Deadline: 13-Feb-24
The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) has launched the Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program Expanding Legal Services Initiative to enable eligible organizations that do not currently offer legal services to establish a program that provides legal representation to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
The Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant Program is intended to increase the availability of civil and criminal legal assistance needed to effectively aid victims (ages 11 and older) of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking by providing funds for comprehensive direct legal services to victims in legal matters relating to or arising out of that abuse or violence.
“Legal assistance” includes assistance to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in:
- family, tribal, territorial, immigration, employment, administrative agency, housing matters, campus administrative, or protection or stay away order proceedings, and other similar matters;
- criminal justice investigations, prosecutions, and post-trial matters (including sentencing, parole, and probation) that impact the victim’s safety and privacy;
- alternative dispute resolution, restorative practices, or other processes intended to promote victim safety, privacy, and autonomy; and
- post-conviction relief proceedings in state, local, Tribal, or territorial court where the conviction of a victim is related to or arising from domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or sex trafficking.
Purpose Areas
- 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 2024, OVW has four programmatic priorities. The priorities identified below are applicable to this program. Applicants are strongly encouraged, but not required, to address a priority area. Applicants that state that they are addressing a priority area and meet the criteria for that priority area will be given special consideration:
- Advance equity and tribal sovereignty as essential components of ending sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking by improving outreach, services, civil and criminal justice responses, prevention, and support for survivors from historically marginalized and underserved communities, particularly those facing disproportionate rates or impacts of violence and multiple barriers to services, justice, and safety.
LAV Grant Program Statutory Priorities
- Tribal Programs
- Pursuant to 34 U.S.C. § 20121(f)(2)(A), not less than three percent of funds made available for the LAV Grant Program must be used for projects that assist victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault on lands within the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe. Note: this includes Alaska Native Villages. To receive special consideration under this statutory priority, an application must include the percentage of proposed activities that will support services to victims on tribal lands. Priority consideration under this statutory priority will be given to applications with a tribal government or tribal organization as the lead applicant.
Funding Information
- OVW estimates that it will make up to 8 awards for an estimated $3,200,000.00. Awards under this program for FY 2024 will be made for up to $400,000.
- The award period is 24 months.
- Note: If funded, at the end of the 24-month award period, these grantees may be eligible for 36 months of noncompetitive funding to continue their projects, provided OVW has sufficient appropriated funds, and the grantee has complied with the fiscal and programmatic requirements of the award.
Eligibility Criteria
- Pursuant to 34 U.S.C. § 20121(c), the following entities are eligible to apply for this program:
- Private nonprofit entities.
- Indian tribal governments, including tribal consortia.
- Tribal organizations
- 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 above organizations that:
- As 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 for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking by attorneys who are employed by the lead applicant.
- Faith-Based and Community Organizations
- Faith-Based and community organizations, including culturally specific organizations, tribal organizations, and population-specific organizations, that meet the eligibility requirements are eligible to receive awards under this solicitation
Ineligible
- 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
- 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, long-standing 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 Grant.gov.
