Grants to USA private and public nonprofit children's advocacy agencies and organizations to develop regional advocacy centers to assist communities in addressing child abuse and neglect. Applicants are advised that required registrations may take several weeks to complete.
Overview
The OJJDP FY 2019 Victims of Child Abuse (VOCA) Regional Children’s Advocacy Centers (RCAC) program supports four regional centers—one situated within each of the four U.S. Census regions—that (1) help to build and establish multidisciplinary teams, local programs, and state chapter organizations that respond to child abuse and neglect and (2) deliver training and technical assistance that strengthen existing multidisciplinary teams, programs, and state chapter organizations.
Program-Specific Information
The Victims of Child Abuse Act provides for the establishment of regional children’s advocacy centers to provide information, technical assistance, and training to assist communities in establishing facility-based multidisciplinary programs that respond to child abuse. The RCAC program’s goal is to enhance coordination among community agencies and professionals responding to child abuse and neglect.
Children’s advocacy centers provide a coordinated response to victims of child abuse through multidisciplinary teams composed of representatives from community agencies and professionals involved with intervention, prevention, prosecution, and investigation systems that respond to child abuse cases. The program objectives of a children’s advocacy center are to:
- Assist communities in developing child-focused, community-oriented, facility-based programs to improve the resources available to child victims and families.
- Provide support for nonoffending family members.
- Enhance coordination among community agencies and professionals involved in the intervention, prevention, prosecution, and investigation systems that respond to child abuse cases.
- Train physicians and other healthcare and mental healthcare professionals in the multidisciplinary approach to child abuse.
Goals, Objectives, and Deliverables
The goal of this solicitation is to fund four regional children’s advocacy centers that will provide a full complement of training, technical assistance, and information to develop and strengthen multidisciplinary team investigations and responses to child abuse, local centers, and state chapter organizations of children’s advocacy centers.
The states included in each of the four U.S. Census regions are:
- Northeast Region: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- Southern Region: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
- Midwest Region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
- Western Region: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Through this program, the successful applicants will (1) provide training and technical assistance to assist communities in developing a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases and evidence-based treatment for child abuse victims, including child sex trafficking victims; (2) increase the number of communities using the children’s advocacy center model, including tribal communities and those serving American Indian and Alaska Native youth in rural, urban, and tribal jurisdictions; and (3) develop and/or strengthen state chapter organizations.
To achieve its goal, OJJDP has established the following objectives for the regional children’s advocacy centers to support multidisciplinary teams that respond to child abuse and neglect, local centers, and state chapter organizations. OJJDP will expect the regional children’s advocacy centers to:
- Provide training opportunities.
- Provide technical assistance.
- Develop publications and other resources.
- Coordinate activities with other VOCA-funded programs.
Consistent with the statutory requirements set forth in 34 U.S.C. 20303(b)(2)(A), the successful applicants will design and implement the following deliverables to achieve the identified objectives:
- Training for multidisciplinary teams, children’s advocacy centers, state chapter organizations of children’s advocacy centers, and community agencies and professionals. The applicants will propose the topics and type of training, quantity and scale of proposed events, intended audience, and method of delivery of training sessions and identify trainers with relevant expertise and audiences with significant need. Applicants should also demonstrate areas of specialized expertise and experience in managing large-scale training events. Applicants should include plans for evaluating training sessions, to include measuring changes in participants’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior. Applicants should also provide information on the number of training requests received in each state.
- Technical assistance for multidisciplinary teams, children’s advocacy centers, state chapter organizations, and communities. Applicants will develop a plan outlining how they will provide information, services, and technical assistance to communities so they can establish new multidisciplinary programs that respond to child abuse, and enhance or expand existing multidisciplinary teams and children’s advocacy centers. Technical assistance should educate and raise awareness on existing and new topical areas within their respective regions, including trafficking and children and youth with sexual behavior problems. The applicant should identify the number of existing children’s advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams as well as the number of accredited and nonaccredited children’s advocacy centers in each state. Applicants should also demonstrate their ability to offer technical assistance to community agencies and professionals in developing child-focused, community-oriented, facility-based programs designed to improve the resources available to children and families.
- Publications and other resources to enhance the coordinated multidisciplinary response to child abuse. The applicant will indicate the topics, types, quantity, audiences, and schedule for the proposed publications or other resources, with publication and dissemination at the discretion of OJJDP.
