FY 2022 Building State Technology Capacity

The Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance (ICDVVA) requests a grant for the purpose of building state technology capacity. Idaho’s VOCA Victim Assistance grants are currently administered without grant management software. The implementation of a comprehensive system to manage the application, reimbursement, and budget management functions of ICDVVA grant awards would save valuable time for ICDVVA staff and subrecipient staff alike, as well as improve communication and access to information for all parties, and would reduce the incidence of errors. Many systems also have a data-collection component, and ICDVVA would like to be able to gather more detailed data than is currently collected in some key areas including victimization of senior citizens and individuals with specific disabilities.

With this grant, ICDVVA would research the various options for grant management software and determine the most efficient and cost-effective option to meet Idaho’s needs. The funds would cover the cost of a commercial off-the-shelf system, plus training of ICDVVA and subrecipient staff to use the new system. ICDVVA has no other source of funding to support this purchase.

In Idaho, many victims service agencies are small, and rarely have staff who are dedicated to working with finances and grant administration. Even executive directors frequently provide direct services to victims. Any time spent on grant management by subrecipients is time taken away from direct services provided to a victim in need.

ICDVVA’s first priority is to support direct services for crime victims in Idaho. The implementation of a grants management system would improve the efficiency of ICDVVA staff and subrecipient agencies across the state, so that subrecipient agencies can spend more time serving victims and ICDVVA staff can spend more time on activities that enhance services for all funded agencies.  A data collection component to a grants management system would also assist in making data informed funding decisions and targeting gaps in service.