FY 23 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) National Level Resources, Training and Technical Assistance | O COPS 2023 171541

Opportunity Information: Apply for O COPS 2023 171541

The FY 23 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) National Level Resources, Training and Technical Assistance opportunity is a Department of Justice COPS Office discretionary funding program that supports community policing by strengthening officer wellness in ways that ultimately improve public safety and community trust. It is designed to help law enforcement agencies address the real-world impacts of job stress and the stigma around seeking help, which can contribute to outcomes like burnout, family strain, substance misuse, injuries, and elevated suicide risk. Rather than funding direct local programs in a single region, this solicitation is built around national-scale capacity building: creating practical resources and delivering training and technical assistance that can be used by agencies across the country.

Funding is offered through cooperative agreements, with an expectation of close coordination with the COPS Office on key deliverables. The solicitation anticipates two total awards, each with a ceiling of up to $250,000. The opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number: O-COPS-2023-171541; CFDA: 16.710) was released on February 21, 2023, with an original closing date of April 14, 2023. The program’s statutory authority comes from the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (as amended) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Title I, Part Q (34 U.S.C. 10381 et seq.), and awards remain subject to appropriations and any legal requirements that may be added or modified.

At its core, the COPS Office is looking for projects that identify, expand, and spread promising practices in officer mental health and wellness, and then translate those practices into usable guidance for the field. The solicitation emphasizes that the knowledge products and training developed under this grant should reflect “good guidance” principles: they should be quality-driven and action-oriented (clear steps agencies can take), evidence-based (aligned with the best available research identified through systematic review), accessible (plain language and practical length for law enforcement audiences), and memorable (easy to apply in complex, high-stress situations). The intent is not just to raise awareness, but to drive consistent, real improvements in how agencies build, manage, and sustain wellness supports.

The required scope is explicitly national. Applicants must be able to show how they will deliver nationwide resources, training, and technical assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies. Priority topic areas include officer emotional and mental health, peer mentoring, suicide prevention, stress reduction, and peer and family support services for officers. The program also reflects broader COPS Office priorities such as advancing civil rights and racial equity, increasing access to justice, supporting victims and people impacted by the justice system, strengthening community safety, and building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Eligible applicants include public governmental agencies, federally recognized tribes, for-profit organizations, nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, community groups, and faith-based organizations. The solicitation also makes several clear exclusions. Projects will be considered out of scope if they are not national in focus (for example, efforts that only directly benefit one geographic area or a limited local set of agencies). Projects are also out of scope if they do not center on developing or providing training, resources, or technical assistance that builds agency capacity in officer emotional and mental health, suicide prevention, and peer and family support services. In addition, proposals that focus only on health screenings or fitness programs, without the broader mental health and wellness capacity-building components described above, are not responsive to the solicitation.

Applicants are encouraged to use existing LEMHWA groundwork, particularly the LEMHWA Report to Congress and the accompanying Eleven Case Studies, to shape realistic, field-tested training and resource strategies. The project narrative is expected to explain how proposed activities will support wellness within the agencies served, define the intended service area and program scale (such as serving one agency versus multiple agencies, while still maintaining national reach through dissemination and support), describe the subject matter expertise of project leadership, and explain how the provider will measure impact. For proposals that include site-specific work (for instance, piloting or validating materials with particular departments), letters of support from targeted agencies are strongly encouraged, since they help demonstrate access, feasibility, and real-world adoption.

Deliverables are a central feature of this opportunity. Award recipients are expected to produce nationally distributable resources such as toolkits, publications, and other practical products, along with providing technical assistance and delivering training that can be used broadly across the country. Training deliverables have specific platform and implementation requirements: they must be compatible with the COPS Office Training Portal, include virtual training files developed in coordination with the Portal team through beta testing and release, and include certification of the training. Applicants are also expected to follow the COPS Office Editorial and Style Manual for deliverables, reinforcing that the end products should be consistent, usable, and ready for national distribution.

For questions, the solicitation directs applicants to the COPS Office Response Center (800-421-6770) or AskCopsRC@usdoj.gov, available Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, excluding federal holidays.

• The Department of Justice, Community Oriented Policing Services in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 23 Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act (LEMHWA) National Level Resources, Training and Technical Assistance" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.710.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 21, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 14, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O COPS 2023 171541

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: