The FVPSA Tribal grants are primarily for the provision of immediate shelter and related assistance for victims of domestic violence and their dependents. Related assistance includes but is not limited to victim advocacy, outreach and prevention services, public awareness campaigns, counseling related to domestic violence, transportation, legal advocacy, and children’s counseling and support services. In addition, funds may also be used in establishing, maintaining, and expanding programs and projects to prevent domestic violence.

Funding is available to all Native American Tribes and Tribal Organizations that meet the definition “Indian Tribe” or “Tribal Organization” at 25 U.S.C. 450(b). Of the more than 500 Federally recognized Tribes in the United States, the FVPSA Program currently funds 202 Tribes and Tribal Organizations.

Find Tribal grantees in your area.

Level of Funding, Fiscal Year (FY) 2008
Ten percent of the FVPSA grants are dedicated to Tribal domestic violence programs and are distributed based on population and the number of Tribes applying.

Service Model
Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians reservation is located in the north-central region of Minnesota. It is home to over 5000 Tribal members. The Equay Wiigamig (Women’s Shelter) has been in operation since 1998 and provides comprehensive services to victims of domestic violence and their dependents.

As one of FVPSA’s median-sized grant recipients, the Red Lake Tribe utilized their grant to provide shelter for 129 victims of domestic violence with 181 accompanying children.  The staff is comprised of a program director and two advocates. In addition to direct services for victims and their dependents, the Equay Wiigamig also provided Domestic Violence and Healthy Relationship awareness sessions to 800 children and 325 adults.

The Equay Wiigamig has successfully collaborated with various Tribal, State, and local agencies to provide a coordinated response to domestic violence. Case managers and home base workers from Family & Children Services work with the shelter advocates.   The domestic violence program participates in child protection team weekly meetings to strategize about cases where domestic violence and child maltreatment co-occur.

Visit the Tribal Grantee blog to see what other FVPSA Tribal Grantees are doing.

Sacred Circle: National Resource Center to End Domestic Violence Against Native Women
Sacred Circle, located in Rapid City, South Dakota, was established in 1998 as the fifth member of the domestic violence resource center network [link] by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Sacred Circle provides technical assistance, policy development, training, materials, and resource information regarding violence against Native women, and assists in developing Tribal strategies and responses to end the violence. Sacred Circle is a project of Cangleska, Inc., a private, nonprofit, Tribally chartered organization on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  Cangleska is a nationally recognized organization providing domestic violence and sexual assault prevention/intervention services and facilitating the coordinated response to domestic violence and sexual assault for the Oglala Lakota Nation.

For more information about Sacred Circle and the assistance provided, please call 
877-733-7623 or visit www.sacred-circle.com.

Help Is Just a Phone Call Away
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is a 24-hour, confidential, toll-free hotline. The Hotline staff will immediately connect the caller to a service provider in his or her area.  Highly trained advocates provide support, information, referrals, safety planning, and crisis intervention in 170 languages to hundreds of thousands of domestic violence victims. 

1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
1-800-787-3224 (TTY)