OVW Fiscal Year 2023 Grants to Enhance Culturally Specific Services for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Program - Solicitation | O OVW 2023 171500

Opportunity Information: Apply for O OVW 2023 171500

The OVW Fiscal Year 2023 Grants to Enhance Culturally Specific Services for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Program (CSSP) is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (CFDA 16.016), authorized under 34 U.S.C. 20124. The core purpose of the program is to strengthen and expand community-based, culturally specific victim service organizations that are already doing effective work, help replicate proven models in other communities, and support new, innovative approaches that reduce barriers faced by survivors who cannot easily access mainstream or traditional victim service systems. The program emphasizes culturally relevant and linguistically specific services designed for culturally specific communities, with "culturally specific" defined as primarily directed toward racial and ethnic minority groups, including American Indians and Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, Blacks, and Hispanics.

Funding is intended to support direct services and related activities that improve survivors access to safety, healing, advocacy, and resources in ways that reflect their community context, language, and lived experience. The program recognizes that survivors from these communities may encounter additional obstacles such as language access challenges, immigration-related concerns, distrust of systems, discrimination, geographic isolation, or lack of culturally competent providers. As a result, CSSP encourages strategies that are rooted in community knowledge and leadership, and that connect survivors to services that feel safe, accessible, and responsive.

Several updates stemming from the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA 2022) are built into this solicitation. One major change is that "victim services" now explicitly includes legal services, meaning applicants that provide victim services may include comprehensive legal assistance delivered by an attorney as part of their project. However, legal services are capped at no more than 10 percent of the overall project budget, and they must be limited to work that can realistically be completed within the award period. Another significant requirement is that at least 40 percent of available CSSP funds must go to programs that meaningfully address non-intimate partner sexual assault, and this includes serving adult survivors of child sexual abuse. This is a clear signal that OVW expects a substantial portion of funded work to address sexual assault that occurs outside an intimate partner context, not only domestic or dating violence.

The standard project period for CSSP awards is 36 months. Projects that incorporate an OVW priority area may be allowed extra time to spend awarded funds, and those projects may also be eligible for funding above the usual maximum. As described in the solicitation details, the typical maximum award amount is listed as 400,000, with an award ceiling shown as 450,000, and the solicitation notes that priority-area projects may exceed the standard maximum. OVW anticipated making about 50 awards under this funding round. The original application window opened with a creation date of February 21, 2023, and an original closing date of April 12, 2023.

Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and certain nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status, excluding institutions of higher education), Native American tribal organizations other than federally recognized tribal governments, and certain other entities as described in the solicitation's additional eligibility guidance. The funded work falls within the Law, Justice, and Legal Services category, and recipients are expected to align activities with OVW program goals and to report on outcomes using OVW performance measures, including those tied to the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative and OVW reporting to Congress on grant program effectiveness.

In practical terms, this opportunity funds culturally specific organizations to sustain and scale what already works, while also pushing for creative, community-designed solutions that close service gaps for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. It also places new emphasis on non-intimate partner sexual assault and carefully limited but meaningful integration of legal assistance as part of a broader victim service strategy.

• The Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "OVW Fiscal Year 2023 Grants to Enhance Culturally Specific Services for Victims of Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Program - Solicitation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.016.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 21, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 12, 2023. (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 $450,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 50 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: 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, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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