Hospitals Against Violence (#HAVhope) National Day of Awareness is June 3
Hospitals can play an important role to combat violence and provide services to crime victims.
The #HAVhope commemoration is a time to raise awareness about hospital-based services. Learn about #HAVhope on the American Hospital Association website and discover resources to raise awareness.
OVC awarded nearly $2.5 million to four organizations and one technical assistance provider under the OVC FY 2021 Advancing Hospital-Based Victim Services solicitation. This program supports evidence-based models, practices, and policies that improve partnerships between the victim services field and hospitals and other medical facilities to make sure trained victim service providers are on hand in emergency rooms to connect victims of violence with the services and support needed to aid their healing.
We encourage eligible applicants to apply for the OVC FY 2022 Advancing Hospital-Based Victim Services solicitation. The deadline to apply is approaching.
- Grants.gov Deadline: 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, June 22, 2022
- Application JustGrants Deadline: 8:59 p.m. eastern time on Wednesday, June 29, 2022
You may also apply for the OVC FY 2022 Expanding Access to Sexual Assault Forensic Examinations solicitation. OVC seeks applications to establish or expand sexual assault examination programs, including sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) and sexual assault forensic examiner (SAFE) programs, that focus on increasing the number and availability of SANEs/SAFEs, expanding access to sexual assault forensic examinations, and improving the quality of post-sexual assault care using a hospital-based or community-based approach.
- Grants.gov Deadline: 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Monday, June 13, 2022
- Application JustGrants Deadline: 8:59 p.m. eastern time on Monday, June 27, 2022
June 15 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
Join OVC and organizations and communities around the world as we commemorate World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. This annual commemoration is a call-to-action for individuals, organizations, and communities to raise awareness about elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.
In her recent remarks, OVC Director Kristina Rose states,
“We know that for Americans to thrive in their later years, they need to be kept safe from abuse and fraud and supported with victim-centered approaches that are uniquely crafted to respond to them.”
OVC is committed to ensuring that older victims of abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation have access to trauma-informed services and resources that protect the safety and confidentiality of victims.
See resources to commemorate World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and find information to assist older victims of fraud in OVC Director Kristina Rose’s recent message. Director Rose highlights the OVC FY 2022 Transforming America’s Response to Older Victims solicitation, which will provide funding to develop or expand seven statewide Elder Justice Coalitions, through which elder justice advocates, legal aid professionals, and victim service providers collaborate to identify and address gaps in services to older victims of abuse and financial exploitation. The Grants.gov deadline is June 13, 2022.
Through the Crime Victims Fund—financed by fines and penalties paid by convicted federal offenders, not from tax dollars—OVC is supporting—
- increased legal services for older victims of crime across the country, particularly in rural areas;
- enhanced multidisciplinary teams to better identify and respond to cases of elder abuse and financial exploitation;
- training, resources, and tools for state and local law enforcement partners to expand their capacity to effectively prevent and combat elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation;
- state and local elder abuse programs;
- evidence-based mental health interventions for older victims who screen positive for depression, and telehealth services; and
- the development of critical resources that help stakeholders identify, reach, and better serve older victims of crime.
OVC manages the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Elder Fraud Hotline (1–833–FRAUD–11). Experienced case managers are standing by to provide victims of financial fraud aged 60 or older with personalized support by assessing their needs and identifying relevant next steps. Help raise us awareness about the hotline by using digital artwork in your campaigns and on your websites.
With OVC funding, the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) offers free training to support older victims of elder financial exploitation and fraud.
Register for the OVC-funded Responding to Transnational Elder Fraud - A Victim-Centered Approach for Law Enforcement virtual training, which will be held on Thursday, June 16, 2022. This course provides criminal justice practitioners with background information on transnational fraud and tips for identifying and interviewing older victims through a trauma-informed lens.
The NW3C Victim-Centered Solutions to Elder Exploitation on-demand, 10-module training guides professionals through promising practices to detect, respond to, and assist victims of elder financial exploitation.
Find World Elder Abuse Awareness Day social media guides, sample letters to the editor, downloadable fliers, and more outreach materials on the University of Southern California’s Center on Elder Mistreatment site.
View publications, resources, and training and technical assistance on OVC’s Elder Fraud and Abuse website and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative site.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Pride Month
In his proclamation, President Biden states,
“Today and every day, my Administration stands with every LGBTQI+ American in the ongoing struggle against intolerance, discrimination, and injustice.”
Crime victim services are not always readily accessible to all victims of crime, including individuals who identify as LGBTQI+.
To help ensure that victim service providers have access to information to help them identify, reach, and serve all victims, OVC funded the creation of the National Resource Center for Reaching Victims. Visit the LGBTQ section of the Center’s Resource Library to discover best practices and contact the Center to learn about training and technical assistance opportunities.
The OVC Training and Technical Assistance Center’s Serving LGBTQ Survivors of Violence training by request provides the knowledge and skills needed to effectively support and work with LGBTQ-identified people, communities, and survivors. The training helps participants strengthen their knowledge of the obstacles LGBTQ people experience in seeking victim services and explore how best to overcome or alleviate these obstacles.
OVC’s Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault e-publication offers practical tools to promote understanding and support of transgender victims who experience high rates of sexual violence. The guide contains a section titled, Transgender 101, which covers the basics of what it means to be transgender. If you need a general understanding of issues impacting the transgender community, this is an excellent place to build your cultural competency.
This Fiscal Year, we released the OVC FY 2022 Responding to Transgender Victims of Crime solicitation to update and expand upon the Responding to Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault e-publication. OVC will fund one organization to create a web-based toolkit that will provide guidance, resources, and referrals for those who provide services to victims of crime who identify as transgender, especially women and girls of color.