The New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) Monday announced the launch of the FY2025 New Jersey Locally Empowered, Accountable and Determined (NJLEAD) grant program. The NJLEAD initiative provides support to community-based organizations and municipalities to assist individuals transitioning from incarceration back into their communities. Applications for this grant are due on May 25, 2025.
NJLEAD grants are designed to enhance New Jersey’s comprehensive system of reentry services by supporting the formerly incarcerated. The New Jersey State FY2025 budget allocates $7 million in funding for NJLEAD grantees that provide essential services for the formerly incarcerated including housing, vocational training, work readiness, family unification and trauma treatment. Eligible applicants include nonprofits, for-profits, municipalities and public agencies that provide services to pre-release and formerly incarcerated individuals.
“The reentry services supported by NJLEAD grants are an important tool we have in New Jersey to help support the individuals entering our communities after their incarceration,” said NJDOC Commissioner Victoria L. Kuhn, Esq. “The good news is that reentry services work. For the third year in a row, the recidivism rate in New Jersey is less than 5%, making it one of the lowest in the nation and shows that those who leave the NJDOC are not returning to prison on new convictions.”
“NJLEAD partners play a crucial role in the state’s reentry process. At the local level, they deliver holistic support that spans the full spectrum of needs pre-release and for those released from prison, from securing housing and employment to reconnecting families and creating a sense of community engagement,” said Dr. Darcella Patterson Sessomes, NJDOC chief of Programs and Reintegration Services.
There are four key award categories in the FY2025 NJLEAD grant:
- Category A: Supports municipalities to provide Municipal Reintegration Services Coordinator services to ensure returning individuals’ successful reintegration into the community and to promote community engagement and family support.
- Category B: Supports organizations or associations to provide Reentry Supportive Services through case management to increase and improve successful reentry outcomes.
- Category C: Supports public entities, nonprofit community-based organizations or associations to implement innovative entrepreneurial development that will improve the ability of prerelease or the formerly incarcerated to achieve economic stability and independence.
- Category D: Supports municipal or state government entities, for-profit and nonprofit community-based organizations or associations to implement innovative prerelease evidence-based services.
To ensure accountability and drive improvement, the NJLEAD grant program tracks outcomes of funded initiatives. Here are some key highlights from recent years:
- In 2023, approximately 4,000 prerelease service referrals were completed, and 2,000 prerelease individuals expressed interest in accessing services upon their release.
- Since 2023, over 1,300 individuals released from New Jersey state prisons received services from NJLEAD grant partners.
- The most common services provided by NJLEAD partners are emergency and transitional housing, transportation, employment readiness and training and sustenance assistance.
Interested organizations and agencies can apply here to the FY2025 NJLEAD grant.
