And with my colleague, Amanda Wilson, I don't know if Amanda, if you want to say hi. So we are both on the improving criminal justice responses grant program which we're here to talk to you about. As Christina said, this is really meant to be as interactive as possible. We're here to kind of talk to you about grant opportunities through OVW and more specifically the ICGR program. And so this is for you. Please feel free to interrupt us. We don't care if you interrupt us, unmute yourself, ask questions, type questions in the chat, raise your hand, whatever you want to do. We want to get through all of your questions. We want to present the information that you need or that you're interested in. So let us know if you're not understanding something, pipe up. If you want to hold your questions to the end, you can do that as well, whatever you are most comfortable with. So with that, I think we'll kind of get started. So if you're not familiar, what is the Office on Violence Against Women? So OVW is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, and it was created way back in 1995. So fun point of fact, my second car was a 1995 Jeep Cherokee. And no, it was not new. If you're wondering how old I was, that's as much as I'm going to tell how old I am. And that's as much as I'm going to tell you. OVW administers grant programs authorized by the Violence Against Women Act and its subsequent legislation. So we just had new legislation. So it's supposed to be every five years, but generally it's not. VAWA is reauthorized, or so Congress goes through the process of having the act signed into law again. That happened just this year in 2022, which creates some new opportunities for us. And so that's that subsequent legislation piece. VAWA provides national leadership on issues specific to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. So those are the VAWA crimes. OVW grants support coordinated community responses to hold offenders accountable and serve victims through multiple, many, multiple grant programs. And so if you're interested in more of the grant programs that OVW offers, please use the link, go to our website, check out those other grant programs. As I said, there's many of them, not just the ICJR grant programs, or grant program. So what is ICJR? So the ICJR, or Improving Criminal Justice Grant Program, is the oldest, is one of the oldest OVW programs in the Improving Criminal Justice Response. Geez, I'm getting lost in my notes because it's like way over here and I want to look at the camera. So it's one of the oldest grant programs at OVW. It was originally called the Arrest Program, and it was created back in 1996. So fun point of fact, my first car was a 1996 Jeep Cherokee. You see a theme here, right? It was just meant to be, OVW and I. The ICJR program encourages state, local, and tribal governments, and courts, of course, to treat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, those are the vowel crimes, as serious violations of criminal law, requiring the involvement of the entire criminal justice system. So according to OVW's biannual report to Congress back in 2020, that's kind of the most recent data we have that we can use, the ICJR program had 225 grantees serving 36,000 or just over 36,000 victims and investigating over 174,000 cases. And so this amazing work was accomplished by basically three groups of people. So these are victim advocates or victim assistants, and police officers. And those three categories make up over 50% of the FTEs or the positions that we fund in the ICJR program. All right. So the ICJR program has 26 of what we call statutory purpose areas. These are included in the Violence Against Women Act by Congress to ensure that the criminal justice system and our community partners are improving victim safety and offender accountability through primarily through coordinated community responses. So let's talk a little bit about what a statutory priority is. And these are basically general guidelines that Congress feels are required in order to engage the ICJR grant program. So they set guidelines for what ICJR can fund, and they call these the statutory priorities. And ICJR has 26, which is actually a very large number for VAWA. Most of OVW's grant programs have far less, maybe five kind of on average. And so 26 is quite extensive. And what that does is it makes sure or it ensures that ICJR is really quite broad. And so we can fund pretty much any project someone can think of, as long as it involves or revolves around the thought of improving the criminal justice system and its response to victims and offenders for the VAWA crimes. These 26 priority areas kind of fall into three primary categories. And so they are, first, the efforts to improve community collaboration. And so this would be things like training or cross-training of courts, law enforcement, prosecutors, probation and parole or victim services, coordinated community responses. So I do want to highlight that that's sort of a hallmark, the coordinated community response is kind of a hallmark of VAWA, and of course, of the ICJR program. And so we've really found over the years that those jurisdictions who engage in a strong coordinated community response seem to be the most successful in implementing their project goals and activities. And in fact, new grantees who apply to and are awarded grant funds under the ICJR program engage in a planning process for the first year of their award. It kind of revolves around the coordinated community response, planning and developing that response. So that's an important component for us. This area of these three categories also looks at sort of one-stop shop or centralized services. Sort of the brand name would be a Family Justice Center. Information sharing, data collection, SART teams, and we're going to talk more about sexual assault specific services as we kind of move through this. But SART teams are a big component of what we can fund here. Safety audits for like systems, so if you're looking at