FY 2024 Tribal Victim Services Set-Aside Kickoff Call

JANET ROUTZEN: I'm going to introduce LeBretia White. LeBretia is the OVC's Tribal Division Director. She will be giving us an opening statement and we're really excited to have her good words today, LeBretia.

LEBRETIA WHITE: Wonderful greetings everyone. Thank you so much Janet. I'll begin my remarks by first thanking Janet Routzen for the wonderful way she opened this session. Thanks so much again, Janet, for your sincere expressions to move us forward in a good way. Again, I'm LeBretia White, the director of the Tribal Division at the Office for Victims of Crime. And I'm so delighted to welcome you to the Tribal Victim Services set-aside or most frequently referred to as the TVSSA program's new grantee orientation. 

The Tribal Division staff have worked in collaboration with our training and technical assistance providers to share critical information with you on today with the aim of ensuring you have access to the tools, resources as well that are needed to implement victim services. We also will be providing you with information to support the work that you'll be doing. 

Some of you have submitted applications for construction, so constructing and renovating your offices and or shelters, as well as managing your committed team of staff who work daily to provide victims and their families with trauma informed, culturally relevant, victim centered support. Please know the incredible work you do daily does not go unnoticed and we really appreciate how you so often overcome challenges with innovation and creativity. 

As you may already be aware, since the Tribal Set Aside program began in 2018, OVC has made hundreds of TVSSA awards, which now provide victim services to thousands of crime victims and hundreds of Tribal communities. In fact, in FY 2024, 199 Tribes were awarded TVSSA grants, which is just a slight decrease from the 212 applications received in FY 2023. 

What we learned, and continue we're always continuously learning, but what we learned for the FY 2024 cohort of Tribes receiving TVSSA funds is that increasingly you are making decisions to apply for TVSSA through interviews and checklists and so you know that there have been multiple options for how you could submit an application. These options have become again, quite popular. 

Our Tribal Division staff conducted 47 virtual interviews across the lower 48 and with Alaska as well. And then another 31 in-person interviews in Alaska for a total of 78 virtual and in-person engagements with you to complete and submit your FY 2024 applications. 

Again, this has been a tremendous effort. And to ensure all unclaimed set aside funds were allocated to TVSSA in FY 2024, we increased your award allocations by approximately 41,000. You probably have noted that information from your grant manager who's been assigned to work with you and other information that we've shared. 

Your TVSSA programs will serve victims of arson, assault, burglary, child abuse, dating violence, domestic violence, elder abuse, fraud, identity theft, kidnapping, labor trafficking, rape and sexual assault, robberies, sex trafficking and stalking. 

So over the next several months and years, we look forward to learning about the positive outcomes on how your programs have provided direct services to crime victims and their families, pay the salaries of victim advocates, run supervised visitation programs to allow children to stay connected to their families, provide civil legal assistance to crime victims dealing with repercussions of their victimization, buy groceries, pay for emergency housing, and shelter for victims and their family members, amend Tribal codes to include stronger victim protections, lease vehicles to take victims back and forth to appointments, hold sings and ceremonies to help victims connect back with their communities and provide services to the family members of missing or murdered indigenous persons. 

A lot of work there and so the work that you've done in your TVSSA programs and will continue to do with your 2024 awards provides tremendous and much needed services to victims in the American Indian and Alaska Native communities. And that brings us to fiscal year 2025, the fiscal year we're currently in as of October. 

As you probably know, we're currently accepting population certification forms under the first phase of the FY 2025 TVSSA application process until January 17th, 2025. All federally recognized Tribes, including those that previously received a TVSSA award and FY 2024 or earlier are invited to submit. 

We're inviting you to please submit your population certification. A link to the online form will be placed in the chat. I encourage you to please again submit your population certifications. But also note while we have begun this first phase of the FY 2025 application process, Congress has not yet passed an appropriations bill for the Department of Justice. Until Congress passes such legislation, we will not be able to confirm that OVC is authorized to set aside funds for TVSSA and FY 2025 or how much the set aside might be. We're definitely optimistic there will be a set aside. Thus, we've started the population certification process. 

Lastly, we are preparing for Indian Nations, the National Indian Nations Conference which is scheduled for December 10th through the 13th, 2024 on the reservation of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs, California. Registration is open, so I look forward to seeing you all there. 

If you're coming, please take note that ahead of the conference we're hosting an in-person listening session for our TVSSA grantees that morning when the conference begins, which is the morning of December 10th. Information about joining the listening session is on the OVC website and we're dropping a link in the chat now so that you'll have immediate access to register to participate. We definitely would love to have you present with us for that listening session. 

