Grants & Funding

The purpose of this award is to allow the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators (NAVAA) to implement the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) Community Awareness Project in coordination with NCVRW 2013. This program furthers the Department’s mission by supporting public awareness, community outreach, and education activities for crime victims’ rights and services. NAVAA will offer limited technical assistance to selected projects to enhance their ability to promote community collaboration and publicize their local NCVRW events. More details are available in the solicitation.

The grantee will develop the 2013 National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) Resource Guide, which will serve as a ready-made, adaptable resource for victim services providers and allied professionals across the country to use during 2013 NCVRW and throughout the year. The Resource Guide assists the crime victims’ field in their efforts to heighten the public’s awareness of crime victim issues. More details are available in the solicitation.

This program furthers the Department’s mission by fostering partnerships among OVC, the victim services field, and national membership, professional, and community service organizations to advance victims’ rights and improve victims’ services through training, public awareness, and educational efforts, with a focus on responding to polyvictimization. More details are available in the solicitation.

The American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Training and Technical Assistance Program will provide resources and coordination to increase AI/AN tribal communities’ ability to provide comprehensive and culturally appropriate services to crime victims, their families, and the community. Using a victim-centered approach designed to foster dignity and spiritual, mental, and physical health in victims, their families, and the community, the selected organization will assist OVC in supporting the training and technical assistance needs of AI/AN communities that receive grant funds under Purpose Area 7 (Children’s Justice Act Partnerships for Indian Communities) and Purpose Area 8 (Comprehensive Tribal Victim Assistance Program) of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) as well as other AI/AN communities. More details are available in the solicitation.

In 2011, under the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner-Sexual Assault Response Team (SANE-SART) Initiative, OVC awarded funds to three sites—federally recognized Indian tribal governments and AI/AN organizations—to enhance the capability of victim service providers in AI/AN communities to better respond to the needs and rights of all victims of sexual violence. It is anticipated that over the course of several years, each site will build on its existing coordinated community response to implement effective and sustainable victim-centered, multidisciplinary sexual assault services and support from a victim’s initial point of contact (e.g., law enforcement report, sexual assault exam) through the prosecution process. Check out the AI/AN SANE-SART weblet on a regular basis for progress updates.

Through the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner–Sexual Assault Response Team (SANE-SART) Program, OVC provides support to enhance the AI/AN community capacity to provide victim‐centered and coordinated community sexual assault responses to adult and child victims from the initial point of contact through prosecution. As part of this program, OVC seeks the assistance of a training and technical assistance (TTA) provider that recognizes the importance of culture, history, traditions, and spirituality—inherent in the AI/AN community—and is capable of supporting the development and implementation of evidence‐based sexual assault intervention strategies for tribal communities. More details are available in the solicitation.

The Antiterrorism and Emergency Assistance Program provides federal funds to support crisis response, consequence management, criminal justice support, crime victim compensation, and training and technical assistance during the aftermath of a domestic incident of terrorism and mass violence.

The goal of Purpose Area 7 of the U.S. Department of Justice Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) is to develop, establish, and operate programs that provide comprehensive and coordinated multidisciplinary responses to child abuse victims and their families, and provide trauma-informed, culturally competent, holistic services to child abuse victims and their families. CTAS furthers the Department’s mission by providing federally recognized Tribes and tribal consortia an opportunity to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach to public safety and victimization issues, and to apply for funding to reduce and prevent crime and victimization. More details are available in the solicitation.

The goal of Purpose Area 8 of the U.S. Department of Justice Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) is to develop or enhance and sustain a comprehensive victim assistance program that provides a coordinated, collaborative, multidisciplinary response to victims of crime, their families, and community and provides trauma-informed, culturally competent, holistic services to victims of crime, family, and community. CTAS furthers the Department’s mission by providing federally recognized Tribes and Tribal consortia an opportunity to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach to public safety and victimization issues, and to apply for funding to reduce and prevent crime and victimization. More details are available in the solicitation.

The FY 2012 Enhanced Collaborative Model to Combat Human Trafficking Program supports multidisciplinary, anti-human trafficking task forces in executing a comprehensive approach to combating all forms of trafficking, including sex trafficking and labor trafficking of foreign nationals and U.S. citizens (male and female, adults and minors). Funding under this program will support seven victim service organizations in providing trauma-informed, culturally competent services to victims of human trafficking in partnership with seven Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)-funded law enforcement agencies. Together, these OVC and BJA-funded grantees will implement multidisciplinary task forces to proactively identify, investigate, and prosecute trafficking crimes while providing comprehensive services to victims. More details are available in the solicitation.

Authorized by the Victims of Crime Act, the OVC Fellowship Program was established in 2002 and provides a valuable public service to the Nation while giving victim service practitioners an exciting and rewarding opportunity to work at OVC offices in Washington, D.C. Fellows provide direct operational assistance to OVC in designing and developing innovative or enhanced service initiatives, management systems, training programs, capacity-building initiatives, and program evaluation efforts.

The Identifying Culturally Responsive Victim-Centered Restorative Justice (VCRJ) Strategies Project will identify, examine, and document effective victim-centered restorative justice practices that are culturally responsive, with an emphasis on those practices implemented in tribal communities, urban inner city areas, and practices involving youth. More details are available in the solicitation.

