Training and services to end abuse in later life program is authorized by 34 U.S.C. 12421

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women has awarded a $400,000 Cooperative Agreement under the Enhanced Training and Services to End Violence and Abuse of Women Later in Life Program (CFDA 16.528) to the Hope Justice Project, a non-profit organization in Presque Isle, Maine. This funding will support the organization's efforts to increase and strengthen training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary in recognizing, investigating, and prosecuting instances of abuse, neglect, exploitation, domestic violence, and sexual assault against older individuals aged 50 and above. The grant will also enable Hope Justice Project and its project partners to provide or enhance services for older victims, create or support multidisciplinary collaborative community responses, and conduct cross-training for victim service organizations, government agencies, courts, law enforcement, and non-profit organizations serving this population. The project period for this award is from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2028.

The program's purpose is to increase and strengthen training for police, prosecutors, and the judiciary in recognizing, investigating, and prosecuting instances of abuse, neglect, exploitation, domestic violence, and sexual assault against older individuals; provide or enhance services for older victims; create or support multidisciplinary collaborative community responses to older victims; and conduct cross-training for victim service organizations, governmental agencies, courts, law enforcement, and nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations serving older victims. The grantee will collaborate with its project partners to address abuse in later life in their community. The grantee and its partners will provide training opportunities to assist law enforcement, prosecutors, governmental agencies, victim assistants, and relevant officers of federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local courts in recognizing, addressing, investigating, and prosecuting instances of abuse in later life; provide or enhance services for victims of abuse in later life; create or support multidisciplinary collaborative community responses to victims of abuse in later life; and conduct cross-training for victim service organizations, governmental agencies, courts, law enforcement, and nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations serving victims of abuse in later life, including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, neglect, abandonment, economic abuse, or willful harm committed against victims who are 50 years of age or older. The grantee and its partners will also engage in a review of their policies and protocols and agree to put in place a body of policies and protocols, based on multi-disciplinary collaboration, designed to aid in improving in the identification, investigation, prosecution and adjudication of cases of abuse in later life, including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, neglect, abandonment, economic abuse, or willful harm committed against victims who are 50 years of age or older.