Sexual Trauma Awareness And Response (Star) Center

Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response Center, a woman-owned nonprofit organization based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, provides trauma-informed victim advocacy, counseling, legal assistance, and sexual assault nurse examiner training to the Department of Justice as a federal grant recipient, operating primarily as a sub-recipient under pass-through grantees rather than as a direct prime recipient (75% of recent awards are sub-awards).

STAR Center's federal footprint is concentrated within the Justice Department. The organization has received 28 total awards across three distinct customer agencies, with the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women and the Office of Justice Programs Victims of Crime Program each funding 13 awards (100% coverage of the award count), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance funding two additional awards. All work is performed in Louisiana, with service areas spanning Central and Southeast Louisiana parishes including Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, Alexandria, and the Capital Area regions.

As a prime grant recipient, STAR Center holds three active Department of Justice grants. A $1.2 million Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program award (CFDA 16.590) from the Office on Violence Against Women, dated April 1, 2026 and running through March 31, 2029, funds medical and law enforcement accompaniment services for sexual assault victims, advocacy services, court accompaniment, and sexual assault nurse examiner clinical trainings and consultation. A $700,000 Rural Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Assistance Program grant (CFDA 16.589) from the Office on Violence Against Women, dated October 1, 2025 and running through September 30, 2028, supports enhanced victim services and outreach in rural Louisiana through improved coordination among law enforcement, prosecutors, and victim service providers. A $900,000 Legal Assistance for Victims grant (CFDA 16.524) from the Office on Violence Against Women, dated October 1, 2023 and running through September 30, 2026, funds comprehensive civil and criminal legal assistance to non-intimate partner sexual assault survivors across 15 parishes, including safety consultations, protection orders, and legal aid for housing, employment, education, and immigration matters.

STAR Center's sub-recipient work comprises 21 awards, predominantly flowing through the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Criminal Justice as the pass-through entity. These sub-awards, dating from 2023 through July 2026, fund trauma-informed counseling and advocacy services to youth and adult sexual assault survivors in specific regions — Alexandria and Central Louisiana, the Capital Area, New Orleans, and Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes. Two additional sub-awards channel work through the Orleans Parish District Attorney (June 2024) and Covenant House New Orleans (March 2023), the latter supporting human trafficking victim case management and counseling under the Office for Victims of Crime Enhanced Collaborative Model Task Force program.

Award activity grew from one award in 2021 to eight in 2024, declining slightly to six in both 2025 and 2026 year-to-date. Only one award faces ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating minimal recompete exposure in that window.