The FY 2021 Federal Grant Season is well underway with numerous open solicitations available. Make sure to visit SJI’s Funding Toolkit for the latest grant information. The Toolkit includes current grant solicitations, along with templates that can be used to prepare a grant application.
As a reminder, applicants for DOJ/Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) grants should be aware there is a new process this year that includes both grants.gov and JustGrants. Make sure you are aware of the deadlines and separate requirements to ensure your application is accepted.
The Toolkit also includes FAQs about the grant making process, along with an answer from a grant expert. Follow SJI on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for the latest FAQ and funding announcements. Send your funding and grant questions to fundingtoolkit@sji.gov. Experts will provide answers, as well as references to additional resources.
SJI continues to addresses the impact of federal and state human trafficking laws on the state courts, and the challenges faced by state courts in dealing with cases involving trafficking victims and their families. These efforts are intended to empower state courts to identify victims, link them with vital services, and hold traffickers accountable. Several new resources are now available:
The National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project (NIWAP) at the American University/Washington College of Law, working in partnership with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is launching a National Judicial Network: Forum on Human Trafficking and Immigration in State Courts (“The Network”). The Network will provide a forum for judges to: engage in peer-to-peer learning sessions with judges from across the country; participate in webinars; communicate with other judges in a member-only confidential Listserv; access topic-specific publications; and attend future in-person trainings on issues that arise in state courts involving human trafficking and immigrant victims.
The U.S. Department of Justice/Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) continues to provide resources that can help organizations and programs increase identification of, and enhance service delivery to, survivors of human trafficking:
The Human Trafficking Capacity Building Center helps organizations and tribes start, sustain, or expand their anti-trafficking work. Visit the new website for more information about the Center, its services, and a wealth of downloadable anti-trafficking resources.
The Development and Operations Roadmap for Multidisciplinary Anti-Human Trafficking Task Forces publication, produced by the International Association of Chiefs of Police with funding from OVC and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, provides new and experienced anti-human trafficking task forces with guidance to assess and plan task force development from start to sustainability.
The Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC) recently released the Human Trafficking Action Research Toolkit. The toolkit provides information, strategies, tools, and other resources to help organizations and programs understand and conduct action research.
The Understanding Human Trafficking training, another resource offered by OVC TTAC, provides foundational learning on trauma-informed and victim-centered approaches to human trafficking through five interactive online modules designed so that a wide audience can benefit.
For more information and resources on anti-human trafficking efforts, please visit the Human Trafficking section of OVC’s website.
The Network will provide a forum for judges to engage in peer-to-peer learning sessions with judges from across the country, participate in webinars, communicate with other judges in a member-only confidential Listserv, access topic-specific publications, and attend future in-person trainings on issues that arise in state courts involving human trafficking and immigrant victims. The Network Forums are intended to help judges learn more about these complicated issues and, consequently, improve access to justice for human trafficking and immigrant victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and other crimes.
NIWAP is inviting judges to join bi-monthly, peer-to-peer virtual learning sessions on the first Tuesday of every other month from 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST. Each session will be led by a judicial facilitator, with topics set in advance by The Network’s steering committee. The first peer-to-peer session will be March 2, 2021, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EST. During the first session, NIWAP will discuss the purpose of The Network, one of whose objectives is to identify best practices and tools that NIWAP can develop under its SJI grant. You will hear from experienced judges about the goals of The Network, including the development of live webinar trainings, which can be uploaded and shared with your local jurisdiction. As a member of The Network, you will be invited to participate in a Network members-only confidential Listserv through which you can communicate with other judges about human trafficking and immigration law issues that arise in your court or other state court cases.
Registrants will receive regular updates and registration information for peer-to-peer sessions, the confidential Listserv, and webinars/trainings.
NIWAP also has a current SJI grant is titled, Human Trafficking Victims: Developing Training and Tools for Courts. Under this grant, NIWAP is developing materials on human trafficking, providing technical assistance, and offering pilot trainings for state court judges and judicial employees on human trafficking and the T Visa. To view current deliverables under this grant, please use this link:
In September of 2018, Utah became one of the first states to initiate an ODR pilot effort to aid in the processing of small claims cases effectively and efficiently. Often litigants are self-represented, and the dockets fill quickly – lending these case types to benefit greatly from streamlined and procedural improvements made possible through technology.
The report, titled Impact of the Utah Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Pilot Program, provides a thorough evaluation of Utah Courts’ in-house, customized ODR system, the procedural requirements for ODR, and impact of their system. In the recommendations, the consultant advises the Courts to review the findings of the 2020 University of Arizona’s usability study, to help guide improvements to the current ODR platform in advance of statewide deployment.
Ultimately, both reports acknowledge that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, court users were both receptive and ready for online solutions. With COVID-19, the national trend finds jurisdictions embracing remote courts as a way of creating fair, just, and equitable online legal environments that meet the needs of all users.
Adoption of Virtual Services in Judicially Led Diversion Programs: Preliminary Survey Findings is the first nationwide exploration of virtual services in judicially led diversion programs. Since March 2020, public health measures designed to slow community spread of COVID-19, necessitated that practitioners in judicially led diversion programs quickly deliver services virtually to facilitate what had traditionally been in-person interactions.
Released this month, the 43-page report highlights preliminary survey findings based on 500 respondents involved in judicially led diversion programs. The survey respondents represent 298 unique judicially led diversion programs in forty states and territories and reflect the perspectives of practitioners from court operations, treatment and recovery support, and community supervision in November and December 2020.
