Deadline: 6-Mar-23
The Office on Violence against Women (OVW) is excited to announce the Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant Program Expanding Legal Services Initiative.
Purpose
- ELSI will address the following Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program purpose area: To implement, expand, and establish efforts and projects to provide legal assistance for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault by organizations with a demonstrated history of providing direct legal or advocacy services on behalf of these victims.
OVW Priority Areas
- In FY 2023, OVW has five programmatic priorities, of which the priority area(s) are applicable to this program. Applicants are strongly encouraged, but not required, to address one or more priority areas. Applications proposing activities in the following areas will be given special consideration:
- Advance racial equity as an essential component of ending sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. To receive priority consideration, the lead applicant must be a culturally specific organization.
- Improve outreach, services, civil and criminal justice responses, prevention, and support for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking from underserved communities, particularly LGBTQ and immigrant communities. To receive priority consideration, the lead applicant must be a population specific organization.
Funding Information
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards: $400,000.00
- OVW estimates that it will make up to 8 awards for an estimated $3,200,000.00.
- Period of Performance Duration (24 Months).
Out-of-Scope Activities
- Research proects: Funds under this program may not be used to conduct research, as a systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Surveys and focus groups, depending on their design and purpose, may constitute research and therefore be out-of-scope. Prohibited research does not include assessments conducted for internal improvement purposes only.
- Representation in tort cases
- Child sexual abuse cases (i.e., involving victims under the age of 11).
- Cases involving the child protection system, unless the child dependency hearing involves allegations relating to or arising out of abuse of the client (rather than abuse of the children). 5. Criminal defense of victims charged with crimes, except for representation in postconviction relief proceedings with respect to the conviction of a victim relating to or arising from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking of the victim.
- Support of law reform initiatives, including but not limited to litigation.
- Funds for victim assistance/support unrelated to the provision of legal assistance or legal advocacy (such as transitional housing assistance, therapeutic counseling, hotlines, and rental assistance).
- The development and/or provision of state- or community-wide training. Applications that propose activities deemed to be substantially out-of-scope may receive a deduction in points during the review process or may be eliminated from consideration.
Eligibility Criteria
- Private nonprofit entities.
- Indian tribal governments, including tribal consortia. A “tribal government” is the governing body of an Indian tribe or a tribe, band, pueblo, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians, including any Alaska Native village or regional or village corporation (as defined in, or established pursuant to, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, that is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.
- Tribal organizations. A “tribal organization” is the governing body of any Indian tribe; any legally established organization of Indians which is controlled, sanctioned, or chartered by such governing body of a tribe or tribes to be served, or which is democratically elected by the adult members of the Indian community to be served by such organization and which includes the maximum participation of Indians in all phases of its activities; or any tribal nonprofit organization. A “tribal nonprofit organization” is a victim services provider that has as its primary.
- Purpose to assist Native victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking; and that has staff and leadership with a demonstrated history of assisting American Indian or Alaska Native victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
- Territorial organizations. For the purposes of this solicitation, a “territorial organization” is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization addressing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking within a United States Territory, which includes the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
- Eligible applicants are limited to the entities that:
- Has their mission or purpose serve victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The organization may be a larger multi-service organization that does not solely address domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking but has a distinct division or program that that has the mission or purpose of serving victims of these crimes; and
- Do not currently offer in-house legal representation services for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking by attorneys who are employed by the lead applicant.
Ineligible Entities
- Applications submitted by ineligible entities or that do not meet all program eligibility requirements will not be considered for funding. In addition, an application deemed deficient in one or more of the following categories may not be considered for funding:
- Activities that compromise victim safety,
- Out-of-scope activities,
- Unallowable costs,
- Pre-award risk assessment,
- Completeness of application contents, and 6. timeliness. Failure to comply fully with all applicable unique entity identifier and SAM requirements will result in removal from consideration. An applicant with past performance issues, longstanding open audits, or an open criminal investigation also may not be considered for funding.
- Note: Any nonprofit organization that holds money in offshore accounts for the purpose of avoiding paying the tax described in section 511(a) of the Internal Revenue Code is not eligible for a grant from this program.
For more information, visit OVW.