OJJDP’s State Relations and Assistance Division (SRAD) recently conducted a series of four regional training conferences designed to prepare state agencies for upcoming statutory and regulatory changes in formula and block grant programs under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2002. The changes will take effect October 1, 2003.

The 3-day training sessions were held in Portland, OR (July 7–9), Chicago, IL (July 21–23), Atlanta, GA (August 4–6), and Jersey City, NJ (August 18–20). Attendees included representatives from state juvenile justice, family/youth, criminal justice, and planning agencies, as well as members of state advisory groups appointed by Governors.

In addition to modifying certain requirements of the Formula Grants program and the Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grants (JAIBG) program, the JJDP Act of 2002 consolidates several previously independent juvenile justice programs into a single Community Prevention Block Grant Program. The Act also introduces a number of new reporting and monitoring requirements and makes several other important changes.

The purpose of the regional conferences was to ensure that state juvenile justice staff are fully informed about requirements of the JJDP Act of 2002. After providing an overview of the new Act, SRAD staff and other presenters offered participants information about:

• Developing performance measures that show the effectiveness and impact of OJJDP block grant programs.
  
  
• Changes in compliance monitoring requirements under the new Act.
  
  
• Measuring disproportionate minority contact in light of the Act’s broadening of the DMC concept, which in the past has focused on confinement, to encompass all stages of the juvenile justice process.
  
  
• Provisions of the Delinquency Prevention Block Grant Program, which consolidates gang, state challenge, mentoring, and several other OJJDP programs; and the Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG) program, which expands and revises the JAIBG program.
  
  
• Links between child abuse/neglect and delinquency. (The new Act requires collaboration between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. As part of the formula grant process, it calls on states to make child welfare records available to the juvenile courts so the courts will have in hand all available information about each child who comes to their attention.)
  
  
• Implementing promising delinquency prevention programs.
  
  
• The nuts and bolts of grants administration.
  
  
• Using OJJDP’s new online grants application and reporting system.

For additional information, including the full text of the JJDP Act, visit the OJJDP Web site at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ojjdp.