SJI Grant Programs Continue to Address National Court Issues

During FY 2008, SJI continued to focus on national court issues in addition to supporting individual state and local court projects.  To accomplish this, SJI used its existing Partner Grant program to address several court issues, and also the newly established Strategic Initiatives Grants (SIG) program.  In fact, Partner Grant and SIG awards accounted for 46 percent of the total grant awards in FY 2008.  Both were very successful in FY 2008, and SJI will continue to build on these successes in FY 2009. 

The SIG program was approved by Congress in FY 2008, and is enabling SJI to address national court issues as they occur, and develop solutions to those problems.  For example, recent immigration growth is having a significant impact on state and local courts.  Courts along the Southwest Border and other areas of the United States with large immigrant populations are contending with issues such as how to provide culturally appropriate services; increase in gang-crime cases involving immigrants; and the impact of federal and state immigration policies on court operations.  SJI began using the SIG program to address immigration issues in the state courts at a national impact level.  Two grants were awarded; one to the Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS); and another to support a collaborative effort between the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the National Judicial College (NJC).  Both are currently in progress and SJI continues to provide project updates in the E-SJI News.

The Partner Grant program continues to provide significant resources to address court issues on a national level.  Partner Grants were created in FY 2006 to allow SJI and other federal departments or agencies, or other non-profits, combine financial resources in pursuit of common interests.  Between FY 2006 and 2008, SJI awarded $2,478,295 in Partner Grants; all of which were 100 percent matched by SJI’s partners.  These grants increase coordination between SJI and other grant-making agencies such as the U.S. Department of Justice/Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Legal Services Corporation (LSC), and the Pew Charitable Trusts.  FY 2008 marked another successful year for Partner Grants, including new Partner Grants with BJA on drug court training; the U.S. Marshals Service on court and judicial security; and LSC to continue supporting collaborative efforts between the state courts and legal service programs.