The grants for outreach and services to underserved populations (underserved program) was statutorily created in the violence against women reauthorization act of 2013 (vawa 2013) to develop and…

The grants for outreach and services to underserved populations (underserved program) was statutorily created in the violence against women reauthorization act of 2013 (vawa 2013) to develop and implement outreach strategies targeted at adult or youth victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking in underserved populations, and to provide victim services to meet the needs of such populations. Grant funds may be used to: 1) work with federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local governments, agencies, and organizations to develop or enhance population specific victim services; 2) strengthen the capacity of underserved populations to provide population specific victim services; 3) strengthen the capacity of traditional victim service providers to provide population specific victim services; 4) strengthen the effectiveness of criminal and civil justice interventions by providing training for law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, and other court personnel on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking in underserved populations; 5) work in cooperation with an underserved population to develop and implement outreach, education, prevention, and intervention strategies that highlight available resources and the specific issues faced by victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking from underserved populations; or, 6) strengthen the response of social and human services by providing population-specific training for service providers on domestic violence, dating violence sexual assault, or stalking in underserved populations. Eligible applicants are limited to: population specific organizations or victim service providers that are (1) deaf programs (2) lesbian, GAY, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations, (3) organizations serving underserved religious populations, (4) disability programs, or (5) organizations serving certain underserved racial and ethnic populations. The vision of jewish family services and childrens center of clifton-passaic (JFS) is to increase efforts to prevent and end non-intimate partner sexual assault within the orthodox and ultra-orthodox jewish community within the counties served. Cultural and religious practices can create barriers for survivors to access necessary legal services. To alleviate these barriers, JFS will establish partnerships with yeshiva admin, religious leaders, and camp directors to deliver culturally relevant and sensitive prevention educational presentations. Content in presentations will be tailored to audiences based off preliminary surveys to community partners hosting the presentations. Presentations will be interactive with supportive resources and will be led by a team of trained, culturally-competent social workers.