I will close my remarks by once again thanking you for joining us today and please know the OVC Tribal Division staff, look forward to providing you with support as you prepare to accept and begin implementing your FY 2024 TVSSA programs over the next one, two, three, four, or five years of your project period. Again, looking forward to learning with you, growing with you, as well as supporting your efforts. 

Again, we appreciate the incredible work that you're doing in your Tribal communities and your participation in today's webinar. Now at this time, Rachel Gibson, Dawn Hill and Janet Routzen will begin the orientation session. I think we're going to start off with Janet. Thank you everyone. Enjoy your day.

JANET ROUTZEN; Thank you LeBretia. We appreciate LeBretia's leadership. She listens to the Tribe and really puts forward their wants and needs to the leadership of OVC. and some of the changes that have been able to be made is because the voices of not just LeBretia but the rest of the grant managers on our team. And Dawn Hill, Rachel Gibson and myself will be presenting. 

Please drop your questions in the chat. We have some staff members of the grant managers ready to try to provide you some answers. We did get some pre-questions and hopefully we'll be able to get to them as we go along. I'm really excited to be here and we can move forward. 

We are going to start with a Polling Question. We want to know who you are. Under this award, could you answer the poll question? We'll give you a few minutes to be able to do that. Are you a victim services director coordinator? Are you a victim advocate? Are you a grants manager or grant writer, a financial officer or an accountant or other? 

We'll just give you a few minutes to answer the poll question. We would love to know who's joining us today. And there we go. 32% of you are victim services directors, coordinators. We have some victim advocates, a lot of grant officers, grant writers, financial officers and others. Thank you very much and welcome. 

Today we are going to be talking about doing an overview of our OJP programs and our OVC programs. We are going to talk about our 2024 TVSSA program, understanding your award conditions, talking about your support system, which is huge. We want to make sure that you know who to reach out to and ask when you do need support. 

We're going to talk about the different reports and due dates of information and also give you a lot of information about different resources out there for you to help support you in the great work that you do in your community. 

Today's goals and objectives are for you guys to gain a greater understanding of OVC's mission and the TVSSA program, how to identify your key documents, how to understand the terms and conditions of your awards, your reporting responsibilities. 

We also are going to review your award documents to ensure that there aren't any compliance issues and that you understand the requirements and that you also become familiar with any available resources that we have, including an introduction to your OVC technical assistance providers who we have on hand and who are assisting us. 

Also, T-VSTTA is presenting this to you today. This is a lot of information, and we know sometimes it could be overwhelming. We know you're out there doing the work, and we want to try to ease the way for you. 

We are going to record this session, and we'll make it available in the future on our OVC website. That means if you've missed something, that's okay, you can go back and look at the recording or and always remember you can contact your grant manager so that they can assist you in being as successful as you need to be. 

What is the Office for Victims of Crime? OVC is committed to enhancing the nation's capacity to assist crime victims and to provide leadership in changing attitudes, policies and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. And doing this OVC has, it's actually we had a conversation earlier with some other staff members talking about a lot of people don't understand the type of programs or the breadth of work that OVC does. 

We're the administrators for the VOCA program. We have our of course, native victim service resources. We support human trafficking and the work that's being done on there. Any work in our communities that deal with elder abuse and fraud. We support law enforcement. We also support funding for terrorism and mass violence for their inner terrorism and emergency assistance program, the International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program. And we also sponsor the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. 

OVC not only supports Tribes, but they also provide support to states and also provide training and technical assistance. We are committed to reaching out to underserved populations and communities and ensuring that everyone has access to the services that they need. And if you want to know more about OVC and our programs, there will be a link dropped into the chat and you can always find out more information also and watch videos on the OVC website. 

We are going to talk more about the Tribal Division now and the TVSSA program. As LeBretia mentioned, the Tribal Division and the TVSSA funding started back in 2018 so that OVC could provide grants to improve crime victim services in Tribal communities through various different programs. 

These are the different programs that our Tribal Division has been able to support across Indian country. Of course it's our TVSSA Set-Aside Formula Program, CTAS. We're also part of the CTAS program under the Children's Justice Act Partnerships for Indian Communities. Developing Future Victim Specialists to Serve American Indian Alaska Native Victims of Crime. Project Beacon which increases the services for Urban American Indian and Alaskan Native victims of human trafficking. 

And also providing training and technical assistance for Tribes. If you want to learn more about our various programs, there'll be a link also dropped in the chat that you can look at so that you can learn more about what we do. For our TVSSA program for 2024, we're here to provide you our Tribal communities to enhance the services for victims of crime throughout activities that address the needs of a wide variety of crime victims and Tribal communities. 

