The rural domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking program (rural program) is authorized by 34 U.S.C. 12341

This $750,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) under the Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Assistance Program (CFDA 16.589) will fund the "Fostering Safety & Support: Empowering Indigenous, Plural Family, and Marginalized Communities through Strategic Partnerships, Improved Systems Responses, and Needs-Based Support" project from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2027. The project aims to: 1) identify, assess, and respond to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in rural Utah communities through collaboration among service providers, law enforcement, and other entities; 2) establish and expand victim services in these rural areas; and 3) increase safety and well-being of women and children. Key activities include training sessions, technical assistance to advocacy organizations, developing best practices for child shelter services, and providing victim services such as counseling and emergency shelter/transportation. The project will target underserved populations including racial/ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and plural families.

Rural program funds are used to support programs that: 1) identify, assess, and appropriately respond to child, youth, and adult victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking in rural communities by encouraging collaboration among victim service providers, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, courts, other criminal justice service providers, human and community service providers, educational institutions, and health care providers; 2) establish and expand victim services in rural communities to child, youth, and adult victims; 3) increase the safety and well-being of women and children in rural communities, by (a) dealing directly and immediately with domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking; and (B) creating and implementing strategies to increase awareness and prevent these crimes; and 4) develop, expand, implement, and improve the quality of sexual assault forensic medical examination or sexual assault nurse examiner programs. Grantees must use at least one of the following strategies in implementing their projects: 1) implement, expand, and establish cooperative efforts and projects among law enforcement officers, prosecutors, victim service providers, and other related parties to investigate and prosecute incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking; 2) provide treatment, counseling, advocacy, legal assistance, and other long-term and short-term victim and population specific services to adult and minor victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking in rural communities; 3) work in cooperation with the community to develop education and prevention strategies directed toward such issues; 4) develop, enlarge, or strengthen programs addressing sexual assault; and 5) develop programs and strategies that focus on the specific needs of victims of who reside in remote rural and geographically isolated areas. Through this continuation OVW rural program project, the utah domestic violence coalition, in partnership with utah administrative office of the courts, utah department of public safety, utah department of health and human services american indian/alaska native health and family services office, colorado coalition against sexual assault, inclusion center for community and justice, lillian tsosie-jensen, urban indian center of salt lake, cherish families, amethyst center for healing, aequitas, officer michael larivere, seekhaven family crisis and resource center, devon musson rose, and the childrens center utah, will implement fostering safety & support: empowering indigenous, plural family, and marginalized communities through strategic partnerships, improved systems responses, and needs-based support project. This project addresses the following purpose areas: 1, 2, 3, and 4 for beaver, carbon, duchesne, garfield, grand, iron, juab, piute, SAN juan, sevier, tooele, uintah, and washington counties in utah. Specific activities will include: 1) training sessions and symposia for service providers, sanes, law enforcement and others; 2) technical assistance to domestic violence advocacy organizations, partnership establishment, strategic planning, improved responses to strangulation incidents, and coordination of regional site visits; 3) developing best practice guidelines for child shelter services and caregiver support; and 4) providing victim services including counseling and emergency shelter/transportation. The project will address priority area 1: advance equity and tribal sovereignty. This project targets the following underserved populations: racial and ethnic minorities, the lgbtq+ community, and plural families. The timing for performance of this award is 36 months.