Other specific deliverables include:
- Tribal children’s advocacy centers coordination and training. OJJDP is committed to facilitating identification, screening, assessment, and treatment to promote the recovery and well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children, youth, and families who have been exposed to violence.
Successful applicants will develop a strategic action plan to support the development and expansion of tribally based multidisciplinary teams and children’s advocacy centers and support nontribal centers in developing and/or incorporating culturally appropriate services for American Indian and Alaska Native children who they serve. This plan must highlight specific training, technical assistance, and publication resources. These training and technical assistance resources will be shared with the other regions and, when possible, delivered in a coordinated fashion. Trainings should also include a focus on culturally sensitive, trauma-informed care and highlight a shared emphasis on the core components of the children’s advocacy center multidisciplinary team members (i.e., social workers, therapists, and law enforcement and court personnel).
- Victims of Child Abuse program coordination. Successful operation of the regional children’s advocacy centers program requires significant coordination and collaboration. To achieve the necessary level of coordination, OJJDP will require each of the four successful applicants to work in close partnership with each other and with other programs funded under the Victims of Child Abuse Act.
These programs include:
- Victims of Child Abuse Children’s Advocacy Centers Membership and Accreditation Program.
- Victims of Child Abuse Training and Technical Assistance for Child Abuse Prosecutors.
- Victims of Child Abuse Training and Technical Assistance for Child Abuse Professionals.
- Victims of Child Abuse Children’s Advocacy Centers Subgrant Program.
Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
Others (see text field entitled "Additional Eligibility Criteria" for clarification)
Additional Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants are limited to local public and private nonprofit children’s advocacy center agencies and organizations that can demonstrate a minimum of 5 years of experience providing regional or national training and technical assistance to a wide range of multidisciplinary professionals and others (including children’s advocacy center staff) with respect to the judicial handling and investigative response to child abuse and neglect cases. All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.
Nonprofit organizations that hold money in offshore accounts for the purposes of avoiding paying the tax described in 26 U.S.C. 511(a) are not eligible to apply.
Note: A prospective recipient of grant funds that is found to have an “unresolved audit finding” from a DOJ Office of the Inspector General audit, as described in 34 U.S.C. § 20307, will be ineligible to receive grant funds during the period specified in that statute. See 34 U.S.C. § 20307(1)(A).
OJJDP welcomes applications under which two or more entities would carry out the federal award; however, only one entity may be the applicant. Any others must be proposed as subrecipients (subgrantees). The applicant must be the entity that would have primary responsibility for carrying out the award, including administering the funding and managing the entire program. Under this solicitation, only one application by any particular applicant entity will be considered. An entity may, however, be proposed as a subrecipient (subgrantee) in more than one application.
Pre-Application Information
All applications are due by 11:59 p.m. eastern time (ET) on January 22, 2019.
Applicants must register in and submit applications through Grants.gov, a primary source to find federal funding opportunities and apply for funding. Find complete instructions on how to register and submit an application at https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/support.html.
Registering with Grants.gov is a one-time process; however, processing delays may occur, and it can take several weeks for first-time registrants to receive confirmation of registration and a user password. OJP encourages applicants to register several weeks before the application submission deadline. In addition, OJP urges applicants to submit applications at least 72 hours prior to the application due date to allow time for the applicant to receive validation messages or rejection notifications from Grants.gov, and to correct in a timely fashion any problems that may have caused a rejection notification.
Unique Entity Identifier (DUNS Number) and System for Award Management Every applicant entity must comply with all applicable SAM and unique entity identifier (currently, a DUNS number) requirements. SAM is the repository for certain standard information about federal financial assistance applicants, recipients, and subrecipients. A DUNS number is a unique nine-digit identification number provided by the commercial company Dun and Bradstreet.
Applicants receiving an award will be notified by September 30, 2019.
OJJDP expects to make awards for a 12-month period of performance, to begin on October 1, 2019.
OJJDP may, in certain cases, provide additional funding in future years to awards made under this solicitation, through continuation awards in FYs 2020 and 2021. With the continuation funding, the project period may be extended for two additional 12-month increments for an overall project period of 36 months.
Contact Information
Grants.gov Customer Support Hotline:
800-518-4726 or 606-545-5035 support@grants.gov
Hotline hours of operation are 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except federal holidays.
For assistance with any other requirements of this solicitation, contact the Response Center:
800-851-3420 or TTY: 301-240-6310 (Hearing impaired only) grants@ncjrs.gov
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