SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) will be awarding $2 million for a sixth round of grants meant to enhance innovative victim impact programs in California prisons.
“These programs provide a lens for incarcerated people to see the impact of crime from the perspective of a victim,” said Nolice Edwards, chief of the CDCR Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services (OVSRS). “It’s incredibly helpful as those individuals work toward achieving amends and rehabilitation through the programs offered in our facilities.”
The purpose of the round-six Innovative Programming Grants (IPG) is to fund eligible nonprofit organizations to provide victim impact programs at one or more California prisons.
Applicants must develop a specific plan designed to meet the unique needs and requirements of the specific victim impact program proposed while additionally meeting the needs of the incarcerated population the program will be targeted to.
Victim impact programs share a common objective of giving victims the opportunity for their voices to be heard and for offenders to fully understand the consequences of their actions, like Project Avary’s Prison Reconciliation Project, which supports inmates in understanding and making amends for the impacts of their crime and the effects of their incarceration on their children.
Grant eligibility is open to nonprofits that currently provide programs in any adult correctional institution setting. This includes state and federal prisons and county jails. In addition, programs previously funded through the IPG can reapply for funds, though programs cannot have dual sources of state funding for the same location.
IPG began in 2015 when CDCR awarded $2.5 million in one-year grants to expand existing rehabilitation programs to new institutions. With the addition of $2 million this round, CDCR will award a total of $14 million in grants during all six cycles over the course of five years. This grant funding comes directly from the Inmate Welfare Fund, a trust where all proceeds from institutional canteen and hobby shop sales are deposited and spent for the benefit of inmates, including on education and welfare.
All applicants are encouraged to submit a Notice of Intent to Apply by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019. The due date for applications is 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019.
For more information about the application process, and to complete the Request for Application, please email the IPG team at innovativegrants@cdcr.ca.gov.
For more information about IPG, please visit https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/rehabilitation/grants.html.
Learn more about CDCR’s victim services by visiting OVSRS at https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/victim-services/
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 8, 2019
Contact: (916) 445-4950
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