The Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program (COSSAP) supports states, units of local government, and tribal governments to plan, develop, and implement comprehensive efforts that identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by illicit opioids, stimulants, and other drugs. COSSAP funding provides necessary resources that allow communities to respond to illicit substance use and misuse to reduce overdose deaths; promote public safety; and support access to prevention, harm-reduction, treatment, and recovery services in the community and justice system. The program also promotes cross-system planning and coordination to deliver a broad range of evidence-based, culturally relevant interventions.
Funds may be used to develop, implement, or expand a combination of the allowable use activities described below, or be concentrated on one, so long as the proposed budget is appropriate and justified.
- Identifiable and accessible prescription drug take-back programs for unused controlled substances found in the home and used by hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other facilities.
- Law enforcement and other first responder deflection and diversion programs. A variety of multidisciplinary overdose prevention, response, and diversion and referral models (including mobile crisis units and co-responder models), led by law enforcement and other first responders, have emerged in communities throughout the nation.
- Comprehensive, real-time, regional information collection, analysis, and dissemination that promote the use of data for responses to overdoses and emerging drug trends. These types of activities may include the use of data dashboards, Overdose Detection and Mapping Application Program (ODMAP), Overdose Fatality Review, and forensic epidemiologists and technologies.
- Naloxone for law enforcement, first responders, jail staff, and other justice system practitioners.
- Substance use education and prevention programs to connect law enforcement agencies with K-12 students.
- Pre-booking or post-booking treatment alternative-to-incarceration programs, such as pretrial, prosecutor, and court diversion or intervention programs, that serve individuals at high risk for overdose or SUD.
- Court programming to prioritize and expedite treatment and recovery services for individuals at high risk for overdose, as well as services for children and youth impacted by their parents' or other family members' substance use.
- Evidence-based SUD treatment related to opioids, stimulants, and other illicit drugs, such as MAT, contingency management, and motivational interviewing, as well as harm reduction activities and recovery support service engagement with the pre-trial and post trial populations in and reentering the community from local or regional jails or secure residential treatment facilities.
- Transitional or recovery housing and recovery support services, including access to physical and behavioral health care benefits, counseling services, employment services, and education services, and peer support services for those reentering the community from jails or secure residential treatment facilities. Note: No more than 30 percent of total grant funds may be used for transitional or recovery housing.
- Embedding social workers, peers, and/or persons with lived experience at any intercept of the Sequential Intercept Model to assist persons with justice involvement and their families navigate the justice system and to increase their connection to treatment and recovery support services. This includes law enforcement, pretrial and probation agencies, prosecutor-led programs, legal defense agencies, child welfare agencies, courts, and jails to support community reentry.
- Field-initiated projects that bring together justice, behavioral health, and public health practitioners to implement new or promising practices that may not yet have a research base in addressing the impact of opioids, stimulants, and other substances on individuals and communities at risk of or having justice system involvement. This includes the application of evidence-based strategies from other fields, such as health initiatives that have not yet been fully examined in the justice context. Applications for field-initiated projects must include a research partner.
OJP will provide priority consideration when making award decisions to the following:
- Applications that propose project(s) that are designed to meaningfully advance equity and remove barriers to accessing services and opportunities for communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.
- Applicants that demonstrate that their capabilities and competencies for implementing their proposed project(s) are enhanced because they (or at least one proposed subrecipient that will receive at least 40 percent of the requested award funding, as demonstrated in the Budget web-based form) are a population specific organization that serves communities that have been historically underserved, marginalized, adversely affected by inequality, and disproportionately impacted by crime, violence, and victimization.
OJP will also give priority consideration to applications in Category 1 that include a research partner. Research partnerships in Category 2 are required.
Since 2017, BJA has supported innovative work in over 200 COAP sites. Examples of successful BJA-funded COAP projects can be found at: https://www.coapresources.org/#COAPHOME
For each category, only one application by any particular applicant entity will be considered. An entity may, however, be proposed as a subrecipient (subgrantee) in more than one application. This includes applications that propose to serve a region that crosses state boundaries. Subrecipients may include treatment providers, victim service providers, and other not-for-profit entities as part of a comprehensive cross-disciplinary response as outlined in Categories 1 and 2. If an agency wishes to apply under multiple categories, a separate application is needed for each category of funding