The allowable activities and costs could be direct services to victims of crime needs assessment and strategic planning. If your Tribe is trying to reassess or plan for the future, how to assist victims and survivors in your community. Assisting with program implementation based on what type of victim assistance needs are in your community. Expanding your program including providing traditional healing practices. Expanding populations that are served in your community and also expanding the types of crimes that are being addressed. 

You're not limited when it comes to the TVSSA program in which types of crime victims that you may serve. LeBretia did give a pretty lengthy list and when you applied, you also were able to put that information in your application about which crime victims you were going to serve within your community. If your Tribe wants to necessarily center on child victims, you can do that. If you want to expand your services for MMIP or for domestic violence or sexual assault, you also can include that. 

This is the TVSSA grant funding history, as you could see it has gone up and down. This last year actually has been our lowest funding level, but the funding that goes to the Tribes under this grant comes out of the crime victims fund. And it really, there's not a set amount out there, it really depends on how many or what types of criminal activities or how many people have to pay into the fund and that's what keeps that balance going up and down. 

We do understand and we have heard from you how much it has hurt this year that this funding level has gone down. And that is because it is based on that particular pool of funding and that funding does not come from taxpayer dollars. That's why we saw such a low amount in here. It's just the fund is also low. 

LeBretia talked about, we gave out 199 total awards for FY 24 with the minimum award of $219,402 and the maximum $441,989. And those are all based off of your population certifications. Again, there were two different project period performance start dates that you were able to pick October 1st, 2024, or January 1st, 2025. 

Unfortunately, you cannot change your start date. But if you find yourself and you've only applied for the funding for a year and you find yourself mid-year and saying, well we weren't able to hire someone or we have some funding that's still going to be available after our end period, you can always talk to your grant manager about doing a project period extension and you can extend those up to 60 months. 

These are some of the focus areas that are available and that you have applied for this year, including any type of sexual assault program, serving male survivors of crime, a comprehensive victim assistance program, responding to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons, assisting our Elders, our vulnerable adults, law enforcement victim advocacy. 

TVSSA does not fund law enforcement or prosecution, but we can fund advocates to work with law enforcement or within your court to assist victims. Assisting victims of financial abuse and exploitation. Child abuse program including Child Abuse Advocacy Centers and also Civil Legal Assistance for Crime Victims. Again, LeBretia did mention it, but you can also use this funding in order to make some changes to Tribal codes if that's what's needed in your community. 

We're going to talk a little bit about what's allowable and unallowable. I am not going to go through the whole list. You would be able to find this information either in the solicitation documents or also online. 

But I do want you to think about four questions when you're thinking about spending your funds. And those four questions are, you should always ask about whether a cost is allowable or unallowable is, does the cost relate to supporting or assisting crime victims that's directly to them? Can cost that you are requesting funding for be allocated specifically in this project? Is the cost reasonable and are the cost listed in this allowable unallowable cost chart? 

If you can answer these questions, the activity and the cost is most likely allowable under TVSSA. But whenever in doubt you make sure you reach out to your grant manager and especially now, I know everybody's trying to revise their budgets because of the increased cost of the 41,000. 

Make sure you're reaching out to your grant managers asking them those questions. Is this an allowable cost? Some of the things TVSSA funds cannot be used for is costs associated with activities not related to victim services. 

Also, the costs associated with law enforcement or prosecution, personnel or activities, food and beverages, meals or refreshments for meetings or conferences or trainings. But a huge note here is one of the exceptions, one of the rare exceptions that you are able to use your funding if the food is associated with your cultural or traditional activities that are reasonable and they may be approved for you to be able to feed. 

We know how important it is in our communities and how food is used in our healing process and healing ceremonies. Make sure that you also are asking questions of your grant manager if those types of costs are allowable for you. 

Also, you cannot use funding for lobbying fundraising activities or for legal services for criminal defense. Even if that criminal defense may be for a victim of domestic violence, you cannot use the funding for that. 

We're going to change it a little bit here because we're going to talk about your core deliverables. Those are things that include reports and documentations that are required by law. Those include your Semiannual Progress Reports, your Quarterly Financial Reports, your Quarterly Performance Measure Data, Submission and Clearance of your Proposed Budget, and Current Indirect Cost Rates and Lobby Certification. 

All of this information needs to be uploaded into JustGrants. It can seem like it's kind of complicated, but again we do have T-VSTTA and also TFMC, which is our financial TA provider, to assist in helping you through any issues you may have with these core deliverables. If any of these aren't done, then you also risk your funds being suspended until things are submitted correctly. 

Deliverables that align with your projects could include if you put in your grant application that you were going to complete a needs assessment, develop a logic model or strategic plan, if you're going to develop policies and procedures for your programs, if you are going to give out information, any type of publication communication, curriculum that is developed with staff time or OVC dollars. All of those things would be counted towards as a deliverable. 

