NCJ Number
214640
Date Published
July 2006
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This biennial report presents findings regarding the effectiveness of activities carried out from Fiscal Year 2001 through Fiscal Year 2002 with grant funds from the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) and reports on the development of the initiative to measure the effectiveness of grantees.
Abstract
Initial State profile data, although incomplete for Fiscal Year 2001 through Fiscal Year 2002, indicated that grantees leveraged VAWA funds to build support for victim services, protection of victims, enhanced response by the justice system, and coordinated community responses to end violence against women. Descriptions of specific programs and program accomplishments are offered for 18 States and focus on how the programs have reached historically underserved victims. For example, the report notes that the Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services used VAWA funding to hire a bilingual, bicultural Hmong attorney and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault developed an initiative with VAWA funding to provide training for domestic violence and sexual assault advocates who work with mentally and physically disabled victims. Other programs highlighted include programs that have used VAWA grant funding to protect and support victims, to enhance the justice systems’ response to domestic violence, and to protect the civil legal needs of victims. VAWA grant funds have also been used during the study period to encourage the active collaboration and coordination among agencies and organizations responding to domestic violence. During 2001 and 2002 an extensive process was undertaken to identify best practices with regard to data collection, outcomes measures, and evaluation activities in order to develop standardized reporting tools for measuring the effectiveness of VAWA-funded initiatives. Interview and focus groups were conducted with State administrators, directors of State sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions, criminal justice system representatives, and others. In-depth site visits were also conducted in 12 States to collect comprehensive statistics and first-hand reports on projects aided by VAWA funding. The data was used to compile State profiles describing projects funded by VAWA. Table, footnotes, appendixes