NIC and BJA Grant: Enhancing Crisis Intervention Teams in Correctional Facilities through Training and Curriculum Development

NIC, in partnership with BJA, is soliciting proposals for a 12-month cooperative agreement to provide local jails, prisons, and other confinement settings with CIT training. The awardee will accomplish tasks that address the following four components: (1) review and revise the existing 40-hour CIT classroom-based training, (2) develop a CIT train-the-trainer curriculum that addresses major issues that agencies face, including those issues faced by rural and tribal agencies, (3) establish a refresher CIT training for agencies that have implemented the NIC CIT partnership training, and (4) deliver the newly developed and revised training programs to selected agencies. The curriculum is to apply the Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) model of instruction.[DL1] All deliverables are to be reviewed and approved both by NIC and BJA.

This cooperative agreement is for the delivery of 15 cycles of training [DL2] to local jails, prisons, and other confinement settings. For the first component, the awardee will be expected to review and update the existing 40-hour CIT classroom-based training program designed to be delivered to 30 participants. This program offers participants an opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills regarding the behavioral characteristics of mental health disorders and gives them the tools needed to create time and space to de-escalate situations involving an incarcerated individual experiencing a mental health crisis. The award recipient will update the current training and ensure it supports the adult learning process and comports with sound instructional design and quality.

The contents of the 40-hour CIT program include: a brief history of the CIT Memphis model; the viewing of the PBS video entitled “The New Asylum”; management strategies related to the incarceration of the seriously mentally ill; basic psycho-education training on mental health conditions; being trauma-informed in the carceral system; consumer and family conversations; field/site visit to a mental health treatment or diversion center; core skills training – active listening and verbal de-escalation; eight-hour roleplaying scenarios; hearing voices exercises; self-care and compassion fatigue discussions; psychopharmacology education; legal considerations; review of agency policy and procedures regarding the CIT program; and a review of agency policy and procedures regarding the use of force.

 [DL1]Added here based on what you have written in the goals section

 [DL2]Is this correct? You mention below that there will be 15 instances of the training completed in the CA, but it is not described elsewhere. It should be reiterated throughout. 

NIC welcomes applications that involve two or more entities; however, one eligible entity must be the applicant and the others must be proposed as subrecipients. The applicant must be the entity with primary responsibility for administering the funding and managing the entire program. Only one (1) application will be accepted from a submitting organization.

NIC, in partnership with BJA, is soliciting proposals for a 12-month cooperative agreement to provide local jails, prisons, and other confinement settings with CIT training. The awardee will accomplish tasks that address the following four components: (1) review and revise the existing 40-hour CIT classroom-based training, (2) develop a CIT train-the-trainer curriculum that addresses major issues that agencies face, including those issues faced by rural and tribal agencies, (3) establish a refresher CIT training for agencies that have implemented the NIC CIT partnership training, and (4) deliver the newly developed and revised training programs to selected agencies. The curriculum is to apply the Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) model of instruction.[DL1]  All deliverables are to be reviewed and approved both by NIC and BJA.

This cooperative agreement is for the delivery of 15 cycles of training [DL2] to local jails, prisons, and other confinement settings. For the first component, the awardee will be expected to review and update the existing 40-hour CIT classroom-based training program designed to be delivered to 30 participants. This program offers participants an opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills regarding the behavioral characteristics of mental health disorders and gives them the tools needed to create time and space to de-escalate situations involving an incarcerated individual experiencing a mental health crisis. The award recipient will update the current training and ensure it supports the adult learning process and comports with sound instructional design and quality.

The contents of the 40-hour CIT program include: a brief history of the CIT Memphis model; the viewing of the PBS video entitled “The New Asylum”; management strategies related to the incarceration of the seriously mentally ill; basic psycho-education training on mental health conditions; being trauma-informed in the carceral system; consumer and family conversations; field/site visit to a mental health treatment or diversion center; core skills training – active listening and verbal de-escalation; eight-hour roleplaying scenarios; hearing voices exercises; self-care and compassion fatigue discussions; psychopharmacology education; legal considerations; review of agency policy and procedures regarding the CIT program; and a review of agency policy and procedures regarding the use of force.

 [DL1]Added here based on what you have written in the goals section

 [DL2]Is this correct? You mention below that there will be 15 instances of the training completed in the CA, but it is not described elsewhere. It should be reiterated throughout.