Blog Post
OVW Measuring Effectiveness of Grants – Report to Congress
I am proud to share the biennial report the Office on Violence Against Women submitted to Congress this month that documents the impact of grant programs authorized by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
This report describes two years’ worth of the efforts from OVW grantees to serve victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. Over the course of those two years, VAWA-funded grantees trained over 714,000 people, funded more than 2,900 positions in victim services programs, law enforcement agencies, and other organizations that receive grants, and provided over one million direct services to victims, including housing bed nights, crisis intervention, criminal justice advocacy, and more.
To complement the data in the report, each page contains first-hand accounts from grantees, describing accomplishments that would not have been possible without VAWA funding. These narrative accounts illustrate how OVW grant funds have supported the establishment of domestic violence-specific law enforcement units, ensured that victims in rural areas have access to services, supplied shelter beds for parents and children escaping violent homes, allowed tribes to provide much-needed culturally appropriate services to victims, encouraged coordinated community responses to domestic and sexual violence, afforded legal representation for victims, and trained professionals in many fields on how to provide trauma-informed and victim-centered services to support victims and their families at every step.
The report, which can be found on our website with our previous reports to Congress, also includes discussions of emerging evidence around practices that OVW grantees use to address gender-based violence in their communities. OVW is committed to ending domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking, and we understand that supporting our grantees in aligning their work with evidence-based strategies and solutions will make us all more effective at achieving our shared goals.
Much more work remains to be done to stop these crimes and heal the suffering they cause. But this report chronicles the strides we have made together—OVW and our grantees across the nation—in recent years to best serve victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, and ensure that they have access to the safety and justice they deserve.
Updated January 20, 2021
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