BJA FY 23 Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program | O BJA 2023 171520

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJA 2023 171520

The BJA FY 23 Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). It is designed to help communities build or strengthen coordinated, cross-system responses for people who have mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders and who come into contact with law enforcement. The central idea is to improve both public safety and public health outcomes by making sure law enforcement and behavioral health partners work together in a structured, intentional way rather than operating in separate silos.

The program is rooted in broader OJP priorities that include advancing civil rights and racial equity, increasing access to justice, supporting crime victims and people impacted by the justice system, strengthening community safety, protecting the public from evolving threats, and building trust between law enforcement and the community. In practice, applicants are expected to show how their proposed collaboration will lead to safer encounters, better decision-making in the field, and more effective connections to treatment and supports. The focus is not only on crisis response, but also on improving outcomes after the initial law enforcement contact, such as diversion from arrest when appropriate, linkage to services, and coordinated follow-up that reduces repeat encounters and harm.

BJA funding under this solicitation supports jurisdictions that want to prepare, create, or expand comprehensive plans and then implement collaborative projects aimed at preliminarily qualified individuals, meaning the target population is people whose behavioral health needs are reasonably identifiable and relevant to the law enforcement contact. While the solicitation description does not list specific model requirements in the text provided, the emphasis is clearly on structured partnership approaches that can be operationalized across agencies, including shared planning, coordinated protocols, and an implementation strategy that improves how people are identified, responded to, and connected to care.

A key eligibility and program design requirement is joint administration. BJA will only accept applications that demonstrate the project will be administered jointly by (1) an agency responsible for criminal or juvenile justice activities and (2) a mental health agency. This is not a loose recommendation; it is presented as a threshold condition for application acceptance. The intent is to ensure that the program is not driven solely by law enforcement or solely by behavioral health, but instead reflects shared ownership, shared decision-making, and integrated operations across the two systems.

Eligible applicants include a wide range of government and public entities, including state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, and federally recognized Native American tribal governments. The solicitation also allows for "other" applicants, but it places an important limitation on entities with a different legal status, such as nonprofit or for-profit mental health agencies. Those organizations may apply only if they meet two specific requirements: first, the applicant must be designated by the state mental health authority to provide services as a unit of state or local government; second, the applicant must attach documentation that supports and verifies that designation. This condition effectively narrows eligibility for non-governmental providers to those operating with formal governmental designation and documentation.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity number is O-BJA-2023-171520 and the CFDA number is 16.745. The original closing date listed is April 24, 2023, and the opportunity was created on January 26, 2023. The award ceiling is $550,000. The notice indicates expected awards, but the specific number is not provided in the source text included. The funding instrument type is a grant, and the opportunity is categorized as discretionary. The listing also labels the activity category as humanities, though the substance of the program is clearly centered on justice and behavioral health collaboration.

Finally, the solicitation points applicants to examples of previously successful applications through a "Successful Grant Application Examples" page. This signals that BJA expects well-developed proposals with clear partnership roles, an actionable plan that moves from planning to implementation, and documentation that the project is truly cross-system and jointly administered.

• The Bureau of Justice Assistance in the humanities sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 23 Connect and Protect: Law Enforcement Behavioral Health Response Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.745.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-01-26.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-04-24. (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 $550,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Others.

Apply for O BJA 2023 171520

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