Justice Department commemorates National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

The Justice Department joins law enforcement partners, victim services professionals, advocates and communities across the country in observing October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and announces more than $476 million in Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) grants. The funding supports projects that meaningfully address the needs of underserved and marginalized survivors, improve access to justice, enhance survivor safety, hold accountable those who have caused harm, and provide training and technical assistance to an array of professionals and systems working to address sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking in every state and territory, as well as dozens of tribal communities.

“Domestic Violence Awareness Month is a sobering reminder of the harm domestic violence inflicts across our country, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic means that for many survivors, abuse may be compounded by being isolated with an abuser, loss of income and stress over the virus itself,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “These OVW grants will provide local organizations with resources to support survivors as they heal, promote victim access to justice, and further local, state and tribal training efforts to best prepare officials to respond to these dangerous calls.”

“The grant awards we make this year will not only touch the lives of millions of survivors of domestic violence, but also help our nation prevent and end sexual assault and stalking,” said Acting Director Allison Randall of OVW. “OVW is proud to be the leading federal voice in the country’s fight against these devastating crimes. Grant awards announced today will fund victim services, culturally specific responses, legal assistance, law enforcement and prosecution services, and court practices, as well as training and technical assistance to an array of professionals who help survivors every day.”

In addition to administering grant funding, the department is combatting domestic and sexual violence in local and tribal communities on other fronts. The department has outlined a comprehensive strategy to address violent crime, which asked U.S. Attorneys to evaluate the current drivers of violent crime in their regions, including domestic violence, and to develop strategies to address these drivers. OVW’s announcement Tuesday of over $476 million in grants is a key part of that strategy. In addition, on Sept. 20, the department’s Office of Justice Programs announced more than $1.2 billion in Fiscal Year 2021 Victims of Crime Act funding.

In his Domestic Violence Awareness Month proclamation, President Joseph R. Biden, the original author of the Violence Against Women Act, called on all Americans to reaffirm their commitment to ending this violence, and in his Fiscal Year 2022 budget, proposed a historic $1 billion for grant programs administered by OVW.

Funds being awarded this year by OVW formula grant programs include:

• Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors (STOP) Violence Against Women Formula Grant Program: $153.1 million awarded to all states and territories to support communities, including American Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages, in their efforts to develop and strengthen effective responses to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The STOP Formula Grant Program – authorized by the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and subsequent legislation – requires that 30% of funds be allocated for victim services, of which at least 10% must be distributed to culturally specific, community-based organizations. No less than 25% of a state’s formula funding must be allocated for law enforcement, 25% for prosecution and 5% to courts.

• Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) Formula Grant Programs: $28.2 million awarded to states and territories for direct intervention and related assistance for victims of sexual assault. The SASP Formula Grant Program directs grant dollars to states and territories to assist them in supporting rape crisis centers and other nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations or tribal programs that provide services, direct intervention and related assistance to victims of sexual assault. Funds provided through SASP are designed to supplement other funding sources directed at addressing sexual assault on the state and territorial level.

• State and Territorial Coalitions Program: $15.1 million awarded to fund 87 state and territorial domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions (determined by the Department of Health and Human Services) to coordinate victim services activities. These coalitions support member rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters and other victim service providers through funding, training and technical assistance, public awareness activities, and public policy advocacy.

• Tribal Coalitions Program: $6.1 million awarded to support 18 nonprofit, nongovernmental tribal domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions. Tribal coalitions provide education, support and technical assistance to tribal victim service providers and tribes to enhance their response to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and sex trafficking.

OVW discretionary program funding for 2021 includes:

• Legal Assistance for Victims: $35.8 million awarded to 59 projects to provide a range of services, including legal assistance for victims and the implementation, expansion and establishment of efforts and projects to provide competent, supervised pro bono legal assistance for victims.

• Transitional Housing: $35.3 million awarded to 68 programs to support funding for: the operating expenses of newly developed or existing transitional housing programs; short-term housing assistance, including rental or utilities payments assistance and assistance with related expenses; and voluntary services designed to enable a minor, an adult, or a dependent of such minor or adult, who is fleeing a situation of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence or stalking, to locate and secure permanent housing, secure employment (including obtaining employment counseling, occupational training, job retention counseling and counseling concerning re-entry into the workforce), and integrate into a community by providing that minor, adult, or dependent with services such as transportation, counseling, child care services, case management and other assistance.

• Rural Program: $34.6 million awarded to 46 programs to identify, assess and appropriately respond to child, youth and adult victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking in rural communities by encouraging collaboration among service providers, criminal justice service providers, human and community service providers, educational institutions, and health care providers; establish and expand nonprofit, nongovernmental, state, tribal, territorial and local government victim services in rural communities; and increase the safety and wellbeing of women and children in rural communities.

