OJJDP's FY 2026 Opioid Affected Youth Initiative: $8.92M, 12 Awards of Up to $750,000, a November 16 Deadline and a New Priority List Built Around Street Disorder
October 23, 2026 · 7 min read
Granted Research Team · Editorial policy
On October 9, 2026, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) released the FY 2026 Opioid Affected Youth Initiative (opportunity number O-OJJDP-2026-172748). It is the second round of this program to appear in 2026. The FY 2025 round (O-OJJDP-2025-172510) was posted late, and its applications were due in early May 2026. The FY 2026 round followed five months later.
The basic numbers:
- Total funding: $8,920,000
- Anticipated awards: 12
- Award ceiling: up to $750,000
- Period of performance: 36 months, starting January 1, 2027
- Match: none
- SAM.gov: OJJDP says to start by October 16 and finish no later than October 30, 2026
- Step 1, Grants.gov (SF-424): November 16, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET
- Step 2, JustGrants: November 23, 2026, 8:59 p.m. ET
One detail in the arithmetic matters. Twelve awards at the $750,000 ceiling would cost $9,000,000, which is $80,000 more than the pool. At least one award will come in under the ceiling, and probably several. The average is about $743,000. In practice, OJJDP is funding a dozen roughly $250,000-a-year projects, and an applicant asking for $700,000 is not at a disadvantage compared with one asking for $750,000.
What the program funds
The FY 2026 NOFO describes the purpose as supporting "states, localities, Tribal jurisdictions, and non-profit organizations in addressing violent crime and reducing overdose deaths through prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies to support children, youth, and families affected by opioid, stimulant, and other substance use disorders."
There is one goal and three objectives:
- Collaborate with juvenile and criminal justice systems to address the needs of children, youth and families affected by substance use
- Deliver prevention, intervention and treatment programs aimed at reducing violent crime and preventing overdose deaths
- Provide integrated services for parents and children that support family stability, treatment and sustained recovery
OJJDP expects applicants to work with law enforcement, juvenile and criminal justice agencies, schools, mental health and child welfare providers, community health agencies and community organizations. The target population is children, youth and families "at risk for or already in the child welfare or justice systems."
The framing has moved compared with how this initiative was described in earlier years, when it focused on data-driven, cross-system coordination around the opioid epidemic. Two phrases now lead: violent crime and overdose deaths. An application that presents itself mainly as public health work, without a clear connection to justice-system outcomes, is now further from what OJJDP is asking for.
Objective 3 is the least crowded opportunity in the NOFO. Two-generation models, where a parent's treatment and a child's services are delivered together, fit the language directly. Family treatment courts, residential treatment that lets children stay with a parent, and recovery housing for families all qualify. For a related OJJDP program with the same deadline, see our analysis of the FY 2026 Family Treatment Court program. The two programs can support different parts of the same local system, but each application must describe a different project.
Who can apply
- State governments
- County, city and township governments
- Other units of local government (towns, boroughs, parishes, villages)
- Federally recognized tribal governments
- Nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, other than institutions of higher education
Universities and for-profit firms cannot apply as the lead. Universities can still be subrecipients, usually for evaluation or data work.
Only one entity can be the applicant, and partners must be listed as subrecipients. An organization can submit more than one application if each proposes a different project, and a partner can appear as a subrecipient on several applications. A county behavioral health agency, for example, could be the treatment subrecipient on both a sheriff's office application and a nonprofit's application.
There is no narrative: the questionnaire format
This NOFO does not ask for a proposal narrative. Applicants fill out a Proposal Questionnaire in JustGrants, and each answer is limited to "1 to 2 paragraphs." The scoring:
| Section | Weight |
|---|---|
| Project Design and Implementation | 35% |
| Capabilities and Competencies | 30% |
| Project Goals and Objectives | 15% |
| Budget | 15% |
| Description of the Need | 5% |
Two features of this table should shape how you spend your writing time.
Need is worth only 5%. Applicants often fill the first third of an application with overdose statistics. Here, two short paragraphs with local data, such as youth overdose deaths, child welfare removals involving parental substance use, and juvenile drug arrests, earn nearly all the available points. Use the remaining effort elsewhere.
Capabilities and Competencies is worth 30%. That is twice the usual OJP weight, and it matches the design section almost point for point. The questions ask about your capacity to deliver the project and meet post-award requirements, past projects that show you can do the work, and the experience of key staff. With one to two paragraphs per question, the most persuasive answers are specific: name past federal awards by number, report actual outcomes from similar programs, and give the qualifications of the project director in one sentence. Attach resumes for key personnel.
