The Program structure, adopted by OJJDP under Title V, is designed to provide communities with a guiding framework for building healthy communities in an objective, systematic, and comprehensive manner. Each State, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories (subsequently, the States) is eligible to apply for Title V funds based on relative State juvenile population, provided that it has a state agency designated by the chief executive under Section 299 (c) of the JJDP Act and a State Advisory Group (SAG). The Program grant award process, as set forth in the final Program Guidelines of the Federal Register, August 1, 1994 (Volume 59, Number 146), occurs in two steps. These steps and related activities are outlined in Exhibit 3 and are discussed below.
In the first funding step, OJJDP awards grants to States (State Agency). As provided by Section 223 (a) of the Act, the SAG is an advisory board appointed by the Governor with 15 to 33 members who have training, experience, or special knowledge concerning the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency or the administration of juvenile justice. State Advisory Group responsibilities include over-seeing the preparation and administration of the State's juvenile justice plan, advising policymakers on juvenile justice issues, and reviewing grant applications related to juvenile justice and delinquency prevention, including the Community Prevention Grants Program. State award amounts are based on a formula determined by the State's population of youth below the maximum age limit for original juvenile court delinquency jurisdiction. In fiscal year 1999, the minimum State award level was $100,000, with the largest award being $5,249,000. Each Territory was eligible for a minimum award of $33,000, although the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico received a larger allocation based on its juvenile population. Originally funded in FY 1994 at $13 million, in FY 1995 Congress increased the annual Title V appropriation to $20 million. In an effort to enhance support for community-based prevention plan implementation, in FY 1999, at the Administration's request, Congress increased the appropriation to $95 million, of which $45 million was designated for the Community Prevention Grants Program.
In the second funding step, each State Agency, with approval from the SAG, awards subgrants to units of local government through a competitive process.2 In order to be eligible to apply for a subgrant from the State, a unit of local government must first:
- Receive SAG certification of compliance with the Act's core protections established under the Title II, Part B, Formula Grants Program.
- Convene or designate a local Prevention Policy Board, comprising 15 to 21 representatives representing a balance of public agencies, nonprofit organizations, private business and industry, youth, and parents.
- Submit a three-year, comprehensive delinquency prevention plan describing the prevalence of identified community risk and protective factors and how these factors will be addressed.
- Provide a 50-cents-on-the-dollar match, either cash or in-kind, of the subgrant award amount.
Exhibit 4 presents the requirements for applicants' local comprehensive delinquency prevention plans. The three-year plan—a trademark of the Community Prevention Grants Program—is intended to shift communities away from historical "hit-and-miss" approaches to problem-solving and toward long-term strategic community planning. In essence, the requirement of a three-year plan forces communities to evolve—to change the way they think about prevention and planning, and how they bring about community change. Despite the level of effort needed to complete the plan, in the end, communities have found that the plan provides them with an empirically-based, concrete foundation that helps guide future community planning and action.
"Title V changed so much [in our community]. Service delivery changed. Systems have changed. The way the community thinks about things has changed. Everyone is now working together...The whole planning process gave us focus, showed us where to target our resources... We decided in the beginning that our prevention plan would be a working document and all 100 people present said, ‘That's what we want to do. We don't want to waste our time anymore.'"
— Liz Zuercher, Title V Coordinator,
Marshall County, Iowa
2 A unit of local government is defined as any city, county, town, borough, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a State and any Indian tribe that performs law enforcement functions and any law enforcement district or judicial enforcement district that (i) is established under applicable State law; and (ii) has the authority to, in a manner independent of other State entities, establish a budget and raise revenues. This amendment enables parish sheriff departments and offices of district attorneys in the State of Louisiana to be considered units of local government at the parish level therefore eligible to apply to its State agency for Title V funds.