OVW FY 2019 Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System's Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking: A Pilot Project | OVW 2019 16569

Opportunity Information: Apply for OVW 2019 16569

The OVW FY 2019 Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System's Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking: A Pilot Project is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), intended to improve how the criminal justice system measures its effectiveness in responding to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) crimes. Rather than funding direct services or enforcement operations, this pilot focuses on building practical outcome measures that OVW-funded law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and courts can use to track whether their work is actually improving victim safety, offender accountability, and overall case handling in domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking matters.

The core goal of the project is to develop and pilot test a set of indicators, essentially a small, usable menu of performance and outcome measures that can gauge "success" in a way that is grounded in real-world criminal justice practice. OVW is looking for indicators that help grantees move beyond basic activity counts (such as number of trainings held or number of cases opened) and toward meaningful measures that can support data-driven decision-making. The intent is that these measures can be adopted by OVW grantees working in law enforcement, prosecution, and court-based programs to monitor progress, identify gaps, and adjust policies or practices based on evidence.

A key feature of this opportunity is its emphasis on practicality and limited burden. OVW explicitly notes that the indicators do not have to be comprehensive. They do not need to cover every stage of the justice process from initial report through final case disposition, and they do not need to address every VAWA crime. Instead, OVW prioritizes a focused set of measures that are most useful and feasible for agencies to implement without creating excessive reporting requirements. To meet OVW's expectations, the indicators developed through the pilot must meet several criteria: they must be authentically tied to recognized good practices in criminal justice responses to VAWA crimes; they must align with the types of activities OVW grantees can actually carry out using OVW funds; they must help grantees make better decisions using data; they must be feasible to implement across real operational environments; and they must be minimally burdensome so agencies can sustain their use.

The award is structured as a cooperative agreement, which typically means OVW anticipates a more active partnership role with the recipient than in a standard grant, often involving collaboration, regular input, or shared development during the project period. The funding activity category is listed under Information and Statistics as well as Law, Justice and Legal Services, reflecting the measurement and justice-system improvement focus. OVW expected to make one award, with an award ceiling of $500,000, indicating a single pilot effort intended to generate broadly usable products for the field rather than multiple local demonstration projects.

Eligibility for this opportunity was broad and included state governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); and nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education for the nonprofit categories). The funding opportunity number is OVW 2019 16569, under CFDA 16.026. The opportunity was posted on May 3, 2019, with an original closing date of June 17, 2019.

In practical terms, the deliverable OVW wanted from this pilot was a tested, field-relevant set of outcome indicators that OVW grantees can realistically use to evaluate and improve criminal justice responses to domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The larger purpose is to strengthen accountability and effectiveness across OVW-funded criminal justice initiatives by giving agencies clearer, better tools to measure what is working, what is not, and where changes in policy, training, coordination, or case practices might lead to better outcomes.

• The Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women in the information and statistics, law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "OVW FY 2019 Measuring Success in the Criminal Justice System's Response to Domestic/Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking: A Pilot Project" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.026.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 03, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 17, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for OVW 2019 16569

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