U.S. Department of Justice: Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program

The Legal Assistance for Victims (LAV) Grant Program is intended to increase the availability of civil and criminal legal assistance needed to aid adult and youth victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking who are seeking relief in legal matters relating to or arising out of that abuse or violence, at minimum or no cost to the victims. Grant funds may be used to provide direct legal services to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in matters relating to or arising out of that abuse or violence. The objective of the LAV Grant Program is to develop collaborative projects that provide quality representation to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

Funds under the LAV Grant Program may be used to implement, expand, and establish:

• Cooperative efforts and projects between sexual assault, domestic violence, and dating violence victim service providers and legal assistance providers to provide legal assistance for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking
• Efforts and projects to provide legal assistance for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking by organizations with a demonstrated history of providing direct legal or advocacy services on behalf of these victims
• Efforts and projects to provide competent, supervised pro bono legal assistance for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking

Identified priority areas are: 1) sexual assault focused applications, and 2) college and university campus legal services (Campus Special Project).

Amount: An estimated $32,000,000 is available for up to 77 awards. Grants typically range from $400,000 to $800,000 and span a 36 month project period. Specific funding levels are as follows:

• New and continuation applications that are less than 80% sexual assault focused may receive up to $600,000
• New LAV applications proposing 80% or more sexual assault focused may receive up to $700,000
• Continuation LAV applications proposing 80% or more sexual assault focused may receive up to $800,000

Eligibility: Private nonprofit entities, publicly funded organizations not acting in a governmental capacity; territorial organizations; Indian tribal governments; and tribal organizations. All lead applicants that are not sexual assault and/or domestic violence victim service providers are required to enter into a collaborative working relationship with sexual assault and/or domestic violence victim service providers within the community to be served.

Link: http://www.justice.gov/ovw/file/798876/download

Note: An optional pre-application conference call will be held on January 7, 2016.

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