The U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention last month issued a solicitation for field-initiated demonstration programs, which at first look promising: Nonprofits and public agencies are eligible for the $300,000 grants, which promote innovative approaches.
Here’s the problem: The money is almost all spent.
The “joint explanatory statement” for Department of Justice appropriations in fiscal 2009 lists $82 million available for Part E-Demonstration Projects, which is a discretionary funding stream that includes these demonstration programs. Youth Today’s database of earmarks (available under Latest News at http://www.youthtoday.org) shows that all of the earmarks for OJJDP come from Part E. And they total $80,896,000.
As explained by an earmark-process veteran, the pork winners must submit a grant application. So it appears that the real competition is for the remaining $1.1 million.
The deadline is May 26. Go to http://www.grants.gov and search under Funding Opportunity Number OJJDP-2009-2180.