When you're ready, make sure you have a conversation with your grant manager or TTA specialist to discuss the deliverables that you put in your application and because those need to be also loaded up into JustGrants and have an opportunity for your grant manager to be able to look at them and to be able to approve them. We're going to take a minute here and we are going to pause for questions.

RACHEL GIBSON: Thanks Janet, this is Rachel. It looks like we did receive a question in the Q&A area. I'll go ahead and read it out loud. Their organization had a question regarding eligibility to receive TVSSA grant funded services. When the person has had a prior felony conviction for domestic violence-related offenses, could grant funds be used to provide allowable services to such an individual? 

They've tried to find a clear answer in the VOCA text and in the regulations governing the TVSSA program and it seems like it would be allowable given the Q&A section on the VOCApedia page, and I'll put that information here. There we go.

KIMBERLY WOODARD: Okay, so Rachel, I did have a question for it looks like Ted, who submitted that question, the individual you're referencing, what type of services are they seeking and what type of victimization have they suffered or is this someone you've identified as a crime victim? If you could just clarify that in the Q&A section, I think that would be helpful.

RACHEL GIBSON: Great, we'll allow for that conversation to continue in the Q&A. And Janet, I think we can move forward.

JANET ROUTZEN: Alright, I see I'm taking a lot of time so I'm going to move on a little quickly although, this is your roles, the role of the grantee. As a grantee you have several responsibilities that you need to fulfill. 

You need to make sure that you have access to JustGrants and that you have gone in and accepted the award that you are reviewing and complying with all award conditions. And those are all within the award documentation. Make sure you print that out, share it with your staff, make sure you're reaching out to your grant manager in case of any doubts or concerns or support that you may need. 

Also, your role is to manage and implement the project according to what you put in your application and what are the award conditions. When you're getting started, that's part of it, accessing and accepting the award in JustGrants. 

You have to assign those JustGrants roles, and you also have to review and comply with any of the award conditions on the award document. Those can be a little complicated but there are resources available to you and they have put some information into the chat for JustGrants so that they can assist you through the process. 

We have so far, 161 of you have accepted your awards. 38 still need to accept. Now remember, it's critical to respond to those award notifications within 45 days, either by accepting or declining the award. I'm sorry, my eyes are wandering. I've seen someone was having issues with ASAP. There is assistance for that. 

Also make sure you reach out to your grant manager though too. They can also give you some resources. And there are some training webinar links that were just placed into the chat. Make sure you look into that. Also, the quick tip is that there are some training webinars that are held every Thursday from 2:00 to 3:00. 

How to accept the award in JustGrants to accept it. You need the authorized representative to sign into JustGrants, select an award from my work list, open and accept the information for each tab on the award project and then click accept. After the authorized representative click accept, the system will display a banner indicating that the award has been accepted.

Remember that that authorizing representative needs to be somebody that can accept those funds for the Tribe. They're literally taking responsibility and the liability for those grants for the Tribe. They have to be in a position to be able to do that. And let's talk about finalizing your budget.

Tight now, everybody's budget is under a conditional process because of the added funds. I don't believe we've had any finalized budgets yet, so once the grant manager is able to look at it, either approve it or request changes, it then goes up the line until it gets to OCFO. They will take a look at it, but remember you cannot obligate or expend or draw down funds until your budget is approved. 

OCFO may change request your budget for revisions or clarification of expenses, and before you upload the revised budget in JustGrants, highly recommended to address all issues identified by the OCFO and ensure the budget is free of any mathematical errors and totals and the exact amount of your award. 

You will have assistance with this with TFMC, as you see there's a link and their contact phone number, but they'll also be talking to you here in a few minutes. I'm now going to turn this over to Ms. Rachel. Thank you.

RACHEL GIBSON: Thanks, Janet. Hello everyone and I'm delighted to be here with you. We're going to talk about understanding your award conditions. As we've said at the beginning of this webinar, we're giving you all tons of information. It's a lot for you, it's a lot for us as grant managers as well. So please don't feel overwhelmed, but just know that understanding your award conditions is going to be important as you navigate through your grant. Next slide please. 

There are some things that we need to know. First, it's important to note that the award conditions and language discussed during this webinar are applicable only to the 2024 fiscal year TVSSA solicitation. If you have any project specific questions or concerns regarding the award conditions, your grant managers are here, and we can answer those questions, and we'll show you who all of those folks are a little bit later. Next slide. 

We'll go ahead and skip this polling question. Thank you. What is an award condition? That's a great question, I'm glad you asked. An award condition is managed in the award section of JustGrants. And award conditions may include additional requirements covering areas such as programmatic and financial reporting, prohibited uses of funds, consultant rates, changes in key personnel and proper disposition of program income. 