how the criminal justice system is responding to an offender or a victim, we can do safety audit type work. Domestic violence homicide related work, so this would be like lethality assessments or high risk teams, and new for us in VALID 22 would be SANE registries, so we're going to talk a little bit more about the SANE registries here in a little bit, and then we can also do protection order registries in this category. So the next one is establishing and enhancing services for victims and offenders. So this would be things like policy development, culturally specific services, so culturally specific services and services for those with disabilities is a big focus of VAWA, has been for a long time and will be, will continue to be. Let's see, community engagement work, victim services or victim's advocacy, both from community based organizations, so like domestic violence programs or sexual assault service providers or rape crisis centers, and then also systems based victim assistance, so like those in law enforcement agencies or prosecutors offices. Language access and accessibility, as well as special populations. We can do work around civil legal remedies, so prior to VALID 2022, that was primarily limited to work around protection orders, whether that be a domestic violence protection order, a sexual assault protection order, a stalking protection order. With VALID 22, that's somewhat expanded now, so we can do other civil legal work under the ICJR program. We can do work with dedicated courts or dockets, so like a domestic violence court, SANE programs and SANE registries, you'll see that some of these kind of repeat through the categories. Again, domestic violence homicide, protection order, protection orders, so that would include like access to protection orders, protection order registries, work around full faith and credit, and if you're not familiar with full faith and credit, so full faith and credit came about as a result of VAWA, and essentially what it does is it means that if you receive a protection order in one jurisdiction and you go to the next, you maintain the protections of that order, so say, for instance, you received a protection order in Memphis, maybe, and it could be a DV protection order, a sexual assault protection order, stalking, it doesn't matter. You received a protection order in Memphis and you go to New York, right, and maybe your offender follows you to New York and they violate that protection order. If you contact law enforcement, they are then required to meet the requirements of that protection order as it is written, regardless of what the laws or regulations around protection orders are in the state of New York. If that protection order says something, law enforcement and the authorities in New York have to abide by that protection order as it is written, so it's a very important piece for protection orders, full faith and credit. Services for justice involved survivors, so this would be maybe those who are in the criminal justice system themselves that have a history of domestic violence or sexual assault victimization, and then, of course, family justice centers, and then the third category, creating and utilizing community-centered approaches. This is sort of a broader category for things like alternative solutions or like restorative practices and then also for methods of reducing crime in local communities, and I did want to point out, I kind of forgot to mention, our name can be somewhat of a misnomer, so it's the Violence Against Women Act, and the Office on Violence Against Women, we do provide services to victims regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, so not just for women. It is primarily, though, for adults and adolescents, and so we can provide some services to children who are secondary victims, so long as the primary victim is an adult or adolescent. All right, any questions so far? I know I'm kind of flying through some of this, but feel free to ask questions. So, we talked a little bit about the purpose areas, so remember we have 26 purpose areas. We have six of them that are really specific to sexual assault, and so we wanted to highlight those for you today, so I apologize. I'll be kind of reading some of them and then talk a little bit about each of them, so purpose area 17, and remember the purpose areas are really what Congress feels are the areas in which the ICGR program can operate. So, if you have a program that you're wanting funding for, if it fits in any of the 26 purpose areas or for SANEs, more specifically these six purpose areas, then it's really eligible for ICGR grant funding. So, purpose area 17, to develop, implement, or enhance sexual assault nurse examiner programs or sexual assault forensic examiner programs, including the hiring and training of such examiners. So, Amanda's going to talk a little bit more about eligibility requirements, so what it takes to be eligible for ICGR grant programs here in a little bit, but yes, we can fund SANE programs. Purpose area 18 is to develop, implement, or enhance sexual assault response teams or similar coordinated community responses to sexual assault. So again, ICGR really hinges on this idea of a coordinated community response and SART teams fall right into that. Purpose area 19, to develop and strengthen policies, protocols, and training for law enforcement officers and prosecution regarding the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault cases and the appropriate treatment of victims, including victims among underserved populations. So, I'm kind of hoping as we go through these, you're seeing how SANE programs really kind of fit into each of these because they really do, and I hope your kind of minds are reeling about the possibilities because that's the goal here. So, purpose area 20, to provide human immunodeficiency virus testing programs, counseling, and prophylaxis for victims of sexual assault. So, HIV is a big, kind of a big deal for the ICGR program, and I won't get into all the nuances, but