Discretionary Programs
Each year, FVPSA provides Discretionary Grants that support projects to build collaborations among domestic violence programs, faith-based organizations, child welfare agencies, healthcare providers, employment and training agencies, and others. To find out about the discretionary grants available to your organization, visit grants.gov.
Specialized Outreach Demonstration Projects for Services to Underserved and Diverse Populations
Runaway and Homeless Youth & Domestic Violence Collaborative Grants
Open Doors to Safety
T/A for Open Doors to Safety
Special Projects
Specialized Outreach Demonstration Projects for Services to Underserved and Diverse Populations
This project area supports Institutes that convene researchers, activists, domestic violence survivors, and practitioners to support coordinated outreach efforts to underserved and diverse communities, and to develop and promote culturally appropriate approaches to the elimination of domestic violence. The following organizations were granted awards in 2008.
The domestic violence issues faced by Asian, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are particularly grave. Domestic violence rates in these communities are between an estimated 41% and 60%. The Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), based in San Francisco, is undertaking a specialized outreach demonstration project for services to these underserved and diverse populations. The project, called the Asian and Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, seeks to strengthen advocacy to improve the cultural relevancy of services for victims, and to promote community organizing to confront and change cultural and gender norms. It also aims to conduct research on culturally relevant responses, as well as to engage in policy advocacy to effect systems change and increase community investment.
Under the auspices of the International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Immigrant Family Violence Institute (IFVI) is working to enhance, document, and disseminate promising practices to eliminate domestic violence against immigrant women. Its services include culturally appropriate outreach and engagement, prevention and intervention services for domestic violence among immigrants, and the national dissemination of materials. For the Specialized Outreach Demonstration Projects, IFVI is developing a new project that includes equal collaboration from 1) immigrant survivors of DV and immigrant leaders, 2) immigrant service practitioners, 3) mainstream DV practitioners, and 4) researchers knowledgeable about DV and/or the needs of immigrant women. Project-specific coalitions will develop and disseminate culturally appropriate promising practices for DV services to immigrant women in 18 cities around the nation.
The National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health promotes dialogue, builds system capacity, and influences policy to strengthen the ability of domestic violence programs and their partners to serve survivors experiencing the mental health effects of domestic violence and other lifetime trauma, and/or who are living with a psychiatric disability. The Center was launched in 2005 by the Domestic Violence & Mental Health Policy Initiative, a unit of the Hektoen Institute of Medicine in Chicago. For the Specialized Outreach Demonstration Projects, the Center is focusing on providing new resources, tools, and consensus-building opportunities that will help to fill the critical gap in services for survivors with unmet mental health and advocacy needs.
- Regents of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, for the Hispanic Family Violence Institute
The Hispanic Family Violence Institute will address domestic violence among Hispanic populations nationwide. The institute will engage in research, training, and technical assistance, with an emphasis on promoting culturally relevant services to Hispanic populations in the area of family violence. The institute also will promote best practices in regards to Hispanic populations and family violence through providing information on techniques related to program implementation, service delivery, and evaluation. Initial outreach efforts will focus on eight States across the U.S. with the fastest growing Hispanic populations. This project is a collaborative effort with La Casa, a domestic violence shelter in Las Cruces.
The mission of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community is to provide an interdisciplinary vehicle and forum by which scholars, practitioners, and observers of family violence in the African American community will have the continual opportunity to articulate their perspectives on family violence through research findings, the examination of service delivery and intervention mechanisms, and the identification of appropriate and effective responses to prevent/reduce family violence in the African American community.
Runaway and Homeless Youth & Domestic Violence Collaborative Grants
The FVPSA Program supported efforts in eight States and community-based organizations to design and develop collaborative services to promote collaboration between grantees in two of its related programs: Domestic Violence Programs and Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY/DV) Programs. While the FVPSA Program focuses on domestic violence prevention and intervention, the RHY/DV Program assists homeless youth by providing shelter and basic necessities, reuniting youth with their families when possible, and aiding the transition to adulthood for older homeless youth who cannot return home. Runaway and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable to dating violence. Many have been raised in abusive households or have experienced neglect, abandonment, or severe family conflict. In turn, youth who come to domestic violence programs, as victims of domestic violence or accompanying parents who seek services may benefit from strong links to community networks of targeted youth programs. This is a challenging intersection area that presents an opportunity to improve services for a population of youth at high risk for experiencing domestic violence (both perpetration and victimization) and to improve cross training and collaboration between domestic violence and youth services providers.