It's important to note that your specific award conditions for your specific grant may not be the same for every grantee. When you receive an award, you'll need to review and accept all the award conditions as part of your funded award package. 

We want to remind you, and everyone involved in the grant, especially the signing authority, the point of contact and the financial point of contact, to read and understand all of these conditions thoroughly. Doing so will help you stay aware of any potential issues that may come up in relationship to subrecipients and day-to-day activities. Next slide please. 

Award conditions can be categorized in two categories, active and removable. Active conditions remain in effect throughout the entirety of the project period while removable conditions can be removed once they are met and are no longer applicable. Please note that in some cases removable conditions may withhold funds until they are satisfied. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that. Next slide. 

First let's talk about general award conditions. It's important to ensure that you comply with all the requirements related to the system for award management or SAM, which you can access. And we'll provide a link for that. This includes registering with SAM and keeping all your information up to date. If you would like more information, please reach out to your grant manager. Required financial management training. 

If you are listed as either the grant award administrator or financial management contact in JustGrants, this is mandatory for you to complete, the Department of Justice Financial Management Training. It's important to complete this training within the first 120 days after accepting your grant award. 

To fulfill this condition, you'll need to do one of the following. You can either complete the Department of Justice grant financial management online training independently from your desktop or at your computer. And if you do that, it may take you between 16 and 20 hours to do so. The second option is to attend a 2-day Department of Justice financial management training seminar in person. 

And the last option is with our technical assistance provider to participate in the TFMC, Tribal Grants Financial Management Training, which consists of five consecutive weeks of one hour live virtual sessions. Again, if you have questions, please reach out to your grant manager.

In order to implement your award, there are some grant reporting responsibilities. As a recipient of a TVSSA grant, it's important that you are aware of your reporting requirements. Reporting for your grant work starts when your award period begins. Regardless of whether you have accepted the award, cleared your budget or hired staff, reporting is essentially a way for you to update us on the progress of your grant work. 

This includes providing us with information on milestones achieved, challenges encountered, and how the grant funds are being utilized. It's important to note as well that failure to meet your reporting requirements could result in a delay of your grant payments or even termination of the grant. We urge you to take the reporting seriously and make it a priority. Next slide. 

What are your programmatic award conditions? Programmatic award conditions are a set of specific requirements associated with each award and remain in effect through the life of the award. These conditions are similar to the general conditions but are tailored to meet the specific needs of the award and the associated solicitation of the program. 

These conditions may include, specific reporting requirements, milestones achieved or other performance metrics that must be met to ensure successful completion of the award. One of the programmatic conditions is access rights. 

Please remember that you all authorized the Office of Justice Programs access to, and the right to examine all records, books, papers, or documents related to this grant. By accepting this award, you agree to this cooperation and partnership. These documents are most often requested during a monitoring site visit, but might also be requested outside of a site visit. This is really important. OVC reserves the right to take appropriate action in...

DAWN HILL: I think that she may have lost audio, she may be gone but I will continue. OVC reserves the right to take appropriate action in instances where the grantee fails to initiate activity on the grant or misses multiple time task deadlines. OVC action may include but is not limited to termination or suspension of the grant. We don't want that to happen. If you need assistance, please reach out to us. Next slide. 

Programmatic Condition: Consultant Rates. Some of you may have consultants on your grants, but it's not to exceed $650 per day or $81.25 per hour and written prior approval must be obtained for some costs. Reach out to your grant manager if you have consultants on your grant. Rachel, you ready to jump back in?

RACHEL GIBSON: Yes. Sorry about that everyone. Yes, we could go to the next slide. Thank you. And then there are costs that require prior approval. This includes compensation for consultants over the excess of the current OJP consultant rate, sole sourcing, publication plans, purchase of automatic data processing equipment and other costs incurred. Next slide please. 

And anyone who is doing construction, this is going to be important for you. All construction renovation projects are required to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, that is called NEPA. The OVC grant team must work with OVC's designated NEPA technical assistance provider to complete the NEPA process prior to actual construction. We will also be hosting a construction webinar, so we won't dive into this much deeper. Next slide please. 

I don't see questions right now, but feel free to go ahead and put those questions in the Q&A. We'll go ahead and keep going. Withholding, so this is going to be very important. Next slide. Thank you. 

What is a withholding? A withholding restricts from drawing down funds. If not in compliance with these conditions, they should be addressed immediately and maybe added when information is missing from the application. Next slide. 