basically, government organizations who apply for ICGR grant funds have to certify that their laws or policies or practices meet some basic requirements for HIV and HIV notification to victims. So essentially, if we identify an offender of a sexual assault, a judge can order HIV testing of that offender and then the victim can be notified of the results of those tests in order for them to access the appropriate medical care that they might need, depending on the results of those testing. So that's a huge component of VAWA, or excuse me, of ICGR specifically. Purpose Area 21, to identify and inventory backlogs of sexual assault evidence collection kits and to develop protocols for responding to and addressing those backlogs. So if you remember, I'm sure you know, several years back, the backlogs of SANE kits that were untested in state registries throughout the country was a big, it was a big deal. It was national news, it was getting a lot of attention, especially from Congress. And so ICGR can help with testing of backlogs. And so if that's a need in your area, in your state, in your community, ICGR can help with that. Purpose Area 25, this is a brand new one. So this one comes as a result of VAWA 2022 and our most recent reauthorization. So it's to develop statewide databases with information on where sexual assault nurse examiners are located. And so this is a brand new one for us. So however you envision that, if that's your local community, maybe a county or multiple jurisdiction, then we can sort of explore that. So most grantees who are applying for any of these six categories are doing so in addition to something else, but that's not a requirement. In fact, programs that come in to apply for ICGR funds with a sexual assault focus tend to do very well in our peer review process. And in fact, it's one of the biggest reasons we're here is ICGR program, our team is really wanting to enhance or increase the number of sexual assault specific programs that we are funding. And so we're really interested in getting, say nurses, for example, or same programs to come in and apply for the ICGR program. And if you do, again, we don't get a lot of them. So those who do come in tend to do very well in our competitive process. And that's another note. The ICGR program is a competitive and discretionary grant program. And so we get applications in and some get weeded out. We don't necessarily fund, we don't fund every application that comes in. So right now, Amanda was looking earlier today, we have currently of the 225 grantees we talked about, we have 10 same programs that we're currently funding and we have four statewide more training initiative type programs that related to sane work that we are funding. So 14 really out of 225, it's not a huge number. And we really want to enhance and increase the number of sexual assault programs for funding. And of course, sane programs. So any questions about statutory priorities or any of these priorities that highlight sexual assault specifically? Okay, we're going to keep moving on. If you do, again, feel free to interrupt us, unmute yourself and just pipe in or type your questions in the chat. Otherwise, I'm going to pass it along to Amanda. Great, thanks, Jason. Can everyone hear me okay? Awesome, all right, well, we're going to dive a little deeper into the different projects that we are funding from the ICJR unit for the different sane programs, as well as answer some of the technical questions about applying. But this year, and it has been in years past, one of OVW's priorities is funding sexual assault services. And it's not only a priority for the ICJR program, but it's actually a congressional mandate that we spend a portion of our funding on sexual assault programs. So what Jason said about it being something that we would consider and consider very positively to receive more applications from sane programs is absolutely correct. We are diligently looking to fund those type of projects across the country. And what we mean by funding sexual assault projects is we mean that those projects meaningfully address sexual assault victims by allocating at least 35% of project activities and their budget to serving non-intimate partner sexual assault. So as Jason mentioned, many of our projects that we receive applications for, they're multidimensional, right? Some may just be focused on one activity, but many typically those rooted in a coordinated community response or in a SART model might have multiple partners on it. So there may be a law enforcement officer, some prosecution, some sane services. But for us to consider a project sexually assault focused means that 35% of the activities in budget address non-intimate partner sexual assault. So we recognize that in almost every domestic violence case there's some form of sexual assault or sexual coercion, but we're looking to set that, what we're talking about are those non-intimate partner, those non-DV related sexual assaults. So some of the, just some examples. These are just examples. We would love to hear other thoughts or ideas, but some examples of activities that we have funded as meaningfully addressing this priority are the hiring and training of sexual assault nurse examiners, developing, reviewing or revising non-intimate partner sexual assault programming or policies and procedures, law enforcement and prosecutorial capacity to investigate sexual assault. And this also includes online abuse, harassment and sexual assault exploitation. This funding will also be considered to be meaningfully addressing sexual assault if it includes victim advocacy services that are focused on the non-intimate partner sexual assault. So we're not looking for that advocate that serves everyone, but that we can see that they are serving specifically a portion of their job as the non-intimate partner sexual assault. All right, so who is eligible to apply? Next, there we go. So states, any state is eligible to apply as well as the Indian tribal governments across the