The Board met on December 8, 2014, at the Judicial Council of California, to make decisions on quarterly grant applications and awarded a total of 16 grants. One (1) Strategic Initiatives Grant was awarded to the New York Unified Court System (UCS) to host a National Summit on Human Trafficking and the State Courts. The UCS, in partnership with the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ), Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), the SJI-funded Human Trafficking and the State Courts Collaborative, and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) will hold a one-and-a-half day summit to examine the issue of human trafficking (both labor and sex) and identify best practices from existing court programs and the work of the Collaborative. Collaborative members will be present to assist state participants in developing action plans, or improving existing plans. The Summit will be designed based on the same model used for the very successful National Summit on Language Access and the Courts (SJI-12-P-015). Four participants from each state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories will be invited, including the chief justice, state court administrator, a judge designated by the chief justice with knowledge or interest in human trafficking, and a fourth person designated by the chief justice who has taken a leadership role in responding to human trafficking (e.g., attorney general, advocate/service provider, prosecutor, or defense attorney). It is anticipated that approximately 250 attendees will participate in the summit. The summit will include keynote speakers, panels, and break-out session for the state teams. The Collaborative will facilitate summit activities, as well as provide onsite guidance and technical assistance for teams as they begin establishing the framework for their action plans.

Three (3) Project Grants were approved: support to the National Association for Court Management (NACM) for educational programming focused on all of SJI’s Priority Investment Areas; the NCSC for a next generation case management systems standards project; and the NCSC to support CCJ in national pandemic planning and emergency response. Eight (8) Technical Assistance (TA) Grants were approved, including: a human trafficking project for the Guam Judiciary; strategic planning projects for the Coconino County, Arizona, Courts, 43rd Judicial District Court of Common Pleas, Pennsylvania, and the King County, Washington, Superior Court; the Montana Supreme Court for a juvenile probation workload study; the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a jury management project; caseflow and calendaring improvement for the 2nd Judicial District of Minnesota; and a probation statistical data collection project for the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts.

Four (4) Curriculum Adaptation & Training (CAT) Grants were approved, including: online ethics training for the Illinois AOC; assistance to the Connecticut Judiciary for a training program on serving citizens with hidden disabilities; judicial faculty development for the Minnesota Judicial Branch; and a records management training program for the Judicial Council of Georgia. The next grant application deadline is February 1, 2015.