SMART Office Sex Offender Management Fellowship Program

The SMART Office will be funding for the first time three fellowship positions focusing on 1) victims’ issues, 2) prevention and education, and 3) practices and research in Indian Country in the field of sex offender management. 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) and , the Office on Violence Against Women, to explore and build a foundation for integrating victim-centered approaches and effective prevention and education programming into sex offender management practices and policies, and to identify experts, research, practices and programs related to sexual assault victim services and sex offender management in Indian County. These three fellowship positions will be expected to coordinate with each other, 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 that fellowship awards are not intended to support individual pursuits in research or other academic work.

Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables

SMART may support fellowships in the three 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 nonresponsive 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 evidenced-based training, technical assistance, 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. Victims’ Assistance in Sex Offender Management
Objectives: The SMART Office’s Victim Assistance Fellowship will identify programs and policies focused on victims of sexual violence to enhance the coordination of these programs and policies with other programming in the Department of Justice in the area of sex offender management. This work will require the Victim Assistance Fellow to establish collaborative working relationships with other DOJ offices that develop and manage programs to support victims of sexual violence, in particular, the Office of Victims of Crime, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office on Violence Against Women.

Fellowship Category 2: 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 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.

Fellowship Category 3: Sex Offender Management Practices and Research in Indian Country/Tribal Communities
Objectives: The SMART Office’s Sex Offender Management in Indian Country Fellow will assess the state of sex offender management research, programs and practice in Indian Country (including services for victims of sexual violence), identify the sex offender management experts in tribal communities, 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 Sex Offender Management in Indian Country 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, and the Office on Violence against Women.