The following activities occurred during this reporting period:
• Newly released resources were added to the COSSUP Resource Center website, as well as new announcements, funding opportunities, and learning opportunities.
• The IIR team continued to maintain and update the OFR Peer Mentor Site Opportunities section of the COSSUP Resource Center website, which offers users the opportunity to request a virtual site visit, review OFR peer mentor/mentee information, and learn about the OFR peer mentor sites—which serve as models for individuals and teams interested in starting a program or for more established programs interested in learning innovative practices.
• The IIR team continued to support the COSSUP Evidence-based Treatment in Custody, Jail-based Mentor Site Initiative process via the corresponding section of the COSSUP Resource Center website and continued to maintain the online mentee application form and details of the mentor sites, in support of AHP, a fellow TTA provider. Planning and work are under way to re-open the mentor site selection process, and the IIR team is assisting in revising this section of the website and the mentor application form when the time comes.
• The IIR team continued to maintain and support the First Responder Deflection Mentoring Initiative (formerly known as the Law Enforcement/First Responder Diversion and Referral Mentoring Initiative), which is housed in a dedicated section of the COSSUP Resource Center website. An online mentoring initiative site visit application form is offered to support fellow TTA provider CHJ in receiving and adjudicating applications. An overview of the First Responder Deflection Mentoring Initiative and information about the mentor sites are provided for those in the field who wish to learn about the initiative.
• IIR team members continued to maintain the COSSUP Message Exchange—a discussion platform—to provide for the informal sharing of ideas, opinions, and interests; the building of community; and the facilitation of peer-to-peer engagement.
• The IIR team continued to maintain the COSSUP Data Visualization Tool, which is a feature of the COSSUP Resource Center website that identifies the communities, states, territories, and regions that are included in the COSSUP initiative’s site-based program and gives an overview of the activities undertaken by the grant recipients. The tool’s components provide overall views of the data while also allowing users to drill down to see more granular information about a specific site. The data visualization tool enables interested persons to see the types of agencies that received funds, where those agencies are located, the projects and activities that are being done at each site, and site profiles. The goal of the COSSUP Data Visualization Tool is to promote and increase transparency, collaboration, and data sharing among COSSUP sites, partner agencies, and officials.
• The TTA Tracker—a secure administrative feature of the COSSUP Resource Center website that allows TTA providers to report details about TTA, change the status of TTA information, and search the TTA database—continued to be maintained during this reporting period.
• The IIR team, in coordination with BJA, began an enhancement to the database currently known as the TTA Tracker that would expand it to be a central repository for not only TTA information, but also deliverables, in a format required for BJA National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) reporting twice a year. The data could be exported from the dashboard by the TTA providers at NTTAC reporting time and imported into the NTTAC reporting portal. These changes will result in TTA providers only needing to enter information in one location (the expanded database), thereby eliminating duplicative efforts. The IT team will also build an import tool so that TTA providers do not have to perform a one-by-one entry of each lower-level TTA request or full TTA request received via a method other than the requestor submitting the online TTA request form, which will streamline COSSUP TTA data entry. This enhanced database is expected to be completed early in the next reporting period.
• Success stories continued to be solicited from COSSUP grantees to be featured in the COSSUP Digest and added to the Success Stories section within the About COSSUP section of the COSSUP Resource Center website. The success stories are from the field to highlight the valuable work of the COSSUP grantees and their programs, initiatives, and/or campaigns. The hope is that these featured stories will not only showcase the exemplary work that the COSSUP grantees are doing in their communities but will also serve in an educational capacity for other communities that want to start or expand similar programs, initiatives, or campaigns.
• The IIR team is offering quality control, editorial, and technical assistance on Module 3, Module 4, and Module 5 of the Effective Integration of Peer Recovery Support Services Training Series—a self-directed online training developed by Altarum, a COSSUP TTA provider. It is anticipated that these modules will be finalized and published on the COSSUP Resource Center early in the next reporting period.
• A special National Recovery Month section of the COSSUP Resource Center website was launched on September 1, 2023, in recognition of Recovery Month 2023 and to highlight recovery-related products that COSSUP TTA providers produced.
• One highlight of the 2023 Recovery Month deliverables was the Champions of Recovery video series. Each video features a person in recovery or a practitioner in the field of recovery telling his or her personal story, including information about the recovery journey and the partnerships that are vital to supporting those in recovery. Each COSSUP TTA provider was responsible for identifying four people to share their stories as Champions of Recovery. IIR handled the scheduling, recording, and editing of each video, as well as posting the completed videos to the COSSUP Resource Center website. The videos are also shared on the COSSUP Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• The IIR team continued to maintain The Deflection Conversation Framework: A Community Engagement Tool for First Responders training on the COSSUP Resource Center website. The training was developed by CHJ, a COSSUP TTA provider.
• Work continued on a Research/Evaluation and Practitioner-Researcher Partnerships section that will include information about and resources from NIJ, BJA’s Center for Research Partnerships and Program Evaluation (CRPPE), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN). The IIR IT team is developing the new Web page, and the draft textual content was sent to the BJA team for review. The BJA team then forwarded the draft content to COSSUP TTA provider RTI International for its revisions. It is anticipated that the new section will be published during the next reporting period.
• During this reporting period, planning calls were held with AHP and BJA regarding further enhancements to the Jail Resources section of the COSSUP Resource Center website. It is anticipated that the enhancements will take two phases to complete, with the first phase being completed in the next reporting period.
• On July 7, 2023, a series of five MAT in Rural Jails podcasts was added to the COSSUP Resource Center website. IIR assisted AHP, a COSSUP TTA provider, with the recording and editing of the podcasts.
• The IIR team continues to maintain the Reaching Rural microsite. It will be updated as new resources become available.
• On August 30, 2023, an extensive enhancement of the COSSUP Resource Center website to make it even more user-friendly, streamlined, and efficient was published. The enhancement project included an update to the homepage to better direct users to the sections or resources that they need; an enhanced search functionality, including a natural language artificial intelligence mechanism that is developed to better understand the user’s intent; and a clearinghouse type of comprehensive resource library in which all of the resources and products on the website will be categorized by topic to make it easier and more efficient for users to find what they need. In addition, the website was rebranded from the COSSAP Resource Center to the COSSUP Resource Center.
• Planning continued on adding a new subpage focusing on stigma, possibly modeled after the First Responder Deflection Library that is already a part of the COSSUP Resource Center website.
• Discussions were held about adding a Harm Reduction Online Toolkit to the COSSUP Resource Center website.
• During the last reporting period, on June 12, the 2023 COSSUP National Forum section of the Resource Center website was published. It was updated as new information and resources became available in advance of the event, which was held on August 29 – 31, 2023. The IIR team continues to maintain this section as an archival resource featuring information, resources, and recordings from the 2023 COSSUP National Forum.
• A 2023 COSSUP National Forum mobile app was developed and designed to maximize attendees’ COSSUP National Forum experiences and learning opportunities. It was released in August 2023 in advance of the 2023 COSSUP National Forum, which was held on August 29 – 31, 2023. The mobile app was made available in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store.
• From July 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023, the COSSUP Resource Center website had:
25,211 unique users.
48,739 user sessions (the period a user was actively engaged with the COSSUP Resource Center website).
138,533 page views.
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