Here's the screenshot of what it looks like to see what your holds are, in JustGrants. You'll notice that there is the award condition number, and it'll say 39 or whatever that number is, and you will be able to know what the award, the withholding amount is, in relationship to what that special condition requires. Next slide please. 

If your budget is still under review by OCFO, you can only obligate or expend draw down up to 10%. Prior to the final budget clearance OCFO may change request your budget for clarifications and then you'll need to also, which is important, email a copy of your revised budget to your grant manager for review. Prior to budget clearance, and unless there is a more restrictive condition on this in the award, it's important again to remember that 10% rule. Next slide please. 

Indirect costs. This is another really important one. This withholding is for indirect costs, version 2, for awards with a conditional budget clearance. So please, please, please, if you have not submitted your indirect costs that are current, please email those to your grant manager. And if your rate has changed, increased or decreased, you will need to submit a budget modification, GAM, so that we can make sure we have that noted. Next slide please. 

Here's another list of financial withholdings. Again, this is going to be important that you satisfy these conditions so that the hold on your ASAP account will release the funds so that you can continue to do the work that you are doing. And so, this is an example of some other withholdings that may happen on your grant award. Next slide please. 

How do we satisfy a withholding? First, just take action. Email the required documents to your OVC grant manager. Once those documents have been reviewed and approved through the system, then a removal of the withholding award condition can happen. 

Then after that, only your grant manager can submit a GAM to resolve a withholding condition. It's important again to keep in contact with your OVC grant manager. And then lastly, the point of contact and JustGrants will receive an automated notification once that award condition has been removed. 

Who is your support system? I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Dawn Hill.

DAWN HILL: Hello everyone. I'm going to talk about the support system. You'll hear from me. You'll also hear from TFMC and T-VSTTA. Next slide. 

The role of the OVC grant manager. We are really here to assist and support you. And some of our roles include connecting grantees to the right tools and resources, we monitor award compliance and award progress, we perform desk reviews every year and you may often see us in-person on a site visit. 

Oftentimes, if you have budget modifications or programmatic scope changes, you will send those to us and we review and approve those modifications, and we provide additional direction and oversight as needed. Now let's meet who your OVC grant managers are. Next slide. 

And here we are, all of your OVC grant managers. If you are new and most of you are, you will be assigned a grant manager. This is a picture of all of us, and we can't do this work without the leadership of the Tribal Division. Next slide. 

And that is, if you met earlier, LeBretia White who's our Tribal Division Director, Yolanda Curtis Gibson who's our Deputy Director, and Kara McDonagh who's also a Deputy Director. TFMC. Take it away. Lanisha, are you on mute?

LANISHA BELL: Sorry about that, I was so concerned with turning my video on. Thank you, Dawn. [Speaking in Native Language] Hope everyone is doing well this afternoon. Just to share a little bit about TFMC, for those that don't already know the work that we do. 

TFMC is committed to providing grantees with a range of options for receiving individualized training and technical assistance, including virtual onsite and then also kind of a combination or hybrid formats.

In all of our training and technical assistance delivery methods, we commit to making sure that we're learning about each of your Tribal communities, about your unique culture and practices and traditions, developing an understanding of the Tribal victim service program, your mission and your vision, sharing effective resources, tools and materials as well as addressing any other financial objectives identified by you, the Tribe or a Tribal entity, or OVC. 

For virtual and onsite TA request, our team hosts pre-session conference calls with grantees, coordinated by our TA team. We provide an agenda, a delivery format, and content are customized by your individual needs and your priorities. This option allows TFMC to coordinate single or multi-day sessions, each session covering a different grantee-identified topic. 

Our commitment is to start where you are and your level of need, whether you're an experienced grant administrator or you're new to your role. TFMC offers a wide range of services including needs assessments, individualized TA support with financial reporting, review of existing financial policies and procedures and recommendations to enhance existing practices to align with the OJP grants management requirements. 

TFMC also may provide additional assistance navigating, you heard a little bit about JustGrants and ASAP. We do help grantees navigate through those systems as we're assisting you with managing the financial aspects of your federal awards. 

We provide current, relevant and effective tools and resources for grantees and routinely disseminate that information on current best practices. And we also facilitate peer sharing between grantees. And then we should be on our last slide. 

Just to share TFMC seamless coordination for grantees. And we often serve as a liaison between program offices to discuss award statuses and any solutioning, like, if challenges may arise or any additional intensive TA is needed. 

For example, TFMC participates in joint site visits with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer or OCFO and our program offices to assist with any monitoring or desk reviews, just as an example. And our financial specialist provides ongoing support and communication between you, the grantee, grant managers and our sister TA providers to provide services and or resources to meet your training and technical assistance needs. 

We encourage you to reach out to us to the TFMC Virtual Support Center and visit our website for more information. And also, just a quick plug just to check your inboxes. 

