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

The Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women awarded $500,000 to Peace House Inc. on October 1, 2025 under the Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Assistance Program (CFDA 16.589), with performance through September 30, 2028.

Peace House, doing business as Peace House Women's Shelter, will implement cooperative law enforcement and victim service efforts in partnership with the Park City Police Department and Summit County Sheriff's Office. The award funds counseling and legal assistance to adult and minor victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking; development and implementation of education and prevention strategies; and expansion of sexual assault response programs. Work emphasizes victims in remote and geographically isolated rural areas of Park City, Utah.

The Rural Program authorizes funding to identify, assess, and appropriately respond to victims in rural communities; establish and expand victim services; increase safety and well-being through immediate response and crime prevention; and develop, expand, implement, and improve sexual assault forensic medical examination or sexual assault nurse examiner programs. Grantees must employ at least one of five specified strategies, including cooperative law enforcement efforts, provision of treatment and advocacy services, community-based education and prevention, sexual assault program development, or targeted support for victims in remote rural areas.

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; 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 new OVW rural program project, peace house, in partnership with park city police department, summit county sheriffs office, summit county attorneys office, wasatch forensic nurses and asian association of utah, will create the summit county IPV/SA response alliance program. This victim service, sexual assault nurse examiner/sexual assault response team (SANE/SART), law enforcement, prosecution and human trafficking project addresses the following purpose areas:1, 2, and 3 for summit and wasatch counties in utah. Specific activities will include: 1) implementing a formal coordinated community response and SART; 2) expanding use of lethality assessment protocols across law enforcement, healthcare, and advocacy settings; 3) developing protocols for strangulation and stalking cases with dedicated forensic and healthcare coordination; 4) formulating a multidisciplinary high-risk case staffing model; 5) expanding victim services with an emphasis on healthcare;6) increasing access to justice, and coordinated identification of ways to immediately address victim safety; 7) enhancing training on identifying and responding to human trafficking cases as well as cases involvingdomestic violence, sexual assault and stalking; and 8) creating public awareness materials to increase understanding of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking and ways to access help.