State Training and Technical Assistance Center (STTAC)

The OJJDP State Training and Technical Assistance Center (STTAC) is working with a range of organizations – for example, state government agencies, tribes, non-profits, etc. — that receive funding from the OJJDP either through the OJJDP’s Title II Formula Grants program or its Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG) program. The Title II Formula Grants program provides grants to organizations to run projects that aim to reduce juvenile delinquency or improve the juvenile justice system. The Juvenile Accountability Block Grants (JABG) program provides funding to state government agencies to distribute to local or tribal programming that promotes accountability – i.e., holding offenders responsible for their delinquent behavior through community service, monetary payment, or reconciliation between juvenile offenders and victims.

The new center is assisting state agencies and other organizations in tackling a number of difficult problems that the juvenile justice systems face—disproportionate minority representation, mental health and substance abuse, deinstitutionalizing status offenders, and gang involvement. In terms of the disproportionate representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice system, for example, while only 16% of the U.S. youth population is African American, African American youth make up 28% of youth who are arrested, 30% of youth who are adjudicated, and 37% of youth who are placed in locked facilities. The STTAC will work to enhance agencies’ capacities to address these challenges by working with them to improve their overall service delivery, enhance their data collection efforts, and increase their implementation of evidence-based programs. The new center was launched in the fall of 2011 and has begun to deliver services to these audiences. For more information on AIR’s work in juvenile justice, see the following link: http://www.air.org/juvenilejustice.