• Grants to Tribal Governments: $32.4 million awarded to 40 programs for a wide range of support, including: increasing tribal capacity to respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking and stalking crimes against American Indian and Alaska Native women; strengthening tribal justice interventions; enhancing victim services; providing transitional housing for victims, including rental or utilities payment assistance and assistance with related expenses and support services, to enable victims to locate and secure permanent housing and integrate into a community; and developing, strengthening and implementing policies, protocols and training for law enforcement regarding cases of missing or murdered Indians.

• Improving Criminal Justice Responses: $30.8 million awarded to 41 programs that address a wide range of support across the criminal justice system so that domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking are treated as serious violations of criminal law requiring the coordinated involvement of the entire criminal justice system and partnerships with victim service providers.

• Campus Program: $16.2 million awarded to 52 programs to support a wide range of  projects that develop a comprehensive coordinated community approach to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campuses that enhances victim safety, provides services and support for victims, and supports efforts to hold offenders accountable.

• Justice for Families: $13.6 million awarded to 24 projects to improve the response of the civil and criminal justice systems to families with a history of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, or in cases involving allegations of child sexual abuse, including by supporting court-based programs, supervised visitation and safe exchange of children, training for court personnel, and civil legal services.

• Consolidated Youth and Engaging Men: $9 million awarded to 20 programs to provide services and training to address the needs of children and youth impacted by domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking; and engage men to prevent violence against women and girls.

• Culturally Specific Services: $6.8 million awarded to 23 projects to increase communities’ capacity to provide culturally specific resources and support for victims; provide culturally specific resources and services that address the safety, economic, housing and workplace needs of victims; provide training for law enforcement, prosecution, courts, probation and correctional facilities on culturally specific responses; and examine the dynamics of culture and its impact on victimization and healing.

• Underserved Program: $4.9 million awarded to 11 programs to develop or enhance services for populations or implement outreach strategies targeted at adult or youth victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking in underserved populations, who often face challenges in accessing victim services that are accessible, culturally relevant, and responsive to their needs.

• Disabilities Program: $4.1 million awarded to 10 programs to provide a range of resources including personnel, training, technical assistance, advocacy, intervention, risk reduction and prevention to disabled victims, and to develop model programs.

• Sexual Assault Services Culturally Specific Program: $4 million awarded to 14 programs to create, maintain and expand sustainable sexual assault services provided by organizations that are uniquely situated to respond to the needs of sexual assault victims from culturally specific populations.

• Tribal Sexual Assault Services Program: $3.8 million awarded to 10 programs to support the establishment, maintenance and expansion of programs and projects within Indian country and Alaska Native villages to assist those victimized by sexual assault.

• Research and Evaluation Initiative: $2.3 million awarded to seven projects on a range of topics including measuring effectiveness of a wide breadth of funded activities, including victim services, policing, prosecution and court responses.

• Abuse in Later Life: $1.4 million awarded to four programs to provide training, establish and support multidisciplinary collaborative community responses, provide and enhance services for victims, and conduct outreach and awareness campaigns to support projects that provide a comprehensive approach to addressing elder abuse.

• National Tribal Clearinghouse on Sexual Assault: $1 million awarded to one program to establish, sustain and expand a repository that provides resources, training opportunities, educational materials and technical assistance on issues relating to sexual assault of American Indian and Alaska Native women.

• Resource Center on Workplace Responses to Assist Victims of Domestic and Sexual Violence Program: $1 million awarded to one program to manage the National Resource Center on Workplace Responses, which provides information, resources, tools and technical assistance to employers and labor organizations to better equip them to respond to victims. These efforts address the needs of employees in cases of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking impacting the workplace.

• Special Domestic Violence Jurisdiction Program: $733,691 awarded to two programs to assist Indian tribes in planning, implementing and exercising “special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction” to hold accountable non-Indians who commit crimes of domestic violence or dating violence or violate certain protection orders in Indian country.

• Training and Technical Assistance Program: $36.2 million awarded to 65 programs that provide training, expertise and problem-solving strategies to meet the challenges of addressing sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Technical assistance projects offer in-person and online educational opportunities, peer-to-peer consultations, on-site technical assistance, and tailored assistance for OVW grantees and potential grantees. In more limited circumstances, OVW's technical assistance projects offer technical assistance to a small number of pilot sites as part of demonstration initiatives or assessments of newly developed training curricula or tools. For more information, visit OVW’s Training and Technical Assistance website at www.justice.gov/ovw/training-and-technical-assistance.