Department of Justice

Youth Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program

This competitive grant program provides funds to increase public safety by facilitating cross-system collaboration among youth justice, mental health, and substance use treatment agencies to improve response and outcomes for justice-involved youth with mental health disorders and co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders.

Building Local Continuums of Care To Support Youth Success

This competitive grant program supports communities in conducting planning and assessment activities that will inform the development of a community-based continuum of promising and evidence-based prevention and intervention services that will serve as a strong foundation for preventing youth from entering the juvenile justice system, diverting them from moving deeper into the system (i.e., detention and corrections) and ultimately providing them with the skills they need to lead productive, safe, healthy, and law-abiding lives.

Youth Violence Prevention Program

This competitive grant program provides funding for applicants to develop and/or enhance strategies to prevent youth violence, including youth gang involvement and youth gang/group violence.

Mentoring Programs for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

This competitive grant program provides funds for mentoring organizations to enhance and expand mentoring services for youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system.

Enhancing School Capacity To Address Youth Violence

This competitive grant program supports targeted efforts to address youth violence through implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention efforts in a school-based setting (K–12th grade only).

National Mentoring Programs

This competitive grant program supports national mentoring organizations to enhance and expand mentoring services for children and youth who are at risk or high risk for juvenile delinquency, victimization, and juvenile justice system involvement.

Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program

This program supports Congressionally-earmarked funds to improve the functioning of the juvenile justice system and to combat juvenile delinquency.

Promoting Access to Crisis Teams – Community Policing Development

This competitive grant program provides funds to support the implementation of crisis intervention teams, including embedding behavioral or mental health professionals with law enforcement agencies, training for law enforcement officers and embedded behavioral or mental health professionals in crisis intervention response, or a combination of these.

Preparing for Active Shooter Situations (PASS) Awards

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the FY26 Preparing for Active Shooter Situations (PASS) Program. The preparedness of law enforcement to respond to active shooter incidents is a priority of the Administration. Through the PASS program, the Department of Justice supports this priority by providing funding to deliver nationally recognized, scenario-based training that prepares officers, first responders, and mental health and social service providers on how best to prepare their communities for an active shooter threat or act of terrorism. PASS program funds are used to increase public and law enforcement safety nationwide by training first responders—including law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services (EMS), dispatchers, medical personnel, facility security, emergency management, and any other professionals who may reasonably be key to a successful integrated response—to handle an active shooter threat or act of terrorism. In addition, this program will provide priority access to training for School Resource Officers funded under the COPS Hiring Program, to support active shooter preparedness and response in primary and secondary schools. Training provided under the PASS program will advance the goal of the 2016 Protecting Our Lives by Initiating COPS Expansion (POLICE) Act in offering scenario-based, integrated response courses designed to counter active shooter threats or acts of terrorism against individuals or facilities.

Community Policing Development Microgrants Program

This competitive grant program helps develop the capacity of law enforcement to implement community policing strategies, including funding for targeted community-based violence intervention.

Community Policing Development (CPD) Program

This competitive grant program provides funding to law enforcement agencies to implement community policing strategies including crisis intervention teams, de-escalation training, and tolerance, diversity and anti-bias training.

Research and Evaluation on School Safety

This competitive grant program funds research and evaluation projects on the root causes and consequences of school violence.

Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) Research and Evaluation

This funding opportunity seeks applications for rigorous research and evaluation projects that advance understanding of OJP Community-Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiatives (CVIPI). The CVIPI program provides resources to support evidence-informed violence intervention and prevention programs in communities across the United States.

Research and Evaluation on Firearms Violence and Mass Shootings

This competitive grant program supports research and program evaluation projects that inform efforts to prevent and reduce intentional, interpersonal firearm violence and mass shootings in the United States in two categories: (1) research or evaluation of Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO) laws, and (2) research on the sources of the firearm used in the commission of a crime and the relationship of those sources to shootings and gun-related violence.

Firearm Inquiry Statistics (FIST) Program, 2023–2026

This program provides national estimates on the total number of firearm purchase applications received and denied pursuant to the Brady Act and relevant state laws.

National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)

1) NCHIP ($70,000,000)- This program aims to improve the nation’s safety and security by enhancing the quality, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information; and by ensuring the nationwide implementation of criminal justice and non-criminal justice background check systems. 2) NCHIP SF BSCA ($40,000,000) – This program furthers the DOJ’s mission to reduce violent crime and address gun violence by improving the accuracy, utility, and interstate accessibility of criminal-history and related records in support of national record systems and their use for name- and fingerprint-based… criminal history background checks. This program was developed to implement Title III, Division B (3) – Appropriations outlined in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (Pub. L. 117-159). 3) NARIP ($25,000,000)- This program provides grants to assist states, state court systems and tribal governments in updating the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) with certain mental health, protection and restraining order, domestic violence conviction, and other criminal history record information which may disqualify individuals from purchasing or possessing firearms. BJS coordinates its work on the NICS program with the efforts of the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) to ensure that funded state and state court system programs are complementary and consistent with the overall goal of improving the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of state and national criminal records.

National Criminal History Improvement Program Supplemental Funding

This competitive grant program provides funds to reduce violent crime and address gun violence by improving the accuracy, utility, and interstate accessibility of criminal-history and related records in support of national record systems and their use for name- and fingerprint-based criminal history background checks.

National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) Training and Technical Assistance Program

This program funds technical assistance to support state, territorial and tribal jurisdictions in insuring that their systems to implement the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP), the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP), and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act conform to FBI standards.

Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS)

This competitive grant program provides funding to federally recognized tribes and tribal consortia to improve public safety and victim services in tribal communities. Purpose areas may allow for eligible school safety expenses including the hiring of School Resource Officers and the development of, or to enhance existing, school-involved Youth Healing to Wellness Courts.

Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership (BVP) Program

This program reimburses states, units of local government, and federally recognized Indian tribes for up to 50 percent of the cost of body armor vests purchased for law enforcement officers.

Community Relations Service

The Community Relations Service provides guidance for communities facing conflict based on actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, or disability, providing facilitated dialogue, mediation, training, and consultation to assist these communities to come together, develop solutions to the conflict, and enhance their capacity to independently prevent and resolve future conflict.

Collaborative Reform Initiative Technical Assistance Center (CRI_TAC)

This competitive grant program provides funds to state, local and tribal law enforcement and correctional entities to develop and implement crisis response training programs and form partnerships with mental health, substance abuse disorder, and community service agencies to improve appropriate and effective responses to individuals in crisis who have behavioral health conditions, intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, or physical disabilities and to achieve safe outcomes for all individuals in the community.

Mass Violence Advisory Initiative (MVAI)

The MVAI is a collaboration between the BJA and the International Association of Chiefs of Police that provides peer-to-peer assistance to law enforcement leaders related to preparation, response and recovery efforts for mass violence and mass casualty events.

BJA National Training Technical Assistance (NTTAC)

BJA’s NTTAC provides no-cost training and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices, corrections departments, and city or county commissioners on a variety of criminal justice issues including in-person and virtual instruction. Issues covered include implementing community-based violence intervention strategies.