We send out an annual survey to all of our, you know, once you receive a new award for the grantees that are returning, you should be familiar with that. But that's our annual needs assessment. And so that helps us to kind of identify priorities in our training and that we deliver for the year. So excited to meet our new grantees and so I will hand it over now to T-VSTTA.

JANA PFEIFFER: Hello everybody. T-VSTTA provides support for victim service providers. What we do here is, we provide hands-on training and technical assistance to victim service providers. 

Simply put it this way, that this means that we are here to help you navigate any part of care you provide to your community from understanding your grant award, to writing goals and objectives when it comes to your checklist or your narrative as well. Also to navigate challenges within your community, such as human trafficking, domestic violence, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, as well. 

And we provide the necessary tools and resources that you need, and your program needs to do this critical work. No concerns or questions is too small. Please reach out to us. 

We were able to establish in the fall of 2022. Our goal is to support all OVC Tribal grantees as they establish, grow and sustain their program. The next slide is your T-VSTTA team. 

I'd like to introduce you to the T-VSTTA members, our project specialists who are here to help you with your technical assistance need. Each of the grantees will be assigned one of these TA specialists to help assist with your program. 

If you are already an OVC grantee with awards through the Tribal Victims Services Set-Aside, TVSSA, or the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation which is CTAS or the Purpose Area 6 or the Developing Future Victim Specialists the DVFS programs, then you should be receiving regular communications from your technical assistance project specialists. 

Our goal is to support you in ways that you feel comfortable, and which is relevant to your work in building the resilience in your community, your victim service program, and really just your support. What we use is just our healing process as a touchstone. We want to deliver high quality culturally relevant resources, trainings and then also gatherings. 

In particular, we have the ability to tailor our technical assistance to meet the programs where they are at. We also ground service offerings in understanding of sovereignty and the unique history in our diverse Tribal communities. And then lastly, just really to help you as OVC grant awards to make it easier to develop your victim service program as well. 

How can T-VSTTA support you? Some of the ways that we can connect is one, virtual and onsite intensive assistance. Second is our coaching sessions as well. And then third, our office hours, our talking circles that we provide as well. In addition, the gatherings which are meeting and regional conferences that we provide. 

My favorite is our peer-to-peer learning. We want you all to kind of learn from other victim service programs and what they are able to create with their OVC grant award funds as well. And our community of care workshops are also important that we offer as well. 

Some of the different types of support that we also offer is our victim service program development, capacity building, partnership development, and then navigating your grant as well, and then really wanting your programs to sustain themselves. Program sustainability. 

You can see our email, which is [email protected], our phone number and our website as well. So please reach out to us if you need any technical or training assistance with your new OVC grant award. Thank you.

DAWN HILL: Before I go onto the Clark Group, I really want to emphasize that we truly are a team. The OVC grant managers work with TFMC, work with T-VSTTA. We're constantly on calls to make sure and ensure that you have the support you need. 

Those of you who had these TVSSA funds, if you have a construction project and if you're installing a modular or some type of prefabricated building, we do have two contractors that are available to assist you. 

The first is the Clark Group LLC. They support OVC with the National Environmental Policy Act. Many of you may have heard of it, it's called NEPA, and any other related environmental and historic preservation compliance requirements. And this is very important if you're going to have any type of construction activities going on. The Clark Group is one of those contractors that we work with and don't worry, we will provide you with all of the information. Next slide. 

The next group is the Blue Trident group. It provides construction project management assistance to grantees for renovation, expansion. Again, like I mentioned the modulars or any type of new construction, you will receive a welcome letter. 

If you know that you've budgeted construction in your grant, you will receive a welcome letter from one of those contractors, so be on the lookout. Rachel mentioned earlier that we'll have a construction webinar to dive a little deeper into that because there are a lot of nuances when it comes to construction. Next slide. 

Reports and Due Dates. There are two systems that we use. One is called the performance measurement tool, which is the PMT. And this system is where you really actually do the report. It's electronic. You submit the qualitative and quantitative performance data. And then you've heard of JustGrants. 

JustGrants as you know is our grants management system. And basically, what you do is you complete the report in the PMT system and then you'll upload that into JustGrants. But we will, of course, we're going over this at a very high level. But we will provide you whatever you need, the support you need to understand how to report in both of those systems. Next slide. 

The Report Types. Quarterly Performance Measurement Report. Those are reported in the PMT, like I said, on a quarterly basis. Then you have a Semiannual Report and that's the one that you upload into JustGrants. At the end of your project period, you will submit to us a Final Report. That final report is completed in the PMT. Of course, that data is tracked by using OVC grant funds that you'll use for this particular 2024 award. Next slide. 

