Program Brief

INTRODUCTION
The Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program (Legal Assistance Program) is designed to strengthen civil and criminal legal assistance for victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence through innovative, collaborative programs. These programs provide victims with representation and legal advocacy in family, immigration, administrative agency, or housing matters, protection or stay-away order proceedings, and other similar matters. The Legal Assistance Program is intended to increase the availability of civil and criminal legal assistance in order to provide effective aid to victims who are seeking relief in legal matters arising as a consequence of abuse or violence.

Lawyers and legal advocates providing service through the Legal Assistance Program must be trained and mentored by personnel from respected domestic violence and/or sexual assault programs within the community to be served. Non-lawyers must be fully supervised by attorneys in accordance with local bar rules. Lawyers providing services through the Legal Assistance Program must be supervised by a senior attorney. Lawyers may not be supervised by non-lawyers unless specifically permitted by local bar rules. Training and mentoring should be ongoing to address issues that may arise during the course of the project.

SCOPE OF PROGRAM

Program Purpose Areas
The Legal Assistance Program provides an opportunity for communities to examine how the legal needs of victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking are met. By statute, funds may be used:

• To implement, expand, and establish cooperative efforts and projects between domestic violence and sexual assault victim services organizations and legal assistance providers to provide legal assistance for victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence.
• To implement, expand, and establish efforts and projects to provide legal assistance for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault by organizations with a demonstrated history of providing direct legal or advocacy services on behalf of these victims.
• To provide training, technical assistance, and data collection to improve the capacity of grantees and other entities to offer legal assistance to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault.

Special Interest Categories
The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is interested in funding projects that respond to the unmet legal needs of victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence within the special interest categories outlined below. Applicants are not required to address special interest categories. In addition, OVW encourages all applicants to develop programs to reach diverse and traditionally underserved populations, including racial, cultural, or ethnic minorities; persons with disabilities; language minorities; or victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence in rural or inner-city areas. The following list does not imply any order of priority among categories.

1. Establish or strengthen direct legal services programs to make a broad range of legal assistance readily available to stalking and domestic violence victims. In many communities, direct legal services organizations provide free or low-cost legal services to victims. Programs vary, however, in their ability to provide assistance for the full range of legal needs of victims. Stalking and domestic violence victims should be able to turn to one resource to obtain assistance with legal matters arising as a consequence of the abuse or violence, including family, immigration, administrative agency, or housing matters, protection or stay-away order proceedings, and other similar matters.
2. Establish or strengthen projects focused solely or primarily on providing a broad range of legal assistance to victims of sexual assault. Approximately 500,000 women are estimated to be victims of some form of rape or sexual assault each year.¹ The National Violence Against Women Survey estimated that 14.8 percent of adult women in the United States had been raped sometime during their lives and that another 2.8 percent had been victims of an attempted rape.² Often, many sexual assault victims cannot obtain appropriate and comprehensive legal services because of the lack of affordable, appropriately trained attorneys. Sexual assault victims should be able to turn to one resource to obtain assistance in legal matters arising as a consequence of sexual assault, abuse, or violence, including family, immigration, administrative agency, or housing matters, protection or stay-away order proceedings, and other similar matters.
3. Establish or strengthen programs that assist victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence on lands within the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe³. The average annual violent crime rate among American Indians is approximately 2.5 times higher than the national rate.⁴ The average annual rate of sexual assault perpetrated against American Indians is 3.5 times higher.⁵ Seventeen percent of all Native women will be stalked during their lifetimes.⁶ Unfortunately, the modern barriers Indian women face when confronting sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence are considerable. American Indians and Alaska Natives living on reservations, rancherias, and pueblos or in villages frequently do not have access to telephones, transportation, or any other form of emergency services. The combination of geographic isolation, lack of emergency services, and lack of knowledge of the justice system leaves many victims without access to legal assistance. OVW is interested in programs designed to meet a broad range of victims' legal needs as well as projects with multidisciplinary components that serve victims on lands within the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe.
4. Establish or strengthen legal advocacy programs operated out of or under the direct auspices of sexual assault or domestic violence victim services organizations or shelters. Victims who contact rape crisis centers or domestic violence shelters are often in need of immediate legal assistance or advice. Some crisis centers and shelters have established legal assistance programs by arranging with one or more lawyers to provide services to resident and/or nonresident victims. Others coordinate representation from among a cadre of lawyers who are willing to provide victims with pro bono or low-cost legal representation. An essential component of such programs is training that would ensure representation by qualified attorneys and/or legal advocates knowledgeable about the law and the dynamics of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence.
5. Establish or strengthen law school clinical programs that provide direct legal representation to victims of sexual assault, stalking, and/or domestic violence. Clinical programs in law schools provide direct representation of victims to meet the full range of their legal needs. In addition, they train law students in substantive law and the dynamics of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence. These law students are future lawyers, judges, and policymakers. Regardless of the field in which they ultimately work, they will bring to the justice system an enhanced sensitivity to the issues of sexual assault, stalking, and domestic violence. Law school clinical programs that provide representation for victims seeking civil protection orders are eligible for consideration under this special interest category. OVW is also interested in programs designed to meet a broader range of victims' legal needs, as well as projects that develop multidisciplinary components. For example, a law school clinical course could be co-taught and co-supervised by a mental health professional and law professor, or students in the program could provide assistance in emergency medical facilities.
6. Establish collaborative efforts among victim services programs and local agencies, local services (such as public housing agencies, hospitals, health clinics, campuses, and public libraries), or local businesses to provide on-site legal advocacy and/or legal assistance information in places where sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence victims are likely to go. To increase the reach of legal assistance programs serving victims of sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence, and dating violence, OVW promotes collaboration among community groups that may not have worked together previously. Through this approach, programs can provide assistance and information to victims in places that ensure privacy and safety. Some jurisdictions, for example, provide an attorney in a community health clinic.

