Indiana Court Improvement Program (CIP) Grants

The Indiana Court Improvement Program (CIP) is offering grant funding to assist applicants by improving outcomes for children and families involved in Children in Need of Services (CHINS) and Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) court proceedings.

Funding may be requested for one or more of the following purposes:

• Basic Court Improvements. Programs/projects intended to improve the court process for handling CHINS and TPR proceedings and/or that are intended to improve safety, permanency, and wellbeing outcomes for children and families. Programs/projects eligible for basic court improvement funding include, but are not limited to: 
• Mediation in CHINS or TPR cases
• Programs/projects aimed at removing barriers to permanency, improving time to permanency or improving permanency outcomes for families and children
• National Adoption Month Activities
• New and innovative programs/projects that further the goals of the CIP
• Data Collection and Analysis.  Programs/projects intended to improve CHINS and TPR proceedings using a data-informed approach. Programs/projects eligible for data collection and analysis funding include, but are not limited to:
• Collecting child welfare data and/or outcomes
• Developing child welfare data collection infrastructure
• Developing tools necessary for data sharing among child welfare stakeholders
• Adopting and implementing court performance measures for CHINS and TPR cases
• Evaluating current CHINS/TPR related programs/projects;
• Evaluating strategies to help identify reforms to improve child welfare outcomes
• Training. Training and education programs to increase child welfare expertise within the legal community or facilitate cross-training opportunities between DCS, courts, and other stakeholders involved in the child welfare system. Programs/projects eligible for training and education funding include, but are not limited to:
• Increasing judicial and attorney knowledge and expertise
• Cross-training with multidisciplinary stakeholders in child welfare matters (i.e., court personnel, DCS staff, Parent and children attorneys, GAL/CASAs, probation officers, community stakeholders)
• Child welfare-related training programs and materials 

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)