Author: Jonathan Mattiello

Rural Peer Exchange Site Visit Opportunity: Justice Partnerships to Address Substance Use

The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), a training and technical assistance (TTA) provider for the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA) Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP), is pleased to announce a peer exchange opportunity for rural communities on October 19–20, 2022 (with additional travel days required depending on your home location). Up to six rural communities will be selected to receive travel scholarships through the State Justice Institute to participate. These travel scholarships will allow each community to send a team of four practitioners to participate in the structured, 2-day peer exchange at no cost.

IMPORTANT:

Request forms for the peer exchange TTA opportunity in Lenoir County will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. Applicants are encouraged to submit their forms as early as possible but no later than September 21. Applicants are also encouraged to check https://www.cossapresources.org/Status/Peer-Exchange-Submissions to determine whether the opportunity is still open.

The peer exchange will be based in Lenoir County, North Carolina, a rural community in the eastern part of the state, and includes a visit on the second day to Wayne County, an adjacent community approximately 30 minutes away. Throughout the 2-day site visit, the six visiting teams will have the opportunity to learn about and observe the many successful aspects of Lenoir and Wayne Counties’ comprehensive, multidisciplinary substance use response, including:

  • The Family Accountability and Recovery Court (FARC). This family treatment court program serves rural Lenoir, Wayne, and Greene Counties. The FARC program supports parents and families entering the child welfare system because of parental substance use disorders. The court team includes two judges, a case coordinator, a case administrator, a parent attorney, a guardian ad litem, treatment providers, child welfare case workers, transitional housing representatives, vocational rehabilitation representatives, a community college representative, parenting support staff, peer support specialists and, when needed, a domestic violence treatment provider.
  • The Women’s House of Hope. This program is a 12-bed transitional housing facility operated by Hope Restorations. Hope Restorations is a transitional employment and training program for adults recovering from addiction or incarceration. In addition to housing, the Women’s House of Hope offers transitional employment, recovery groups, aftercare resources, and computer classes through the local library. Residents of the Women’s House of Hope can work at a local thrift store recently opened by Hope Restoration.
  • The Wayne County Detention Center’s jail-based medication-assisted treatment program, which includes a day reporting center.
  • The Wayne County Community College partnership with the detention center, which supports individuals earning a high school equivalency diploma while in custody. The community college is also a partner in the FARC and provides education services to treatment court participants. 
  • Local employers, including the Mother Earth Motor Lodge, that work closely with the treatment court to provide employment opportunities for treatment court participants.

Through this peer exchange, visiting teams can discuss and share best practices, exchange ideas and knowledge, and engage in peer networking events. Visiting teams also will be provided opportunities to meet together and process the information as a team.

For more information on this opportunity, including eligibility requirements, please view the request form here.

Technical Assistance Request Timeline

Request forms will be reviewed and approved on a rolling basis, with selections made no later than September 21.

Notification of selection:
By September 21, 2022

Technical Assistance Request Checklist
____Technical Assistance Request Form
The technical assistance request form should be emailed to COSSAP@iir.com.

Questions
If you have any questions about completing this form or have submission issues, please email COSSAP@iir.com.

SJI Provides Resources to Assist Grant Applicants

Three grant deadlines remain for FY 2021 SJI Grant funding:

  • February 1, 2021 (2nd QTR)
  • May 1, 2021 (3rd QTR)
  • August 1, 2021 (4th QTR)

All new SJI grant applications must be submitted via the online Grant Management System (GMS).  Refer to the Grant Application Guide for additional information.

The SJI Funding Toolkit provides support to local courts, state courts, and their justice system partners pursue federal and philanthropic funding opportunities.   

Recent additions to the toolkit include:

  1. New Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) updated weekly: https://fundingtoolkit.sji.gov/faq/

Updated Court ¢ents podcast addressing Formula Block Grant Opportunities for Courts: https://anchor.fm/funding-toolkit/episodes/Formula-Block-Grant-Opportunities-for-Courts-eolveu/a-a49suh9

Pandemic Rapid Response Team invites Applications for Implementation Lab Initiative

Coined by Michigan Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack (MI), the expression “not the disruption we wanted, but the disruption we needed” captures the ongoing impact the pandemic has had on America’s state courts.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators Rapid Response Team (RRT) and the NCSC have worked to identify and develop innovations and new practices in response to the pandemic.  To help spread innovation widely and to continue to learn from sites implementing new practices, the RRT and NCSC are launching the 2021 Implementation Lab.  Applications are welcome from courts that would like to participate. 

The goal of the Implementation Lab is to foster sustainable innovations across a large, diverse group of courts throughout the United States, to continue to learn about the impact of these innovations, and to share lessons learned throughout the process.

Applications are open to join the Lab in one of these areas of innovation:

  1. Pre-Trial Practices
  2. Remote and Virtual Hearings
  3. Remote Workforce
  4. Digital Divide
  5. Online Dispute Resolution
  6. Virtual Jury Selection and Jury Trials
  7. Self-Represented Litigants
  8. Language Access Technology
  9. High-Volume Dockets
  10. Eviction Diversion
  11. Case Management

For the duration of the project, anticipated to run through 2021, NCSC and the RRT will provide resources and technical assistance to the selected sites as they develop and execute implementation plans, evaluate the impact of their innovations, and work to sustain best practices.  The Implementation Lab is made possible with SJI funding support.  Full details and an application package are available now. Applications are due Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. A first round of selections will be made in early February.

Also, in case you missed it, resources available at www.ncsc.org/pandemic continue to grow:

  • With many states extending prohibitions on in-person jury trials, we have updated our map showing statewide jury restrictions (click on the “Statewide Jury Restrictions” tab).
  • With large urban centers sometimes enacting tougher restrictions on jury trials, we have added a new tab called “Jury Trial Restrictions By County” that focuses on the nation’s largest urban centers.
  • The “Virtual Hearings” tab now includes links to guides to remote hearings that have been published by state courts. Hover over a state, and if a guide is available, a link to that state’s guide will appear.

Finally, be sure to check out the many new resources published on the RRT Pandemic resources web page.

SJI Awards Grants to Support Pandemic Response and Recovery

Through a Request for Applications (RFA) process launched in FY 2020, SJI funded multiple projects that will assist state courts in their response to, and recovery from, COVID-19, with a look towards the future of court operations. SJI gave priority consideration for RFA funding to projects that focused on institutionalizing and/or replicating practices that have been implemented during the pandemic.

SJI supported projects that planned a system change approach (as opposed to the replication of narrowly focused programs or projects), and emphasized the use of case triage to match cases and parties to appropriate resources and services both within and outside the courthouse. This also includes the use of technology for innovations such as online dispute resolution (ODR), portal development, virtual hearings, and other efforts to allow court business to be conducted outside of the courthouse. These projects will also take into account access and fairness, and costs/benefits, not only to the courts, but also to court users. 
 
A summary of these projects is available on the SJI website.

SJI Approves FY 2021 First Quarter Grants

The SJI Board of Directors met virtually on December 7, 2020 to make decisions on quarterly grant applications, and approved a total of ten new grants. 

Two Strategic Initiatives Grants were approved in support of SJI’s Pandemic Response and Recovery Request for Applications (RFA); the Texas Office of Court Administration to assess the impact of remote hearings on judicial workload; and, the National Courts and Sciences Institute (NCSI) to provide sustainable case and evidentiary support for state court cases emanating from the pandemic.   Three Project Grants were approved: the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia for an appellate e-filing project; the Franklin County, Ohio, Municipal Court for a self-help resource center project; and the National Association for Court Management (NACM) to support educational programming for court managers and judges, including the impact of the pandemic on court operations.  Three Technical Assistance Grants were approved: the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts for a translation implementation project; the 5th Judicial District of Colorado for a mental health improvement initiative; and the District of Columbia Courts to assess high volume calendars.  Two Curriculum Adaptation and Training Grants were approved: Lubbock County, Texas, for an educational program on mental health for mediators; and, the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) for a National Justice and Fairness Training program. 

The next deadline for grant applications is February 1, 2021 (FY 2021, 2nd Quarter).