The National Field-Generated Training, Technical Assistance, and Demonstration Projects Program addresses demonstrated gaps in training or technical assistance or in the knowledge base of victim service practitioners nationwide. The aim of the program is to enhance the provision of services and support to crime victims to further ensure that all victims are afforded the rights to which they are due. All initiatives are national in scope and focus on improving the capacity of victim services providers and allied practitioners to provide services to adult and child crime victims who experience polyvictimization. More details are available in the solicitation.

The National Field‐Generated Training, Technical Assistance, and Demonstration Projects Program addresses demonstrated gaps in training or technical assistance or in the knowledge base of victim service practitioners nationwide. The aim of the program is to enhance the provision of services and support to crime victims to further ensure that all victims are afforded the rights to which they are due. All initiatives are national in scope and focus on improving the capacity of victim service providers and allied practitioners in advancing rights and services for crime victims in the areas of:

• Child pornography.
• Drunk and impaired driving.
• Mortgage fraud.
• Sexual assault within correctional settings.
• Coordinated state‐tribal crime victim services.
• Long‐term mental health and other consequences of mass violence.
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ) crime victims’ access to mainstream victim services.
• Services for young male victims of color.
• Using technology to improve and enhance victim services.

More details are available in the solicitation.

OVC will continue supplemental funding to the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, Inc.:

• To expand the outreach and capacity of victim service programs throughout the Nation (via the National Identity Theft Victims Assistance Network—NITVAN).
• To better address the rights and needs of victims of identity theft by establishing collaborative regional, statewide, or community‐based coalitions dedicated to improving the response to victims of identity theft.

The 3-year effort includes:

• Planning and outreach (Year 1);
• Distributing up to 10 competitive subawards of up to $50,000 each to regional, statewide, or community‐based coalitions to help them provide networking and training to those coalitions funded primarily in the second year (Year 2).
• Evaluating and replicating program models (year 3).

More details are available in the solicitation.

This project will continue to develop innovative, multidisciplinary education models (i.e., classroom, online, clinical) that address victimization issues and responses to crime victims that can be integrated into university or college curricula and faculty development. The University of Massachusetts Lowell and its partners in the University of Massachusetts system—the University of Massachusetts Boston, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (at Worcester)—will assist in providing comprehensive and quality education and training to future victim service providers and allied professionals that will ultimately improve the enforcement of rights for crime victims and the delivery of services to them. More details are available in the solicitation.

The Americans Overseas Domestic Violence Crisis Center will strengthen and expand a comprehensive array of timely and high-quality services for American victims of domestic violence and their dependents who are living abroad. The center will enhance the response to American victims of domestic violence abroad by finalizing information bulletins to disseminate to the field. More details are available in the solicitation.

The FY 2012 Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Program provides funding to victim service organizations with a demonstrated history of providing trauma-informed, culturally competent services to male and female victims of sex trafficking and labor trafficking. Funding under this program will support either a comprehensive array of services for trafficking victims in specific geographic areas or specialized mental health or legal services over larger geographic areas. Funding will also support efforts to increase the capacity of communities to respond to victims by developing interagency partnerships and public outreach and awareness campaigns. More details are available in the solicitation.

The purpose of this project is to develop a national telemedicine center to administer sexual assault forensic medical exam services to four pilot sites that will be selected—through a separate solicitation issued by the recipient of this award—in partnership with OVC. The telemedicine center will provide live access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners who will use cutting-edge audiovisual technology to walk health care providers through forensic medical examinations. Sites may include rural, tribal, military, urban/suburban, and/or correctional settings. The ultimate goal is to create a national center that serves all jurisdictions on a fee-for-service basis. More details are available in the solicitation.

The purpose of this project—one of several sites selected under the State Victim Assistance Academy (SVAA) Initiative for Year 1 (planning phase)—is to support states in developing effective strategies for planning, implementing, and sustaining new SVAAs. First-year planning efforts should lead to the development of a fundamental, comprehensive and academically based education and skills-building training for victim assistance providers, victim advocates, criminal justice personnel, and other allied professionals who routinely interact with victims of crime. More details are available in the solicitation.

The purpose of this project is to support states in developing effective strategies for planning, implementing, and sustaining new SVAAs. Second-year efforts include the review, adaptation, and/or design of a fundamental, comprehensive, and academically-based education and skills-building curriculum for victim assistance providers, victim advocates, criminal justice personnel, and other allied professionals who routinely interact with victims of crime. An academy presentation and project evaluation are also included in the Year 2 goals. Each recipient has a 36-month period to develop and implement its SVAA. More details are available in the solicitation.

The Wraparound Victim Legal Assistance Network Demonstration Project will support the development of models for networks that collaboratively provide free, comprehensive, holistic legal assistance to victims to address the range of legal needs that may arise in the wake of victimization. At a minimum, the sites will provide legal services that include:

Civil legal assistance, including, but not limited to, family, custody and dependency, employment, and administrative issues related to the victimization).

• Enforcement of victims’ rights in criminal proceedings.
• Assistance for victims of identity theft and financial fraud.
• Immigration assistance.
• Assistance for human trafficking victims.

Funding for this first 15-month phase will support extensive planning that includes:

• Forming a steering committee or governing body made up of network partners.
• Conducting a comprehensive needs assessment.
• Developing a detailed implementation plan that includes policies, procedures, and protocols for providing victims with necessary legal services and referrals within the network.

With funding transferred from OVC, the National Institute of Justice will support an evaluation of the demonstration project that will occur concurrently with the project. More details are available in the solicitation.