SJI Board Awards Final Grants For FY2007

The SJI Board of Directors held its final meeting for the fiscal year on September 21, 2007, in Alexandria, Virginia.  During this meeting, the Board awarded $400,000 in new grants.  These will fund a wide range of activities, including two grants to the Vermont Supreme Court to improve court interpreter services and document conversion, weighted caseloads for probation officers in Colorado, the development of a guide to the D.C. Juvenile Justice System, and the design and implementation of a court performance measurement system for the Montana courts.  The total amount awarded (excluding Partnership Grants) in FY 2007 for Project Grants, Technical Assistance Grants, Curriculum & Adaptation Training Grants, and Scholarships was $2.06 million.  However, total grant applications (excluding Partnership Grants) for FY 2007 was $3.95 million, an increase of $1.46 million (58%) over FY 2006, and $2.73 million (223%) over FY 2005.

In FY 2006, Congress directed SJI to require cash match for its grants.  The availability of match funding from grantees has been amazing.  In FY 2005, the requests for funding included only $392,892 as cash match, and most of this was for small grant programs.  In comparison, for the FY 2007 applications, there was over $3.66 million available for cash match, most of which was available for larger project grants (excluding Partnership Grants).  This clearly demonstrates that Congress’ intent to leverage match funding to support court projects is working.