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Committee forwards three Cal OES grants to bolster DA victim services and outreach
Summary
The committee forwarded three Cal OES grants totaling approximately $4.2 million across terms for elder abuse, victim‑witness assistance and unserved/underserved victim advocacy, supporting staff positions, outreach and a Bay Area mass‑victimization response plan.
The Budget and Finance Committee voted to forward three retroactive California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) grant resolutions that fund victim services programs in the District Attorney’s office.
Grama Baptiste, chief of victim services, presented the grants: an elder abuse grant (Item 7) totaling $652,332 across terms to serve older adult victims; a Victim Witness Assistance (VW) grant (Item 8) that the presentation listed at roughly $2,986,360 for 2024 with smaller amounts in subsequent terms and that funds approximately 12 investigator positions and several advocates (noting VSD served about 7,568 victims July 2023–June 2024); and an Unserved/Underserved (UV) outreach grant (Item 9) totaling $590,718 to expand culturally responsive services to immigrant and underserved victims. Baptiste described operational agreements with community partners, bilingual staffing, outreach events and a Bay Area mass‑victimization response plan.
The Budget and Legislative Analyst recommended approval of Item 8 and noted the VW grant has a 20% matching requirement met by general fund appropriations. Supervisors asked about bilingual pay and languages; VSD identified Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish and Tagalog staff among the bilingual advocates.
Chair Chan moved to add a non‑substantive phrase to the final resolve clauses as read into the record and to forward the three items to the full Board; the motion passed with affirmative committee votes.