country. State and local courts are eligible to apply and units of local government. And what we mean by units of local government, we really are talking about cities, counties, townships, towns, boroughs, parishes, villages, any sort of unit of government. We're gonna talk in a minute about who's not eligible. So we are not talking about departments. We're talking about the actual units of local government. Also eligible are your state, tribal and territorial domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as victim services providers. Now we're very specific in what we mean by victim service providers. Those are nonprofit, non-governmental or tribal organizations or rape crisis centers that provide direct services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking as one of their primary purposes and have a demonstrated history of effective work in this field. Now, one of the requirements that we have for the ICGR program, because we are rooted in that foundation of a coordinated community response is that everybody has a requirement of a required partner. So for the states, Indian tribal governments, state local courts and units of local government, they are required to partner with either a coalition or a victim service provider. Coalition and victim service providers are required to partner with a state and Indian tribal government, state or local court and a unit of local government. So we do require those partnerships. No one can apply for our funding sort of solo. They have to be part of a partnership agreement. Okay, so who is not eligible to apply? Amanda, can we address a question in the chat really fast? So Anne says, I don't see higher education programs listed here. Is that an accurate understanding of eligibility? Yes, if you'll go to the next slide, Jason, you'll see that universities and higher education programs are not eligible to apply as the lead agency. They are welcome to be a partner on the application. So I'm gonna give you an example. I live in Arlington, Virginia and we have Merrimount University here. So the County of Arlington could apply and be the lead agency. And one of their project partners could be Merrimount University. Did that answer your question, Anne? Anne, feel free to unmute yourself and chat. Yes, it does answer this question. I also have a question. We have a couple more if you wanna do them now. Let's do it. So for coalitions, it is multiple partnerships required. So are multiple partnerships required? Great question. So if you want to be considered a statewide project and in a minute, we're gonna get to some slides that show the funding levels, which is where this really comes into play. If you wanna be a statewide project, you need to be able to show that you have a statewide impact, right? And so if you come in and you are a statewide project but you're only proposing to help out one jurisdiction, we're gonna look at the population of that singular jurisdiction. Does that make sense, Sam? Gotcha, I see a thumbs up, awesome. Okay. And then so what does it mean if a state applies? Who from the state should be applying? That's a great question. So we have multiple grantees that do this in a variety of ways. We have some that use the governor's office. We have some who use their department of public safety but their governor, the governor of the state is going to have to sign the eligibility letter. And that's what we mean by a state government. You know, your head, your department, you know, the secretary of, or I have one that goes to the attorney general's office. The attorney general is not the one who would sign the certification of eligibility. It would need to be the governor of the state. Yeah, and the same really applies for any unit of government. And so if it's a city or a township, so that would be like the mayor, maybe the city administrator or the chair person of the council. And for a county, maybe it's the county commissioners that sign those letters, so. Yeah, that's great. It looks like Lindsey has a question about proof of partnership. So we require you to submit what's called a partnership agreement. And you get very detailed template language even that will come out in the solicitation. But basically you detail the roles and activities of each organization. You both sign that you've reviewed the budget and agree to the activities and the budget. And then you would sign a document that gets submitted with the application as proof of partnership. Okay, so let's look at this slide then because we've got some questions. So we put up here who is not eligible to apply. And part of this, we go through a process with our grants that if you are an ineligible applicant, we don't review the application. And these are some of the top categories by which people's applications do not get reviewed. And that's because we get applications from police departments or sheriff's departments instead of the county government or the city government, right? So the police department is a subsidiary of the city of Arlington, right? So the Arlington police chief doesn't apply. It needs to be the mayor that applies on behalf of the police department. The same is true for pretrial service agencies, probation offices and parole offices. District and city attorneys are not eligible applicants. They need to go, they need to apply under their unit of local government by which they report to their county or city. Universities are not eligible. Hospitals are not eligible. And victim service nonprofits or state coalitions are not eligible to apply for any purpose area other than five, 10 and 17. An analysis of our purpose areas was conducted and it was determined that the other purpose areas within our program are inherently governmental and that we will not be accepting applications for those purpose areas that do not have a government agency as the lead applicant. That does not mean that they don't have nonprofits and other partners as part of their project. Sometimes they may even be the biggest part of their