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Justice For Families Program Fact Sheet

OVW’s Grants to Support Families in the Justice System Program (Justice for Families Program or JFF) is intended to improve the response of the civil and criminal justice system to families with a history of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, or in cases involving allegations of child sexual abuse.

JFF grant funds can support the following activities for improving the capacity of courts and communities to respond to families affected by the targeted crimes:

  • court-based and court-related programs;
  • supervised visitation and safe exchange by and between parents;
  • training for court-based and court-related personnel; and
  • civil legal assistance.

Eligible applicants to the Justice for Families Program are:

  • states
  • units of local government
  • courts (including juvenile courts),
  • Indian Tribal governments,
  • nonprofit organizations
  • legal service providers
  • victim service providers.

In addition to being an eligible entity to apply to JFF, applicants are required to partner with: 

  1. a nonprofit, nongovernmental, or Tribal domestic violence or sexual assault victim service provider; and
  2. a court.

Specifically:

  1. If the court is the lead applicant, it must have a domestic violence and/or sexual assault victim service provider as a project partner.
  2. If a domestic violence and/or sexual assault victim service provider is the lead applicant, it must have a court as a partner.
  3. If the lead applicant is neither a domestic violence and/or sexual assault victim service provider nor a court, it must have a partnership with both a domestic violence and/or sexual assault victim service provider and a court.

Formal partnerships must be clearly documented in the form of a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). A court may submit a signed Letter of Commitment (LOC) in lieu of an MOU. Tribal governments also may submit signed LOCs at their discretion.

Required Attorney Supervision and Mentoring Plans 

JFF grantees must:

  1. submit to OVW a plan for supervising and mentoring attorneys, including staff attorneys, contract attorneys, and pro bono attorneys. The plan must explain supervision and mentoring Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)accredited representatives, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-accredited representatives, and lay legal advocates who provide services in Tribal courts;
  2. regularly supervise any attorney with less than five years of experience who is working on a grant-funded project, and provide access to urgent supervision when needed; and
  3. ensure that anyone providing legal help through a grant-funded program, including people working for subgrantees, is either: a licensed attorney; working directly under the supervision of a licensed attorney; or a BIA-accredited representative, VA-accredited representative, or lay legal advocate in Tribal court supervised by a licensed attorney.

In addition, JFF grantees may need to work with OVW training and technical assistance providers to create their supervision and mentoring plans.

Resources for applicants: JFF grantees, potential grantees, and project partners have access to many different types of training and technical assistance to support their grant initiatives and proposed projects. JFF applicants may find the following resources helpful:

Apply for this grant:

Updated May 28, 2026