OVC: Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) seeks applications for funding to improve outcomes for children and youth who are victims of human trafficking by integrating human trafficking policy and programming at the state or tribal level and enhancing coordinated, multidisciplinary, and statewide approaches to serving trafficked youth.

Donor Name: Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)

State: All States

County: All Counties

U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 06/22/2022

Size of the Grant: $1,000,000 – $1,500,000

Grant Duration: 3 years

Details:

To enhance capacity to identify, assist, and provide services to all victims of human trafficking, OVC leads the Nation in supporting victim-centered and trauma-informed programs, policies, and resources that promote justice, access, and empowerment.

This program intends to improve outcomes for children and youth who are victims of human trafficking by integrating human trafficking policy and programming at the state or tribal level and enhancing coordinated, multidisciplinary, and statewide approaches to serving trafficked youth.

Category 1: Statewide or Tribal Jurisdiction-wide Response Goals

The overall goal of the program is to improve responses for child and youth victims of trafficking, with a focus on coordination at the statewide or tribal jurisdiction level to create effective change across systems. Recognizing that each jurisdiction is unique, applicants should identify the state or tribe’s greatest barriers to identifying and assisting child and youth victims of sex and labor trafficking and/or to investigating and prosecuting these trafficking cases, and propose a program to systematically address those barriers.

Category 1: Statewide or Tribal Jurisdiction-wide Response Objectives

• Develop and implement a jurisdiction-wide strategy to combat the greatest challenge areas in child and youth sex and labor trafficking within the state or tribe.
• Develop protocols and procedures to ensure child and youth victims receive appropriate, evidencebased services, including developmentally age-appropriate and/or linguistically tailored referrals and/or services, and strengthen data collection across multiple systems of care that work with and provide services to youth.
• Develop a unified strategy to provide training to professionals throughout the jurisdiction, including, but not limited to, law enforcement officers, first responders, victim service providers, health care professionals, educators, child welfare officials, juvenile justice personnel, prosecutors, and judicial personnel, and other relevant organizations.
• Fill gaps in existing services and coordinate responses in existing anti-trafficking and youth-serving efforts, including those related to victim assistance, law enforcement, child welfare, runaway and homeless youth, and juvenile justice, among others. Applicants should determine if there is an existing federally funded trafficking victim service provider within their jurisdiction, and work to ensure that an application under this program does not duplicate existing services currently funded by OVC, the Office on Violence Against Women, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or another federal office or agency.
• Conduct data collection and performance measurement activities to determine if the program is meeting stated goals and objectives.

Category 2: Training and Technical Assistance Goals

The overall goal of the program is to support states and tribes (both those that are funded under the OVC Improving Outcomes program and those that are not) in strengthening their cross-systems coordinated responses to child and youth victims of trafficking.

Category 2: Training and Technical Assistance Objectives

• Support program-funded grantees with tailored, project-specific technical assistance as they work to leverage existing victim assistance, law enforcement, and child welfare anti-human trafficking efforts for children and youth in their state or tribal jurisdiction.
• Provide diverse technical and subject matter expertise and support, in consultation with OVC, to improve states’ and tribes’ capacity to respond to trafficked children and youth.
• Review and provide input on training materials and resources developed by OVC-funded grantees prior to grantee submission to OVC.
• Facilitate ongoing peer-to-peer consultation and networking among states and/or tribes working to improve their response to child and youth trafficking (both those that are funded under the OVC Improving Outcomes program and those that are not), and within a given state/tribe, to promote problem solving and innovation through the exchange of information, lessons learned, and new ideas.
• Conduct an assessment of each OVC-funded site’s strategy, including an analysis of current laws, resources, and issues that impact the strategy.
• Engage in dialogue with the states/tribes and assist with the development of policies, procedures, and resources to help the grantee: a) be as inclusive as possible of all child and youth trafficking victims in the state or tribal jurisdiction; b) end the criminalization of minor victims of trafficking as a result of their own victimization.
• Work in coordination with other OVC-funded anti-trafficking TTA providers, leveraging expertise so that information and resources are available and coordinated for grantees.
• Collect, summarize, and communicate information about the project, useful lessons learned, and recommendations for OVC, states, localities, and systems, including through the development of public-facing tools and resources.

Funding Information

• Category 1: Statewide or Tribal Jurisdiction-wide Response- $1,500,000.
• Category 2: Training and Technical Assistance- $1,000,000.

Grant Period

Period of Performance Duration (Months) – 36.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.