Proposals Sought for Stopping Violence Against Women Act Programs

Proposals Sought for Stopping Violence Against Women Act Programs

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Services (OCJS) today released the STOP Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Grant requests for proposals (RFP) in an effort to provide funding to culturally specific community-based organizations whose purpose is to provide culturally relevant and linguistically specific services and resources to culturally specific communities.

“We are confident that these programs will help provide victims in our most vulnerable and marginalized communities with the protection and services they need to pursue safe and healthy lives while simultaneously enabling communities to effectively combat violence and criminal activity,” said OCJS Executive Director Karhlton Moore.

The VAWA program allows local governments to support a broad range of activities to reduce violence against women and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. VAWA funds contribute toward developing effective responses to violence against women through activities that include direct services, crisis intervention, transitional housing, legal assistance to victims, court improvement, and training for law enforcement and courts.

An organization is eligible to receive the culturally specific funds if the organization is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that serves a specific geographic community that:

focuses primarily on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking;
has established a specialized culturally specific program that addresses domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking;
has a primary focus on underserved populations (and includes representatives of the populations) and domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking;
obtains expertise or shows demonstrated capacity to work effectively, on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking through collaboration;
is primarily directed toward racial and ethnic minority groups; and is providing services tailored to the unique needs of that population.

Applicants should refer to the RFP for covered racial and ethnic minority populations A community-based organization that accepts funding to provide services to a particular racial and ethnic population cannot exclude others from participating in its programs and activities based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or age. The deadline to submit applications is July 9, 2020, at 5 p.m. EST. For more details, visit the OCJS Web site at: http://www.ocjs.ohio.gov/