Deadline: 20 December 2019

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is accepting applications for its Justice for Families Program to improve the response of the civil and criminal justice system to families with a history of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, or in cases involving allegations of child sexual abuse.

The program supports the following activities for improving the capacity of courts and communities to respond to families affected by the targeted crimes: court-based and court-related programs; supervised visitation and safe exchange by and between parents; training for people who work with families.

Purpose Areas

OVW is interested in funding projects that take a coordinated approach to helping families victimized by domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking as they navigate the justice system. To help achieve this coordinated approach, applicants may propose either a standard project or a comprehensive project.

• Standard Project: Applicants must propose activities either under purpose area 1 (supervised visitation) or 5 (courts).
• Comprehensive Project: Applicants must propose activities under purpose areas 1 (supervised visitation), 5 (courts), and 6 (civil legal services).
  • VAWA 2013 includes eight distinct purpose areas for the Justice for Families Program. In FY 2020, however, OVW is limiting applicants to addressing only purpose areas:
    • (Purpose Area 1) Supervised visitation and safe exchange
    • (Purpose Area 3) Training for court-based and court-related personnel
    • (Purpose Area 4) Juvenile court resources
    • (Purpose Area 5) Court and court-based programs and services
    • (Purpose Area 6) Civil legal assistance
    • (Purpose Area 8) Training within the civil justice system

OVW Priority Areas

In FY 2020, OVW is interested in supporting the priority areas identified below. Applications proposing activities in the following areas will be given special consideration.

• Reduce violent crime against women and promote victim safety through investing in law enforcement, increasing prosecution, and promoting effective prevention. Applications meaningfully addressing purpose area 5(a) (34 U.S.C. § 12464(b)(5)(A)) by developing or enhancing specialized courts, consolidating courts and/or dockets, and/or creating special intake centers will receive special consideration.
• Increase efforts to combat stalking. To receive special consideration under this priority, applicants must clearly identify how they will meaningfully engage in efforts to combat stalking.
• Address the specific challenges that rural communities face in responding to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. To receive special consideration under this priority, applicants must clearly identify what makes the geographic service area rural and how they will address specific challenges in rural communities.

Award Period and Amounts

• The award period is 36 months. Budgets must reflect 36 months of project activity, and the total “estimated funding” on the SF-424 must reflect 36 months. OVW anticipates that the award period will start on October 1, 2020.
• This program typically makes awards in the range of $550,000 for standard projects and $650,000 for comprehensive projects. OVW estimates that it will make up to 15 standard awards and three to seven comprehensive awards for an estimated $11,000,000.
• Funding levels under this program for FY 2020 are:
  • Standard projects: up to $550,000 for the entire 36 months.
  • Comprehensive projects: up to $650,000 for the entire 36 months.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligible applicants are limited to States, units of local government, courts (including juvenile courts), Indian tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, legal services providers, and victim service providers in the United States or U.S. territories.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=322443