches to responding to these youth, their child victims and their families.
- The two sites selected for Fiscal Year 2017 funding in the amounts of $300,000 each are Capacity Builders, Inc. (Farmington, New Mexico) and St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center (Hartford, Connecticut).
- Additionally, one training and technical assistance award of $500,000 will be made to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center to support evidence-based treatment and community supervision to prevent reoffending by youth with sexual behavior problems.
Additional information about Fiscal Year 2017 grant awards made by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention can be found online at https://go.usa.gov/xnqk5.
The Office of Justice Programs, headed by Acting Assistant Attorney General Alan R. Hanson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims.
OJP has six bureaus and offices:
- The Bureau of Justice Assistance
- The Bureau of Justice Statistics
- The National Institute of Justice
- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- The Office for Victims of Crime, and
- The Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART).
More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.
