DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to the February 9, 2023 installment of From the Director’s Desk. We’re glad that you’re able join us today. All audio lines are muted, as this is a listen only briefing. For reference, this recording will be posted tomorrow to the OVC website.
At this time, it’s my pleasure to introduce Kristina Rose, OVC Director, for today’s briefing.
KRISTINA ROSE: Thank you so much, Daryl.
Good afternoon, everyone.
It feels like it’s been so long since my last briefing! I want to thank OVC’s Principal Deputy Director Katherine Darke Schmitt for providing last month’s briefing while I was away. I heard she did a fantastic job, and I’m not surprised.
I want to start by announcing the arrival of LeBretia White as the new Division Director of the Tribal Division at OVC. We are absolutely thrilled that LeBretia has joined our team. She’s a licensed clinical social worker and she comes to us from the Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw funding for Tribes, states, and local communities in the area of adolescent healthcare. Earlier in her career she served as a Program Manager at the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. She is a welcome addition to OVC, as she brings new and unique experience and perspectives. We are so glad to have her.
So, OVC didn’t waste any time after the new year jumping right back into things. In January, we held a training webinar for our FY ‘22 Human Trafficking grantees about performance measure reporting. I know it sounds a little dry, but our presenters did a fantastic job of conveying the importance and the value of grantee performance data, how we use it at OVC to measure the impact of our funding, and how grantees can use the data to lift up their hard work and demonstrate the wide range of survivors they are serving. So, thank you to OVC’s Human Trafficking Division for making this happen!
Earlier this week, we commemorated the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. And as a lead up to that, OVC sponsored a 2-day meeting of our FGM/C grantees for in-depth discussions about addressing and sustaining efforts to end FGM/C in their communities. The meeting was organized by the Addressing Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting Training and Technical Assistance Project, which is run by RTI. You’d be amazed at some of the work these grantees are doing. For example, the Asian Women’s Shelter launched a Support Line for FGC Survivors, The Sauti Yetu Center for African Women and Families has launched their highly anticipated Hands Project, which focuses on education and raising the voices of women and girls affected by FGM/C, and Sanctuary for Families is in the process of releasing and recruiting for their African Youth Leadership Program. And these are just a few of the accomplishments. We’re so proud of our FGM/C grantees and how they are helping young girls everywhere.
We also commemorated OVC’s 20-year anniversary of anti-trafficking efforts. We had a special event in DOJ’s Great Hall of Justice that acknowledged intergovernmental collaboration, programmatic and grantee achievements, and ongoing activities related to OVC’s anti-trafficking program.
We were joined by members of DOJ’s leadership, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke; and OJP’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Amy Solomon. Oh, and I was there, too. Hilary Axam, the Director of the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit at DOJ was there; and Kay Buck from CAST, and Lupe Martinez from UMOS spoke, [and] Aubrey Lloyd, a survivor and anti-trafficking advocate addressed our theme of Transformation, Collaboration, and Impact.
A true highlight of the event featured homemade video clips from human trafficking grantees and advocates across the country talking about what they’ve been able to do with human trafficking funding. If you weren’t able to attend in-person or virtually, I hope you’ll watch the recording on our website, ovc.ojp.gov or justice.gov because it truly was a wonderful event.
Also in January, we convened a roundtable of experts on crime victim compensation to discuss the themes we’ve identified through our many listening sessions with the field and with survivors. I’m so grateful for the hard work that they did that day to help us determine if we were on the right track with our efforts to revise the Crime Victim Compensation Guidelines. The next step will be allowing public comment on the proposed revisions through the Federal Register. We’ll let you know when that has been posted.
And now I’ll turn to the monthly update on the CVF, or the Crime Victims Fund.
As many of you know, the FY ‘23 Omnibus Spending Bill passed in December and it capped the Crime Victims Fund at $1.9 billion, which was a little more than we had expected.
December deposits into the CVF totaled $106 million and brought the current balance of the CVF to $1.84 billion. Now, while that might appear to be just shy of the $1.9 billion obligation cap, the balance already reflects the deduction for the Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside, and the DOJ operational costs. So, we’ve been able to meet the FY ‘23 obligation cap, but just barely. We now turn our attention to FY ‘24 and the long-term health of the CVF.
On that note, I wanted to let you know that yesterday, we gave a briefing on the CVF to the House and Senate CJS Appropriations Subcommittee staff. They had lots of questions for us about the solvency of the CVF. We’re so appreciative of their interest and their concern about ensuring that crime victims receive the services that they need.
Next week I will be attending OJP’s Community Violence Intervention Conference in St. Louis, which is going to bring together CVI grantees for three days to learn, share, and discuss the myriad issues surrounding CVI. OVC’s hospital-based victim services grantees will be in attendance and I’m so looking forward to spending time with them.
I want to talk about a few housekeeping items, but before I get to that I want to mention an important opportunity for all of you to engage on the topic of victim restitution and incarcerated persons.
Right now, the Bureau of Prisons has a proposed rule on the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program open for public comment until March 13th. If you want to respond, go to regulations.gov and type in 2023-00244, then read it carefully and provide your comments. As you know, it is my strong view that survivors’ voices be heard in all places where decisions that affect them are being made. Again, it’s regulations.gov and you type in 2023-00244.
And, now for a few housekeeping items.
OVC is seeking population certifications from eligible applicants to signal their intent to apply for the noncompetitive FY ‘23 Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside Formula Grant Program.
New this year is an online process that we hope will be more effective, since we’ve heard that the old paper process was, at times, difficult, unwieldy, and sometimes delayed. So please submit your certification by 11:59 p.m., Alaska time on Friday, February 17th.
And if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you check out the most recent Just the Stats report and interactive maps from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on their website, bjs.ojp.gov. You can use the maps to display the rates of victim service providers in each state and the rates of victims served per 1,000 county residents.
The data comes from the National Census on Victim Service Providers, which was developed by BJS with funding from OVC. We hope that this tool will be very helpful for demonstrating where victim services are lacking and where they are needed most. I want to thank Alex Piquero, the Director of BJS, and his wonderful staff for doing this for us.
It’s hard to believe, but National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is just around the corner. The long-awaited theme artwork and color palette was just released, and we hope the remainder of the guide will be posted on our website later this month. So you can go to the website and see our new poster and the beautiful colors and design.
I also want to remind everyone that the Candlelight Vigil will be held on April 26th in Washington, DC. And we’ll be opening registration this month, so be on the lookout for that.
And then, one last plug: please consider becoming a peer reviewer for OVC. We need you! There’s so many benefits to being a peer reviewer, including getting the OVC Director’s undying love and appreciation! So visit “Apply to be a Peer Reviewer” section of our website, under “Funding & Awards” for more information.
So that’s the end. Take care. Enjoy the rest of your week. And again, thank you for everything you’re doing to help victims find their justice.