Program Limitations
Grant funds may not be used for certain activities. Prohibited activities include but are not limited to civil legal assistance for the following:

• Alleged batterers or, in the case of mutual arrest, the primary aggressor.
• Law reform initiatives, including but not limited to appellate litigation.
• Tort cases
• Child sexual abuse cases
• Cases involving the child protection system
• Criminal defense of victims charged with crimes
• Victim service agency employee cases

PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY
By statute, eligible grantees for this program are private, nonprofit entities; Indian tribal governments, Indian tribal organizations or Indian tribal consortia; territorial organizations; and publicly funded organizations not acting in a governmental capacity, such as law schools.

To be eligible for a grant, applicants are required to enter into a collaborative working relationship with a nonprofit, nongovernmental sexual assault and/or domestic violence program in the community to be served. Applicants must certify in writing that they are in compliance with the following statutory requirements:

(1) Any person providing legal assistance through a program funded under (the Legal Assistance for Victims Program) has completed or will complete training in connection with domestic violence, dating violence, or sexual assault and related legal issues;

(2) Any training program conducted in satisfaction of the requirement of paragraph (1) has been or will be developed with input from and in collaboration with a tribal, state, territorial, or local domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking organization or coalition, as well as appropriate tribal, state, territorial, and local law enforcement officials;

(3) Any person or organization providing legal assistance through a program funded under (the Legal Assistance for Victims Program) has informed and will continue to inform state, local, or tribal domestic violence, dating violence, or sexual assault programs and coalitions, as well as appropriate state and local law enforcement officials of their work; and

(4) The grantee's organizational policies do not require mediation or counseling involving offenders and victims physically together, in cases where sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or child sexual abuse is an issue.

Of the amount made available for this program each year, not less than 3% shall be used for grants for programs that assist victims of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault in lands within the jurisdiction of an Indian tribe.

For more information about the Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program, please contact:

Office on Violence Against Women (OVW)
800 K Street, N.W., Suite 920
Washington, D.C. 20530
Phone: 202-307-6026
Fax: 202-307-3911
TTY: 202-307-2277
Website: www.usdoj.gov/ovw

NOTES

1. Bachman, Ronet, and Linda E. Saltzman. Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned National Crime Victimization Survey (Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report). Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice (August 1995).

2. Tjaden, Patricia, and Nancy Thoennes. Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (November 2000).

3. For the purposes of this grant program, Indian tribe is defined as any tribe, band, nation or other organized group or community, including an Alaska Native village or regional or village corporation (as defined in or established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, 43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians. (25 U.S.C. Section 450b(e)) Any applicant representing a consortium of tribal governments and/or organizations must submit a resolution from the constituent tribal governments and/or organizations supporting the application.

4. Greenfield, Lawrence A., and Steven K. Smith. American Indians and Crime. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice (February 1999).

5. Id.

6. Tjaden, Patricia, and Nancy Thoennes. Stalking in America: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey (National Institute of Justice Research in Brief). Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (April 1998).