OVW Fiscal Year 2023 Grants to Improve the Criminal Justice Response - Solicitation

This program is authorized by 34 U.S.C. §§ 10461-10465 and implemented through regulations at 28 C.F.R. Part 90, Subpart D. The Grants to Improve the Criminal Justice Response Program (ICJR Program) (CFDA# 16.590) encourages state, local, and tribal governments, and courts to improve the criminal justice response to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking as serious violations of criminal law, and to seek safety and autonomy for victims, by requiring the coordinated involvement of the entire criminal justice system. The foundation of the ICJR Program is a Coordinated Community Response (CCR). A CCR brings together a diverse group of community partners to work together to address the widespread impact of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking and to provide multiple pathways to support, healing, and accountability for families. For additional information about this program and related performance measures, including how awards contribute to the achievement of program goals and objectives, see:

OVW grant program information: OVW Grants and Programs Webpage.
Program performance measures under the Measuring Effectiveness Initiative: VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative webpage.
Program-specific sections in OVW's most recent report to Congress on the effectiveness of VAWA grant programs.

What's New About this OVW Program

As a result of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022 (VAWA 2022), the following changes have been made to the ICJR Program:

Applicants may now apply to support comprehensive civil legal services, outside of assistance seeking orders of protection. Applications that include civil legal services must limit direct civil legal services to no more than 30% of project activities.
Applicants may apply to two new purpose areas: (25) developing statewide databases on sexual assault nurse examiners; and (26) supporting alternative methods of reducing crime in communities that supplant "punitive" programs or policies (i.e., ones that penalize victims for requesting law enforcement or emergency assistance or because of criminal activity at a victim's residence); and
Applicant jurisdictions (other than courts) must certify that: (1) no later than three years after receiving their first award post VAWA 2022, their laws, policies, and practices ensure that prosecutors' offices implement training on victim-centered approaches in domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking cases; and also have in place victim-centered polices, and protocols disfavoring the use of material witness petitions and bench warrants to obtain victim-witness testimony; and (2) their laws, policies, and practices prohibit prosecution of a minor for prostitution.

Additional changes to the ICJR Program include:

Applicants may no longer propose more than 50% of grant funds to be used to develop and disseminate training as a grant deliverable;
If an application proposes to pass through more than 50% of grant funds to one organization, the applicant must include an explanation of why the entity receiving the funds did not apply as the lead applicant.