Helping Organizations and Programs Expand: Action for Enduring and Emerging Issues

The overarching goal of the Helping Organizations and Programs Expand (HOPE III) project is to expand the vision and impact of the crime victim services field. Under this project, grantees will: (1) collectively undertake a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the crime victims' field in the U.S., with each grantee conducting a critical portion of the analysis; and (2) develop a consensus document that provides a philosophical and strategic framework for defining the role of the field in the country's response to crime and moving the field forward in the future. The final consensus document will include recommendations to OVC and the broader victims' field as well as a detailed blueprint for a national demonstration project (or multiple demonstration projects) focused on implementation of those recommendations.

The solicitation set out the following categories for four 12-month projects: (1) the role of the crime victims' field in the overall response to crime and delinquency in the U.S.; (2) building capacity in the crime victims' field to better serve victims of crime; (3) enduring challenges in the crime victims' field that still are being addressed; and (4) emerging challenges the crime victims' field has yet to address. A fifth, 18-month project will develop a consensus report of recommendations based on the information gathered through the other four projects.

The Medical University of South Carolina will undertake the 18-month project to develop the consensus report of recommendations, including a blueprint for a multiyear OVC demonstration project (or projects) to implement the recommendations.

The grantee will do the following: (1) hire a full-time project director responsible for oversight and implementation of the project; (2) establish a stakeholder group of 30 to 40 representatives of federal, national, state, local, and tribal organizations and agencies to participate in the project; (3) analyze the information in the four reports developed by the other projects and synthesize it into a cohesive and comprehensive draft assessment and report of recommendations, including a proposed blueprint for a multiyear demonstration project (or projects) to implement the recommendations; (4) convene a forum of the stakeholder group to discuss the draft report; (5) based on the forum discussion, revise the report of recommendations and demonstration project blueprint; and (6) based on OVC and stakeholder feedback, submit a final consensus report of recommendations.

ca/ncf