OJP’s SMART Office Fellowship Program for Sex Offender Management, Prevention, and Tribal Re-entry Services

The SMART Office will be funding two fellowship positions. One will focus on sexual violence prevention and education programming, and the other will focus on sex offender management programs in Indian Country, with an emphasis on the availability and nature of juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and re-entry services in Indian Country. The goal of these fellowships will be to work on multi-disciplinary issues across the various program offices in the Office of Justice Programs (Office of Victims of Crime, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics) as well as with the Office on Violence Against Women and other federal partners, to explore and build a foundation for integrating effective prevention and education programming into sex offender management practices and policies, and to determine the current state of sex offender management programming in Indian Country, including the availability and nature of juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and re-entry services for tribal communities. These fellowship positions will be expected to coordinate with the SMART Office staff and other DOJ/OJP offices.

Applicants who propose more narrowly focused fellowships that focus on their own specific interests will not be considered responsive to this solicitation and will not be forwarded for peer review. Additionally, please note this fellowship award is not intended to support individual pursuits in research or other academic work.

Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables

SMART may support fellowships in the two categories listed directly below. Applicants must clearly indicate the topical area of the fellowship for which they are applying. Failure to do so will render the application non-responsive and the application will not be reviewed. The topic area should be listed in box number 11 of the SF-424, in the project abstract, and in the program narrative. Applicants may apply for more than one fellowship, but must submit a separate application for each fellowship. Applicants are advised that the overarching goal of these fellowships is to assist SMART in meeting state, local and tribal jurisdictions’ need for prevention and education programming and research of juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and re-entry services, and other resources in the identified topic areas. Enhancing the professional development of successful applicants is an important objective of the fellowship program, but activities and deliverables must conform to the solicitation’s parameters.

The topical categories are the following:

Fellowship Category 1: Prevention and Education Programming in Sex Offender Management

Objectives: The SMART Office Fellowship for Prevention and Education will identify ways to enhance and broaden programming designed to improve the prevention of, and education about, sexual violence and victimization in our communities. This work will require the Prevention and Education Fellow to develop collaborative relationships with relevant staff in other DOJ (and other federal) offices that develop and manage such programs, in particular, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Office on Violence Against Women, and to focus on primary, secondary, and tertiary efforts in this area. Specifically, the Fellow will work with SMART staff to develop a national, multilevel plan for the prevention of sexual violence, strive to bridge the gaps that exist between those who work with victims and those who work with perpetrators of sexual violence, develop strategies to provide specialized education for multiple disciplines to address and promote prevention efforts, and begin the documentation of the research and evaluation of prevention strategies.

Activities:
• In close coordination with SMART, summarize other DOJ (and other federal agencies) offices’ prevention and/or education resources and programs and describe the processes used by the offices in developing these resources. Draft concise fact sheets detailing each of the offices’ efforts in this area.
• Assist SMART staff with the identification, interpretation, and adaptation of social marketing and public health campaigns (within and outside sex offender management-related fields) that have the ability to change public attitudes.
• Identify and assess education curricula for current and future professionals about preventing sexual violence, sex offending in general, and sex offender management strategies, and develop recommendations for promoting promising practices in the field.
• Develop reports, presentations, and other documents at the request of OJP/SMART management and staff to promote sexual violence prevention efforts and detail challenges and successes of these efforts.
• At the request of SMART staff/management, conduct site visits to assist in the assessment of projects or initiatives that are implementing promising prevention and education programming, models, or resources in the area of sexual violence prevention and sex offender management.
• Participate in professional development and training activities in consultation with SMART management to enhance expertise related to sexual violence prevention and sex offender management practices and research.
• At the request of SMART staff/management, participate in internal and external stakeholder meetings, forums, workshops and other initiatives related to sexual violence prevention and education and sex offender management.

Deliverables:

• Draft and present an assessment of research and campaigns in the area of sexual violence prevention and education.
• Draft and present a literature review of sexual violence prevention efforts, focusing in particular on those demonstrating an evidence-based approach.
• Provide regularly scheduled reports to SMART management and Senior Policy Advisors that detail activities and recommendations for the design and execution of SMART forums, conferences, and the SMART newsletters on sexual violence prevention and education.
• Develop recommendations and suggestions as to how SMART can broaden its scope in the area of sexual violence prevention and education.
• Provide a final report to OJP/SMART on the fellowship project, including accomplishments, challenges and recommendations for improving the fellowship program

Fellowship Category 2: Investigate and Research Juvenile and Adult Sex Offender Treatment and Re-entry Services in Indian Country/Tribal Communities:

Objectives: The SMART Office’s Sex Offender Management in Indian Country Fellow will investigate and research juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and re-entry services available to tribal communities; create or identify programs and/or tools used in juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and sex offender management services particular to Native American sex offenders; identify sex offender management experts in tribal communities or experts who provide these services to Indian Country; and gather these experts for an Indian Country forum in order to develop recommendations for future SMART Office activities related to sex offender management in Indian Country. This work will require the fellow to develop collaborative relationships with relevant staff in other DOJ offices that develop and manage programs in Indian Country, in particular, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Office of Victims of Crime, as well as the Office on Violence against Women, the Bureau of Prisons, and other federal agencies.

Activities:

• Work with designated staff in SMART and other DOJ offices to develop a strategy for collecting and centralizing evidence-based information, research, best practices, resources and training materials that are consistent with the efforts of the SMART Office in its Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative (SOMAPI).
• Work in close coordination with SMART, identifying resources and programs developed and managed by other DOJ offices that pertain to juvenile and adult sex offender treatment services.
• Draft concise fact sheets regarding these programs and resources and identify and highlight any promising practices.
• Inventory programs and policies governing sex offender management work in Indian Country, using a variety of methods, including direct outreach to tribal jurisdictions.
• Perform a literature review of sex offender management and related topics specific to Indian Country.
• Perform a literature review of services for victims of sexual violence in Indian Country.
• Compile a list of experts working on criminal justice and sex offending issues in Indian Country.
• Help SMART Office Indian Country staff to organize an interdisciplinary forum to discuss sex offender management and juvenile and adult treatment and re-entry services in Indian Country.
• Draft reports, talking points, presentations and articles at the request of OJP/SMART management and staff related to juvenile and adult treatment and re-entry services in Indian Country, as well as topics concerning sex offender management issues more generally.
• At the request of SMART staff/management, conduct site visits to assist in the assessment of projects or initiatives that are developing promising practices in treatment and re-entry services for juveniles and adults and in sex offender management programs in Indian Country more generally.
• Travel to support the execution of the above activities.

Deliverables:

• Draft and present an assessment of research in the area of juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and re-entry services, and other applicable disciplines.
• Draft and present a literature review of juvenile and adult sex offender treatment and re-entry services in Indian Country.
• Assist SMART staff to plan and execute a forum to which experts working in the field of sex offender management and sex offender treatment and re-entry services in Indian Country will be invited to share their expertise and develop recommendation to guide federal support for sex offender management practices in Indian Country.
• Regularly scheduled reports to SMART management and Senior Policy Advisors that detail activities and recommendations for the design and execution of SMART forums, conferences, and the SMART Dispatch newsletters on sex offender treatment and re-entry services and sex offender management.
• Develop recommendations and suggestions as to how SMART can provide guidance to tribal communities in the area of sex offender treatment and reentry services in Indian Country.
• Final report to OJP/SMART on the fellowship project, including accomplishments, challenges and recommendations for improving the fellowship program.