project but in order to fund those other activities, we want to know that that unit or state government is not only involved but are part of leading the project. Let's see, I've got some more questions here in the chat. Kim, if you could give me a thumbs up or let me know if I answered your question with that response and I'll move to Amanda's. Would the same program be able to apply for a potential family justice center? Yes, so many family justice centers have a same component to their service model. And so yes, we have several FJCs who we fund and have a same program as a part of that project. So let's see, yes, family justice centers, Amanda, typically fall under purpose area 10 which would be an appropriate purpose area for a victim service agency as well as some family justice centers are government run so they would be eligible to apply for any of our purpose areas. Kara is asking, what if the hospital is a nonprofit? It is not considered an eligible applicant because their primary purpose is not to serve victims. They're a healthcare organization, their primary purpose is to serve patients and provide medical care. Several of our same programs that we currently fund are hospital based, but they've either partnered with their unit of local government or another agency to partner with to receive some of the funding. I think two of our statewide projects actually have the same programs as part of that project. Correct, oh, Adam's answering the question. It's correct, Adam. Adam works for the ICJR program, good job. Purpose area 20 focuses on HIV. Yes, and again, so Karen, great question. So hospitals are eligible to be partners on the applications and as part of the project and can provide that service as a partner agency. They can just not be the lead applicant applying for purpose area 20. Talk a little bit more about building relationships. Yes, I mean, all right, Christina, I'm gonna get that on the next slide talking about those partnerships. So, Stacey, I see your comment about providing SANE training through education through universities and again universities can be a partner in one of these applications to provide these they could also be a consultant to one of these projects that provided the training and opportunities for the SANEs that would be funded. So there are many opportunities for partnering with universities. Unfortunately, at this time universities are not an eligible applicant for this program. Yeah, and, and Amanda to kind of add to some of that. Some of a lot of these questions are really about, you know, who's not eligible but anybody you see on this not eligible list can be a partner on the, the grant award. And so that's the big takeaway, you may not be the lead applicant, but any of these people can can still be a recipient of the ICGR funds as a partner on the organization. So it really is as we, as we get to kind of building those relationships in your community, who can be the lead applicant that can really head and lead this project and get funds to the SANE program whether it's in a hospital or university. We can get there, just not as the lead applicant, usually. Jason will you click to the next slide and I think that's going to cover some of what you were just saying. So this slide shows the breakdown of who we are currently funding in terms of SANEs, and you can see we have SANE programs that we're funding where the state is the lead applicant, the state coalition is the lead applicant, unit of local government, a victim service provider, family justice center, as well as a tribal government. So these are all, these are all currently funded ICGR projects where actual SANE nurses, not just training, but actual SANE nurses and equipment, that's another part that we can fund our SANE forensic exam equipment, are paid for with these entities as the lead applicant. Jason will you click to the next one. And so part of why, and I do see some more questions popping up and we are, we will make sure we get those answers so just stick with us for one more minute. Amanda. Yes. Amanda I'm so sorry to interrupt. I was in the middle of taking a picture of that last slide. Would you mind going back for one second. Sure, and we're going to be sending these out we're going to give these to Christina and she's going to send them out to everyone that's participating. Perfect. I'm so sorry. Thank you so much. You're good. You're welcome. All right. So when we talk about partnerships we realize that that also, you know, it is hard to build relationships and partnerships and these coordinated responses, as well as that means that you're typically sharing a budget with partners right. But the ICPJR program at OVW is one of the largest programs, both in terms of number of grantees, as well as the size of the grants that we give out. So as you see on here our grants for new applicants, you know, we have a whole, we have different information for continuation applicants and we can answer those questions as well but what we wanted to put up here were new applicants. So for new applicants our grants can be will be 48 month awards so four year grants. And for populations that are 400,000 or under their half million dollar awards. You can see when you go to 400 to 700,000 we go up to 750, 700,000 and above is a $1 million award, as well as statewide projects could receive an $1 million award. So while we do talk about the need for partnerships we do try to ensure that we have budgets that will reflect all partners getting paid equally for their work. All right, next slide Jason. Okay. So, we will hope to release the ICPJR solicitation in early 2023. Once it's released, it'll be open for about six weeks, and about halfway through that six week period there'll be a pre application webinar, where you'll get to, you know, you'll get some time with the solicitation document and then you'll be able to come back into the webinar and ask us a lot more questions. As you see this solicitation. But there are some things ahead of the solicitation that