OVW opens FY2024 Restorative Practices Pilot Sites solicitation, offering up to $1.5 million awards

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) on a pre-application webinar outlined the FY2024 Restorative Practices Pilot Sites (RPPS) solicitation, saying the program will support community-based restorative-practices work focused on preventing or addressing domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

OVW said it will award cooperative agreements for 60 months, anticipated to begin Oct. 1, 2024, and end Sept. 30, 2029, and estimated it will make up to 15 awards of up to $1.5 million each (total estimated funding about $23 million). "OVW will award 60-month cooperative agreements to eligible entities," Debbie Tanaka, Grant Management Specialist, said during the webinar.

The solicitation is authorized at 34 U.S.C. 12514, and OVW emphasized that projects must be victim-centered, trauma-informed and culturally responsive. OVW said it seeks pilot sites in varied geographic and demographic settings, including culturally specific or underserved populations, and projects may have connections to the criminal-justice system provided the program is not housed within or administered by a court, prosecutor's office, law enforcement agency, or any other component of the civil or criminal justice system.

OVW outlined two priority areas that may receive special consideration in review: advancing equity and Tribal sovereignty for historically marginalized or underserved populations, and strengthening efforts to prevent and end sexual assault. Kara Moller, Restorative Practices Team Lead, said applications addressing the sexual-assault priority must propose projects in which at least 75% of project activities are intentionally designed for people harmed by sexual assault and must include a partnership with a community-based sexual-assault victim-services provider.

Applications must be led by eligible entities (units of local government, Tribal governments, Tribal organizations, victim-service providers, institutions of higher education as defined at 20 U.S.C. 1001(a), or private/public nonprofit organizations, including Tribal nonprofits and faith-based organizations) and must include formal partnerships documented in a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or, for Tribal Governments at application time, signed Letters of Commitment with MOUs due within six months of award.

OVW stressed evaluation: recipients must participate in an OVW-funded evaluation and designate an evaluation liaison to work with evaluators to tailor evaluation components to community needs. The solicitation notes certain activities are out of scope, including research as defined in 28 C.F.R. 46.102(d) (systematic investigations designed to produce generalizable knowledge), though pilot-site evaluation support by a liaison is expected.

Important dates listed on the webinar: the Grants.gov deadline is Tuesday, June 25, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (initial forms such as SF-424 and SF-LLL must be submitted in Grants.gov), and the JustGrants final submission deadline is Thursday, June 27, 2024, at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. OVW anticipates announcing funding decisions by Oct. 1, 2024. The webinar presenters said recordings and slides will be posted on the OVW website and offered contact information for questions and technical assistance.

For more information, OVW directed applicants to the FY2024 RPPS solicitation, the OVW Solicitation Companion Guide, and to contact ovw.restorativejustice@usdoj.gov or the OVW mainline at 202-307-6026.

The webinar concluded with a question-and-answer period in which staff clarified definitions of "existing program," partnership and MOU requirements, and other application details. The solicitation text and companion guide remain the authoritative source for applicants.