The primary purpose of the Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Program is to enhance the safety of rural victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking and support projects uniquely designed to address and prevent these crimes in rural areas. The Rural Program welcomes applications that propose innovative solutions to achieving this goal and encourages collaboration among criminal justice agencies, victim services providers, social services agencies, health professionals, and other community organizations to overcome the problems of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking and ensure that victim safety is paramount while providing services to victims. The Rural Program also recognizes the richness of diversity in rural communities and areas across the country, and encourages applicants to implement innovative approaches, through capacity-building and partnerships, to address the critical needs of victims in a manner that affirms a victim's culture, effectively addresses language and communication barriers, and ensures accessible services for all victims.
Funds under the Rural Program may be used for the following purposes:
- To identify, assess and appropriately respond to child, youth, and adult victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in rural communities, by encouraging collaboration among sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking victim service providers; law enforcement agencies; prosecutors; courts; other criminal justice service providers; human and community service providers; educational institutions; and health care providers, including sexual assault forensic examiners;
- To establish and expand nonprofit, nongovernmental, state, tribal, territorial, and local government victim services in rural communities to child, youth, and adult victims; and/or
- To increase the safety and well-being of women and children in rural communities by:
- Dealing directly and immediately with sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking occurring in rural communities; and
- Creating and implementing strategies to increase awareness and prevent sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and/or stalking.
- To develop, expand, implement, and improve the quality of sexual assault forensic medical examination or sexual assault nurse examiner programs.
OVW will only fund applications that propose projects that implement a collaborative response, support victim services and/or create a direct response to these crimes in rural communities. Proposed projects must devote at least 70% of their project activities and budget to Rural Program purpose areas 1, 2 and/or 3(A). Applicants may apply to address purpose area 3(B), but no more than 30% of the project budget and activities may be dedicated to prevention and awareness activities.
In FY 2024, OVW is interested in supporting the following priority areas:
- Advance racial equity and tribal sovereignty as an essential component of ending sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
- Strengthen efforts to prevent and end sexual assault, including victim services and civil and criminal justice responses.
What's New About this OVW Program in 2024:
- Rural Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Initiative: In FY 2024, the new Rural SANE initiative seeks to address the shortage of SANEs and sexual assault medical forensic exams in rural communities. This Initiative aims to enhance quality of care for survivors of sexual assault by supporting the creation of sexual assault medical forensic exam services in rural communities and increasing the number of trained SANEs in rural areas. Successful applicants will establish hospital-based and/or community-based programs that offer sexual assault medical forensic exams and sexual assault victim services using coordinated community response strategies. OVW encourages innovative approaches to addressing the unique challenges of providing these services in rural, tribal, and underserved communities. Selected sites will have access to specialized technical assistance (TA) providers with expertise on this issue.
In 2022, $33,404,213 was awarded to 44 projects. Recipients can be seen here: https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1534671/download
In 2023, $36,363,957 was awarded to 51 projects. Recipients can be seen here: https://www.justice.gov/ovw/awards/fy-2023-ovw-grant-awards-program#Rural
The following activities are outside of the program scope and will not be supported by Rural Program funding:
Applications that propose activities deemed to be substantially out-of-scope may receive a deduction in points during the review process or may be eliminated from consideration.
Further, the following costs are not allowable with Rural Program funding: Lobbying; Fundraising; Purchase of real property; Physical modifications to buildings, including minor renovations (such as painting or carpeting); and Construction.