you can do to see if your program is is interested and applying so Jason if you could hit to the next slide. And that first one is what Christina was asking about is checking with partners to determine if they already have an ICPJR award that would be your first piece to ask do they already have one can't have two. As well as discussing with them any partnership possibilities so we have had many same programs that have successfully reached out to their unit of local government and said hey we need these services. Would you apply for us as a lead applicant and they've gotten great response we've also seen really successful applications, where there's a partnership between a law enforcement agency who's funding let's say a sexual assault detective. An advocate that the sexual assault and then also providing funds to their partner same program so that continuum of care during a sexual assault investigation is is completed. So discussing those partnerships opportunities early and getting those sort of details worked out prior to the release of the solicitation will make it easier to get that application put through in the six weeks that it is open. Another opportunity is to read through our solicitation from last year it's not that much different, you know we're currently drafting the new one. But we're far enough along in our draft that we can tell you that it is not that much different in terms of the funding available for our same programs, with the exception of adding the same registry purpose area. You are also welcome to reach out to OVW with any application eligibility questions, you know one thing we cannot answer are like what should you write for or how should you write for it. But what we can do our answer any questions about the solicitation eligibility partnerships requirements. We can do those on an individual basis, and I see some more popping in the chat so we will definitely get to those but as those come up during your conversations, we are always open and available to answer those questions for you. And then, after the solicitation is released, you can look to attend the application webinar that I mentioned. You're also welcome to look at our current funded projects, if that might give you some ideas some thoughts on partnership activities, you can find on our website are currently awarded projects by state. And so I would recommend looking at those who are funded and reaching out to them saying what did you apply for how did it go. Because they are a wealth of information, because they have obviously been successful at this process. So I think that's all the information we have right Jason about the actual solicitation application process so looking back at the chat for questions. So I think Michaela's is the first one we didn't answer so what if a victim service program is part of a nonprofit that provides other services. Yes, we can absolutely find a nonprofit organization so maybe it's in a domestic violence program or a sexual assault services program and they a component of that organization is to provide sane exams, we can absolutely find them. Okay so Brianna we have a forensic nursing program and partner with a local standalone er and provide exams for sexual assault and domestic violence, but no advocates, who would we partner with to be able to apply. So, Brianna if again it. I'm not sure I'm understanding the structure of your organization, if you're a nonprofit organization provide you said you're not providing victim services, but you're not, it doesn't sound like you're associated with a hospital or potentially university as a nonprofit organization. If you're not providing other victim services Amanda correct me if I'm wrong, you could partner with a unit of local government or another victim service provider in your community or your jurisdiction to apply as the lead applicant, and you could be a partner for that as well. So pretty much any eligible entity can be your primary partner, so if you're not eligible you're a hospital, for example, you could partner with it doesn't matter a unit of local government, a tribal government. A nonprofit organization as state coalition so long as it's you're partnering with one of the entities that's on the eligibility list the eligible applicants list. See I see one from Lisa so my question Lisa would be you say you have a SART team, then with a nonprofit hospital as a partner. If your SART team is run through a county or a city or some unit of government, then the answer would be yes, but it wouldn't be your SART team, you may have a coordinator for your SART team and they would not be applying, it would need to be a SART team. Okay, let me know if I need to provide more information on that one Lisa. There's a question here about a tribal health consortium. Oh sorry Sam oh that's at Stacey. There's a question here about a tribal health consortium that made up of 20 tribes and they have a forensic services program they run a hospital and 15 clinics and they're currently funded by OVW double checking that they're eligible. There's a question here about a tribal health consortium that made up of 20 tribes and they have a forensic services program they run a hospital and 15 clinics and they're currently funded by OVW. Double checking that they're eligible for this and that and the answer is yes, as a project partner, you would need your tribal government or a tribal victim service agency or a tribal coalition to apply as your lead applicant. OVW is made up of several different programs and we all have different eligible eligibility requirements, and so the ones that we're speaking to today are specifically for the ICJR program and may be different from other programs like our tribal program tribal sexual assault services program, and many others so for the ICJR program, the answer would be yes, if you had a unit of local government, tribal government tribal coalition or tribal victim services agency as your lead applicant. Sam had a comment for Brianna and just a point of clarification