Runaway and street youth may not be reached by traditional, school-based domestic violence prevention and intervention services and may require innovative approaches for outreach, education and support. Grantees are engaged in efforts to reduce adolescent dating violence through:
- Community awareness activities;
- Education and prevention programs;
- Increasing the capacity of youth programs to address domestic violence, and domestic violence programs to serve youth experiencing dating violence;
- Developing training materials and curricula;
- Developing protocols for effective prevention and intervention strategies that should lead to improved service delivery patterns.
RHY/DV Providers: Council of Churches of Greater Bridgport, Bridgeport, CT; Youth In Need, St. Charles, MO; Texas Network of Youth Services, Austin, TX; Hoyleton Youth & Family Services, Washington Park, IL; Family Violence Prevention Center, Raleigh, NC; Youth Services of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK; LUK Crisis Center, Inc., Fitchburg, MA; and Center for Community Solutions, San Diego, CA.
Open Doors to Safety: Capacity-Building Grants for Domestic Violence Programs
To reach victims in marginalized communities and create effective new responses to domestic violence, the FVPSA Program is funding five exciting initiatives. The Open Doors to Safety grants to State Domestic Violence Coalitions will build on the skills of local communities while also developing best practices to be disseminated nationwide. Fiscal Year 2008 awardees focus on either responding to mental illness and substance abuse or serving incarcerated and formerly incarcerated victims.
The Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ACADV) is improving shelter response to victims of domestic violence who also suffer from mental illness, trauma-related conditions or substance abuse. Working with two of its member domestic violence programs – SafeHouse of Shelby County and Crisis Services of North Alabama (CSNA) – ACADV will explore models for specialized services for such victims. They will also continue disability and substance abuse work groups and conduct a community needs assessment.
Along with seven local domestic violence programs, the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence (ICASDV) developed the Southern Idaho Domestic Violence Mental Health Response, a collaborative effort with five demonstration projects. Each project will provide new or enhanced mental health services at the domestic violence programs, as well as training staff to understand best practices for serving survivors with mental illness. Licensed counselors will also assist ICASDV in conducting a needs assessment to identify service barriers and needs, and then take action to reduce service barriers and improve the capacity of local domestic violence programs.
The Kentucky Domestic Violence Association’s (KDVA) Incarcerated Battered Women’s Advocacy Project brings together a multidisciplinary team of individuals and organizations to work with victims of domestic violence at risk of incarceration, currently incarcerated at Kentucky’s jails and prisons, and those formerly incarcerated. KDVA will undertake a comprehensive planning process, identify the needs of incarcerated victims, and develop model services, delivery mechanisms and resource materials.
The Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV) is improving service and advocacy for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated victims of domestic violence. They are undertaking a national project to create survivor-centered, evidence-based advocacy and services. MCADSV is partnering with three local service providers serving the Detroit metro area – LA VIDA, Serenity Services, and YWCA of Metro Detroit-Interim House – and working with two FVPSA supported national technical assistance providers – the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women and the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community.
The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (NHCADSV) are enhancing the capacity of local domestic violence program advocates to provide effective and meaningful support to victims who are experiencing mental health and/or substance abuse problems. With a clinical trauma specialist, they will provide in-depth assessment and case consultation at each of the five participating NHCADSV member programs and develop training programs to enhance staff skills and adapt program policies to better meet the needs of these hard-to-serve victims.
Technical Support for the Open Doors to Safety Grant Program
Innovation needs support to thrive and ensure that lessons-learned are captured and shared. To do this, the FVPSA Program is funding technical assistance to the Open Doors to Safety grantees
The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) is providing individualized technical assistance to grant recipients, including peer-to-peer support to maximize resource-sharing and learning among grantees. They will convene workgroups to develop new program models and identify cross-cutting challenges facing victims with complex needs. As national membership organization representing the Sate Domestic Violence Coalitions, NNEDV will help disseminate the materials, policies and strategies developed by grantees.
Special Projects National Domestic Violence Shelter Study
Through an Interagency Agreement with the National Institute of Justice in the Department of Justice, the FVPSA Program sponsored an independent study of domestic violence shelters, focusing on the experiences of domestic violence survivors who obtained shelter. Dr. Eleanor Lyons, the Principal Investigator from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, collaborated with the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and the state domestic violence coalitions and programs in eight participating States. In the report to be released in late 2008, this first of its kind study documents: the needs of domestic violence survivors who seek shelter; the extent to which their expectations were met; survivors’ assessment of immediate outcomes associated with their shelter stay; variation in outcomes across demographic and shelter program characteristics; and recommendations for improving shelter program services. |
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