These are the due dates. I won't go through all of them. There's a lot of information right here. But you'll see the reporting periods. And the one thing I will emphasize, when you are completing your report, make sure that you pay attention to the top of the report to ensure that you're reporting in the correct reporting period, okay? 

That's just something to think about and to keep in mind. But these are all of the reporting periods, when you complete them in PMT and then when you upload them into JustGrants. But we'll have that available. This chart here is available for you. All right, next slide. 

That's the website. They'll drop that website into the chat and each grantee will have their own account. Make sure that when you've accepted your award and you've got that covered, one of the things you want to make sure is that you get an account for the PMT system. That's a performance measurement tool. And if you need help you can just reach out to your grant manager. Next slide. 

These are just some resources, I won't go through this, but there is a PMT website that you can take the time to kind of look through. It gives you more information on how to complete the report and where you report and everything. There's a user guide, so we'll drop that website link in the chat also. Next slide. 

Here is contact information, maybe if you want to take a screenshot on your phone to have it handy, because oftentimes we know we get a lot of questions on how to report in the PMT, when is it due, but oftentimes, if you can't reach your grant manager right away. 

Please feel free to reach out to the PMT Help Desk. They are very, very helpful. Or the JustGrants Help Desk. And that information right here on this screen will be available to you. And it just tells you which Help Desk to call. I know we have a lot of Help Desk; we have a lot of resources for you, but this kind of breaks it down for the PMT tier for Help Desk and the JustGrants Help Desk. 

But on that previous slide, we gave the information out and like I said, you will have this information. No worries right now if you can't jot this down. We just wanted to make you aware. Next slide. 

Additional Resources and Information. We're coming to a close on our presentation. We're almost there everyone. Next slide.

As was mentioned at the top of the presentation, the population certification is open. It is due January 17, 2025. Remember that submitting a population certification form is the first step of a two step process with the TVSSA grant. January 17, 2025, and you see the time there. And we will drop all those links there. If you have questions, your grant managers are certainly there to assist you. Just wanted to remind you of this. Next slide. 

In upcoming events, I just talked about construction. Our webinar is December 5, 2024, 1:00 PM ET. So those of you grantees that have budgeted for construction, please attend. They will go over the requirements for the construction project. And those TTA providers will be in attendance. If you have more detailed questions, December 5th, 2024. Next slide. 

Also, another upcoming event is a JustGrants virtual session. And we often have those. If you go into the JustGrants website, they often have sessions, just in case you just need a little help with understanding how to navigate the system. 

It talks about entity management, post-award management. And if you still need assistance with award acceptance, you can hop onto that virtual session, and they will walk you through that. Next slide. 

And there's an upcoming webinar, strictly we go back to performance management reporting. If you need help with that, please join us on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. And who should attend? Those implementing the program. Your programmatic person who you've already designated to report in the performance management system and upload in the JustGrants, it should be your programmatic person.

However, you decide on who's going to collect the data, who's going to do the reporting in the performance management tool or is it going to be the one person. So, make sure that in the next coming weeks you decide on what that process is going to look like. But November 12 is going to be that session for that. Next slide. 

Indian Nations, we've mentioned this, we're excited about that. This is just a reminder. December 10th through the 13th. One thing I want to remind you is, according to the 2024 solicitation, you send up to two key personnel to this particular conference. It is a requirement, so this information was all laid out in the solicitation. 

If you have any questions about what funds you can use to attend this, please reach out to your grant manager as soon as possible when it comes to travel expenses, if you need assistance with that. And during that particular Indian Nations Conference, we have a Listening Session that will happen on Tuesday, December 10th, right before the conference from 10:00-11:30 am.

I think it would be great if you can attend and lend some of the concerns or some of the great things that you want to say about this TVSSA award or any kind of changes you want to discuss. That's at the Listening Session on Tuesday, December 10th. Important websites, we've gone through many of these throughout the presentation. Just wanted to list them here. 

We know that this presentation is going to be available to you so you can always just kind of go back to it and refer to these websites, and other additional resources. We do have our own website. Visit OVC's dedicated Tribal website for up-to-date information. 

Please kind of bookmark that on your computer if you can so that you can always have that handy to find out what's happening in Tribal land, and more useful contact information. For the PMT Help Desk, JustGrants, the Mainline, but if you ever get confused or you're just overwhelmed, your grant manager should be your first line of contact. 

We really thank you for attending. Remember that we are here to support you. We are here to support you. Thank you so much for attending. We hope you have a great rest of your week and please don't hesitate to reach out to your OVC grant manager. We want to thank our OVC grant managers who assisted us with the Q&A chat. Thank you so much.