NIJ FY22 Youth Mentoring Research and Evaluation | O NIJ 2022 171185

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2022 171185

The NIJ FY22 Youth Mentoring Research and Evaluation grant is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, administered by the National Institute of Justice (CFDA 16.560). Its overall purpose is to fund rigorous research and evaluation on youth mentoring as a strategy to prevent delinquency and support recovery from victimization. The opportunity is framed within broader DOJ priorities that emphasize civil rights and racial equity, improved access to justice, stronger support for crime victims and justice-involved individuals, enhanced community safety, and building trust between law enforcement and communities.

At the center of the solicitation is an interest in strong, methodologically sound studies that can move the youth mentoring field beyond small, isolated program findings and toward clearer evidence about what works, for whom, and under what conditions. NIJ encourages proposals that address one or more of four specific research priorities: (1) increasing the capacity of mentoring initiatives to achieve broad, population-level impacts rather than only individual-level gains; (2) understanding the mechanisms through which mentoring produces change, especially mechanisms that promote positive youth development (for example, resilience, healthy relationships, school engagement, or prosocial behavior); (3) examining the long-term effects of program participation to determine whether benefits persist over time; and (4) optimizing program effectiveness through iterative improvement cycles, where program development is paired with rigorous evaluation feedback so models can be refined based on evidence rather than intuition.

The solicitation strongly supports projects that involve real-world partnerships, such as collaborations with mentoring organizations, juvenile justice agencies, or other relevant service systems. When partnerships are part of the proposed research, applicants are expected to include a strong letter of support from each partnering agency, signed by an appropriate decision-making authority. A key requirement embedded in those letters is an explicit acknowledgement that de-identified data generated or used through the project will be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the award. Applicants and partners are expected to review NACJD policies and protections in advance, because data archiving is not optional and must be planned for early, including appropriate consent processes, data governance, and de-identification procedures.

If an application is selected for funding, the awardee is expected to have formal partnership agreements in place by January 1, 2023. Those agreements must include provisions that ensure the project can meet the data archiving requirements with NACJD. The solicitation also clarifies how multi-organization projects should be structured financially: only one entity may apply as the primary applicant, while other participating agencies or organizations must be included as subrecipients if they will receive federal award funds to help carry out the work.

Eligibility is broad and includes state, county, city or township governments; special districts; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit organizations (including small businesses); and other eligible entities. However, foreign governments, foreign organizations, and foreign colleges or universities are not eligible to apply. In addition, all recipients and subrecipients must forgo any profit or management fee, meaning even for-profit participants cannot charge profit on the award.

A major compliance condition applies to any state, local, or campus law enforcement agency involved as an applicant or subawardee, reflecting Executive Order 13929, Safe Policing for Safe Communities. To be eligible for FY 2022 DOJ discretionary grant funding, such law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or must have started the certification process. The certification standard includes two mandatory use-of-force conditions: the agency policies must comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws, and must prohibit chokeholds except where deadly force is legally permitted. This requirement extends to law enforcement agencies that would receive DOJ funds through a subaward, not just direct recipients, and DOJ provides reference materials and approved credentialing bodies through the COPS Office Safe Policing EO website.

Key administrative details include the opportunity number (O-NIJ-2022-171185), an original application closing date of April 20, 2022, and an award ceiling of up to $2,000,000 per award. Overall, the grant is designed for organizations that can credibly execute high-quality, policy-relevant evaluations or research studies on youth mentoring, manage complex partnerships, and meet strict expectations around data stewardship, archiving, and (where applicable) law enforcement certification requirements tied to DOJ funding eligibility.

• The National Institute of Justice in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIJ FY22 Youth Mentoring Research and Evaluation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-03-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-04-20. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for O NIJ 2022 171185

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