National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is April 24–30, 2022
OVC will lead the Nation during the annual National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) commemoration, April 24–30, 2022.
This year’s theme—Rights, access, equity, for all victims.—underscores the importance of helping crime survivors find their justice by enforcing victims' rights, expanding access to services, and ensuring equity and inclusion for all.
Access the 2022 NCVRW Resource Guide for information on raising awareness about victims’ rights, protections, and services during NCVRW and throughout the year.
The guide includes tips for developing your public awareness campaign, strategies for communicating your message, compelling artwork, sample social media posts, and more.
Register to Attend the 2022 NCVRW Candlelight Vigil and National Crime Victims’ Service Awards Ceremony
Join OVC as we commemorate National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW).
2022 NCVRW Candlelight Vigil
This event will pay tribute to victims of crime and the many dedicated professionals and volunteers who advocate on their behalf.
Date: Thursday, April 28, 2022
Time: 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., eastern time
Location: Washington, D.C. - National Mall panel closest to the U.S. Capitol Building (at 3rd and 4th Streets)
2022 National Crime Victims’ Service Awards Ceremony
OVC will recognize individuals and organizations that demonstrate extraordinary acts of service on behalf of crime victims and outstanding work in victim services during this annual awards ceremony.
The award recipients are selected from public nominations in multiple categories for their vision, action, and leadership on behalf of crimes victims.
Date: Friday, April 29, 2022
Time: 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., eastern time
Location: Washington, D.C. - Constitution Gardens on the National Mall located at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue
Space is limited at both events. Like OVC’s Facebook page to receive notifications about livestream options or visit the NCVRW microsite.
Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month
April is National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. In his Presidential Proclamation, President Biden states,
“We continue in our commitment to stand with survivors, hold perpetrators accountable, and dismantle a culture that is complicit in allowing sexual violence to continue.”
View awareness resources on the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month website, including posters, social media resources, and more.
During this month, we highlight the following OVC-funded initiatives and products.
- In Fiscal Year 2021, OVC made 9 awards to establish or expand sexual assault examination programs, including sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) programs and sexual assault forensic examiner (SAFE) programs that focus on improving the provision of sexual assault care using a community-based approach, such as through a campus community, nonprofit, community-based, and/or Tribe-affiliated victim services provider. The International Association of Forensic Nurses was awarded $1.6 million to provide proactive, action-driven, flexible, victim-centered, trauma-informed training and technical assistance to the selected campus and community SANE programs throughout the United States and its territories.
- The SANE Program Development and Operation Guide provides a blueprint for nurses and communities that would like to start a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program and is a resource for established SANE programs that may want to enhance or expand their services.
- OVC, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, offers the Strengthening Military-Civilian Community Partnerships To Respond to Sexual Assault training program through the OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC). The purpose of this program is to train local community victim advocates on building effective partnerships with local military installations to enhance and extend the system of support for sexual assault victims in the military. This interactive, 1.5-day training is designed for community victim advocates, law enforcement officials, sexual assault nurse examiners, mental health counselors, prosecutors, military victim advocates, sexual assault medical forensic examiners, military chaplains, and military criminal investigators.
- And we recently released an interactive, 2-hour supplemental training—Responding to Military LGBTQ+ Survivors of Sexual Assault. Throughout the training, community- and military-based advocates and allied providers will learn the current language and terms used when working with LGBTQ+ communities, identify statistics of LGBTQ+ military sexual assaults, discuss trauma-informed approaches to serving military LGBTQ+ victims, and identify on- and off-installation resources. Contact OVC TTAC at [email protected] for more information.
Visit the Office on Violence Against Women website for additional resources on helping victims sexual assault, including publications for forensic medical examiners, and information on their formula and discretionary grants that support victims of sexual assault.
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a time for communities to raise awareness and promote strategies that address the risk factors surrounding child abuse. In his Presidential Proclamation, President Biden states,
“During National Child Abuse Prevention Month, our country stands as one to condemn and combat child abuse in all of its forms . . .; we raise awareness about the risk factors that can lead to child abuse and neglect; and we highlight the importance of supporting families to prevent child maltreatment.”
View the Child Welfare Information Gateway and Prevent Child Abuse America websites for outreach ideas, sample messages, and graphics to help raise awareness about child abuse prevention.
This April, OVC highlights multiple resources that support service providers responses to child abuse.
- Child Victims and Witnesses Support Materials support children and youth, ages 2–18, during their involvement with the justice system as a victim or witness to a crime. The materials have recently been translated to the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
- The Building Better Childhoods website, funded in part by OVC and developed by Social Current and Prevent Child Abuse America, provides important guidance on how to talk about child abuse prevention in a way that resonates with a broad range of audiences. The tools can be used when communicating with media, funders, policymakers, and the general public.
- Reframing Childhood Adversity: Promoting Upstream Approaches, supported with OVC funding, offers communications guidance that takes recent science and current communications contexts into account, speaks to racial and social justice, and aligns with efforts to reimagine child welfare systems into child well-being systems.
Discover additional resources on our Child and Youth Victimization topic page.
Apply for OVC Funding Opportunities
OVC is seeking qualified applicants for multiple Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 discretionary grant funding opportunities. Funding is currently available for projects including, but not limited to, responding to victims of human trafficking in Tribal communities, advancing hospital-based victim services, supporting survivors of sexual abuse in youth detention, and using technology to assist victims of crime.
View our Current Funding Opportunities page to learn more and apply and visit the Fiscal Year 2022 Department of Justice Grants Program Plan for information about OVC funding opportunities that we expect to release this fiscal year.