so Brianna if that's right, I think we can address that. So, a coordinated SANE program sometimes run by advocates, yes, if you're a nonprofit organization you provide advocacy services to sexual assault victims or even domestic violence and sexual assault victims, then you meet the eligibility requirements for the nonprofit and you can apply as a nonprofit organization. If you're not providing those victim services though beyond the SANE services, then you would need to partner with a victim service organization or other eligible organization. Okay, great. So I see a question here from Lindsay, can you please describe or list local units of government. So when we talk about local government we're usually talking about a town or a city, a county or a borough. So, for example, I live in Arlington, Virginia, so if I wanted to apply I would be my lead agency would need to be the state of Virginia, the county of Arlington, or the city of Arlington, or I would need to have as a lead applicant, the victim service provider in Arlington, or the Virginia State Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. So when we're talking about a unit of local government, we really mean are, where are you providing services? And what governments are the, are overseeing the jurisdiction that you serve? Some of you may serve multiple counties or multiple cities, particularly if you're in a hospital that serves a larger regional area. And you really just need to have one lead applicant and you can include the other cities and towns as partners. But if you do find yourself in that situation, please contact us and we can help you talk through how to ensure the right jurisdictions get included in your application. So Patty, I think we answered your question, but if not, in short, you would need to partner with another eligible organization. So if you're not providing victim services, you're not an eligible nonprofit organization, you can partner with another victim service provider or a unit of local government or tribal government, any of those eligible applicants. All the purpose areas can be found in the solicitation. So Amanda, to answer your question, a solicit, if you go follow the link on the slides to the OVW website, and if you go to on the left-hand side, you'll see a row of links. And one of them is how to apply for OVW funds or something to that effect. If you click on that, you can see currently, you can only see the, you can click on the closed solicitations and you can find the ICJR, Improving Criminal Justice Responses, solicitation for fiscal year 22. And that will list all of the purpose areas. As Amanda said, our solicitation for the upcoming fiscal year 23 will be coming out soon. And when that does, it'll populate in the same spot in the open solicitation section. And it will also list all of the purpose areas. So Lori has a great question. She said that she has a SANE program that is part of a nonprofit DVSA shelter and can they be the lead applicant or only a partner? And the answer is you can be the lead applicant because you are part of a victim service agency and you can apply for purpose areas five, 10, and 17. If you wanted to apply for additional purpose areas, you would need to have your unit of local government be the applicant. Okay, so Kim, I think we're at Kim. Kim's question, does the lead applicant need to have a certain minimum budget in order to qualify to apply? No, there's no minimum budget in order to apply for grant funds. The maximum allowable budget, as Amanda talked about, is based on population for the jurisdiction that's applying, but we really don't have a minimum. Yeah, one thing to include in your thought process with this though is if you find that you have a lead applicant, which is a county, and they get the money and they give most of it out and they aren't involved in any of the activities, we're going to ask some questions. So it will be a part of the application process where you will need to explain that relationship and that partnership and how those entities are working together. So we don't wanna create systems where we have pass-through grants that are just fiscal pass-through relationships. We are looking for partnerships and relationships that really are going to enhance the coordinated community response. Christina has a great question. Are there timeframes for the solicitation each year? Yes, we try to have our solicitation out late in the calendar year or early in the following calendar year. So you could expect to see our solicitation released anywhere between November to February. That's usually our four-month window that we try to have solicitations out and to you all. So great question. If you aren't ready yet, then please let us know how we can help you get ready for the following year if there's questions or information that we can address. So Randy, we're a nonprofit organization, a subsidiary of the tribe, and we apply as the lead organization, the San Carlos Apache Health Care Corporation. You would have to apply again through the tribal government or another tribal victim services organization, and then you could be the partner on that award. Okay. Yes, Sam has a question about project partners. What are some examples of units of local government, units of government for a sexual assault coalition who wanted to partner in having a disability-focused project? So I think the state of Minnesota would be the easy answer for you, and it looks like you've got some great ideas there. Department of Health, Department of Human Services, any of those departments would be fine, Sam, so long as the state of Minnesota was applying and the governor signed your certificate of eligibility that is required. So Amber asked a great question about DV exams, and so are there purpose areas specific for DV exams by forensic nurse examiners? And so, yes, and we only highlighted the six that were specific to sexual assault because we felt that was most pertinent to this call, but for forensic examiners who are doing DV