The Design section has seven sub-questions (activities, delivery, timing, staffing, participants, deliverables and subrecipients), all to be answered within the same one-to-two-paragraph limit. Write tightly. A clear timeline attachment, which the NOFO requires, lets you move scheduling detail out of the questionnaire and save space.
The new priority tier: "Ending Crime and Disorder"
All FY 2026 OJP solicitations include the standard agency priorities: supporting law enforcement operations, including immigration enforcement; combating violent crime; supporting services to American citizens; protecting American children; and supporting victims of trafficking and sexual assault. Protecting American children and combating violent crime fit this program naturally.
This NOFO adds a second set of criteria. Priority consideration will also go "to applicants in states and units of local government that actively":
- Enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use
- Enforce prohibitions on urban camping and loitering
- Enforce prohibitions on urban squatting
- Enforce, and adopt where necessary, standards for people who are a danger to themselves or others because of serious mental illness or substance use disorder, through assisted outpatient treatment or civil commitment
- For state applicants, substantially implement Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act obligations, including tracking registrants with no fixed address
Applicants claim these through a separate JustGrants form, the Agency Funding Priorities Inventory: Ending Crime and Disorder. The list follows the administration's 2025 executive order on crime and disorder on America's streets.
Two points for applicants:
- The wording is about where the applicant is located. The phrase "applicants in states and units of local government that actively meet" these criteria can be read to cover a nonprofit operating in a jurisdiction that meets them, not only a government applicant. If you are a nonprofit, ask the OJP Response Center (OJP.ResponseCenter@usdoj.gov, 800-851-3420) before the deadline whether you may claim your city's or state's status, and keep the answer in writing.
- Criterion 4 fits this program. Many states have expanded assisted outpatient treatment or involuntary commitment for substance use in recent years. If your state has such a law and your project connects youth or parents to court-ordered treatment, the priority describes something your project actually does. Cite the statute.
As always, OJP notes that priority consideration "does not guarantee funding," and only the priorities you actually advance should be claimed.
What to keep out of the budget and scope
The standard OJP FY 2026 unallowable-activities language applies: nothing that violates or hinders enforcement of federal immigration law, including 8 U.S.C. 1373; nothing that violates federal civil rights law, including programs that "unlawfully favor individuals in any race or protected group"; and no legal services for removable people, except legal services to obtain protection orders for crime victims and services required by law.
The NOFO does not specifically ban any harm reduction tool. However, given the solicitation's focus on violent crime and enforcement, applicants should build budgets around treatment, prevention, family services and justice-system coordination rather than harm reduction supplies. Naloxone training for families and school staff falls clearly within the overdose-prevention objective. Anything a reviewer might read as supporting drug use is a risk this NOFO gives you no reason to take.
Where this money sits in the larger funding picture
At $8.92 million, this is a small federal program compared with the opioid settlement money now flowing to states and counties. It is useful in a different way: it is flexible, it requires no match, and it funds three years of coordination work across systems that settlement committees often avoid. A county that is already using settlement funds for adult treatment can use an OJJDP award for the youth and family side, provided the budget does not pay twice for the same costs. The JustGrants Disclosure of Duplication in Cost Items form exists for exactly this situation.
Philanthropy is moving in a similar direction. Bloomberg Philanthropies' newest overdose commitment is concentrated on jails and emergency departments, as we described in our analysis of its $150 million expansion. Projects that connect justice-involved parents to treatment while supporting their children fit both funding streams.
A three-week plan
- This week: confirm SAM.gov is active. OJJDP's October 30 deadline for registration is a week away.
- Get subrecipient commitments now. Treatment providers, child welfare agencies and schools need to agree to their roles and budgets before you can answer the design questions.
- If you applied to the FY 2025 round in May and were not funded, use whatever reviewer feedback you received. The pool size ($8.96 million then, $8.92 million now) and the $750,000 ceiling are nearly unchanged.
- Write the Capabilities answers first. They are worth 30%, and they are the answers that cannot be improved at the last minute.
- Submit the SF-424 early. Grants.gov on November 16 is the deadline that actually ends applications. JustGrants on November 23 only works if Step 1 has been completed.
If you are building an application, Granted can help you draft tight questionnaire answers, check them against the scoring criteria and organize the attachments before the November 16 deadline.