UNM, First Judicial DA Office project awarded Institutional Challenge Grant

A partnership between The University of New Mexico and the State of New Mexico's First Judicial District Attorney's Office was selected as one of this year's Institutional Challenge Grants by the William T. Grant Foundation.

The partnership is to reduce racial and ethnic inequalities in the juvenile justice system through a deflection and diversion program. Led by a multidisciplinary team of faculty, graduate students, researchers and the First District Attorney's office, the project has been running since 2020 with the help of grants like this one.

Jennifer Perillo, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Sociology & Criminology Department Chair Lisa Broidy and Jennifer Padgett Macias, managing chief deputy district attorney, received the grant to support their work on youth and young adult diversion in an area covering Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba Counties. This grant will allow the pilot diversion program to both expand and carefully evaluate/refine it. It also aims to enhance recognition, support, and resources for community-engaged scholarship at UNM.

"The First Judicial District is an ideal agency partner because they recognize the need for alternatives to incarceration for youth and young adults and are interested in working with community partners to provide supports and services to reduce system involvement. Moreover, they recognize that the burdens that system involvement introduces for youth and their families fall most heavily on racial and ethnic minorities. This program aims to reduce some of these systemic inequities."

- Grant partners

According to the William T. Grant Foundation, each grantee will receive a three-year award of $650,000, with the opportunity to apply for an additional $350,000 in funding afterward.

"We were all really excited and it was a joy to share the news with our community partners, who are very invested in the project and its long-term success and sustainability," Perillo, Broidy and Padgett Macias said.

Three other universities received the 2025 grant for their partnerships:

• Pennsylvania State University, in partnership with the Office of Children, Youth, and Families, aims to enhance post-secondary outcomes for foster youth as they age out of care.
• Tulane University, collaborating with the Center for Restorative Approaches and New Orleans Public Schools, seeks to address the disproportionate impact of gun violence on Black youth.
• Boston University, in collaboration with the Indiana Department of Education, is focused on developing educational policies to improve outcomes for students with disabilities and multilingual learners.

For more information on the grant, visit the Foundation's website.