work, you can certainly apply under kind of all the same parameters. I can't name them off the top of my head. Maybe Amanda is that incredible, she can, but if you look at the solicitation and the list of purpose areas, I know you can find one that fits. So, I mean, the important thing is that as an examiner, that's really the evidence collection piece especially, is really criminal justice-related response to these crimes. So it's evidence collection and gathering for the purpose of investigation and prosecution of a sexual assault or domestic violence. And so that is inherently criminal justice and we can absolutely fund it. No, I am not incredible and don't have those memorized, Jason, but they're there. And as Jason said, we welcome those applications. So please do to consider applying. I did see some hands go up and I'm not seeing them now. So either we answered your question or we've been talking too much. So if you did have a question and want to re-raise your virtual hand or just unmute and ask, we are happy to talk to live people as well. Any other questions? I also wanted to mention while we're getting more questions that come in the chat is we don't just fund sane nurses, we can fund sane equipment. So that is also something to keep in mind when you're talking to your partners as well, when you're putting these things together, make sure that when you are talking to them about your portion of the budget, that you're talking about not only people, but the things that you need to make your program successful. So those aren't allowable expense in our program and something that we fund on a regular basis. Okay, great work happening, awesome. The one thing that Jason did mention is that the ICJR program is limited to services for adults and adolescents. And we do define adolescents as 11 and older. So if you are part of a CAC program, do know that this funding could only be used on those victims coming in who are 11 and older. And yeah, also kind of in the realm of thought of Amanda's previous comment, we can fund training as well. So if you're looking to expand your program, train more examiners, more nurses, maybe provide satellite offices or move into an underrepresented, maybe a neighboring community or something like that that does not have local accessible services. And we can fund the training of new nurses as well. Yeah, as well as the tech that goes with virtual services, not just virtual SANE exams, but we've also seen programs where there may be a new SANE nurse in a rural area who's able to have a virtual consultation during the session with a more experienced nurse and do that via different platforms and the use of computer technology. So all of those pieces of tech and equipment that makes your job accessible and more efficient are all things that are eligible. Well, I know we're about out of time. Any other questions that we can answer? If we didn't get to your questions, like I said, we are very happy to talk to you individually. You can shoot us an email. I put those in the chat earlier. They'll be on the slides that are gonna come out to you. Please send us an email. We'll be happy to talk to you about your individual program and how an eligibility situation could work out for you. And we really do encourage you to consider applying for the ICJR program. We would love to have more SANE programs working with our victims. Okay. Not seeing any more questions. Christina, there's one about a recording being made available. Do you wanna take that one? So I will refer back to you. We will make those slides available. If it's okay with you guys, we'll make the recording available too. Sure. Everybody wants to hear about Jason's cause. Amanda, this is Melissa. I have a quick question, two if you have a second. So one is crossing state lines. So we're a program in Wisconsin, but I have a county in Minnesota that's interested in utilizing our services. So if we partnered together, two different states, is that workable? I think it is workable. Melissa, I'm gonna have you email me individually because I wanna make sure I'm able to give you exact detailed information about how to do that. We can do it, but I wanna make sure I give you the exact right information. I need to get a little bit more information myself and sort of who would need to sign your documents sort of thing. Sure. Okay. Great question though. Absolutely. And you said you had a second question? I do. My other one is, so we're primarily a nonprofit and primarily forensic nursing, but we do have an advocacy program as well. I know you addressed this, if you know that the two are connected, but does it need to be a recognized, state recognized advocacy program? So we don't have a requirement because I know some states certify their domestic violence or sexual assault programs, and that is not part of our eligibility requirement. What you would have to show us in the application is that the advocacy services were direct and a primary focus of your organization. Part of that definition that we read in the slide. Okay. Okay. Kim asked, can the grant cover space to provide exams, for example, rent? And the answer is yes. We, the grant funds cannot be used to purchase property. So like a mortgage or something like that. And it cannot be used for construction or capital improvements on properties, but it absolutely can be used for a rental space or, you know, I mean, we fund a lot of different space needs. Yeah. Okay. We are at the top of the hour and want to be respectful of everyone's time. We really appreciate Jason and Amanda. Thank you so much for coming and sharing all this great information and all the work that you do to support forensic nursing programs. And thanks to everybody on the call for showing up and asking such great engaging questions.

ICGR grant program

Office on Violence Against Women

domestic violence

sexual assault

community collaboration

victim service providers

sexual assault nurse examiner programs

law enforcement officers

competitive grant program