DVPT

Allowable activities and costs are those that support the operations and services delivered to victims of domestic violence statewide. These activities include:

• Supporting the operations and service delivery of residential and nonresidential domestic violence programs statewide. These activities include:
  • Providing emergency shelter. Shelter may be provided either at a residential facility or by arrangement at temporary residential facilities available in the community.
  
  
  • Providing 24-hour crisis intervention, information and referral, support, and advocacy.
  
  
  • Providing emergency transportation services.
  
  
  • Providing information, referral, and victim services in the areas of housing, health care advocacy, social and mental health services, family counseling, job training and employment opportunities, and legal assistance and counseling for dependents.
  
  
  • Retaining and/or expanding agency staffing to support program activities.


• Expanding basic domestic violence services to underserved and unserved communities. Basic services may be provided by shelters, satellite offices operated by an existing program, and/or non-residential service providers who provide advocacy services.


• Developing and establishing a primary prevention initiative that addresses risk and protective factors related to domestic violence.
  • Primary prevention initiatives are defined as systematic processes that promote safe and healthy environments and behaviors. Primary prevention strategies seek to prevent first-time perpetration or victimization, (i.e., teen dating violence, healthy relationships). The CDC Technical Packages for Violence Prevention can be found at here.


• Developing and establishing training programs for professionals, paraprofessionals, or volunteers who are engaged in the areas related to the prevention or intervention of domestic violence. Training includes training others in the community as well as staff and volunteer training.


• Developing a coordinated effort to address the system response to domestic violence. A system response can include:
  • Collaboration with local or statewide agencies and organizations that interface with survivors.
  
  
  • Providing technical assistance to agencies that work with survivors.
  
  
  • Participating or collaborating with a local task force, commission or advisory council to address domestic violence.


• Increasing organizational capacity through meeting data collection and technology needs.


• Providing or coordinating language access services for victims/survivors of domestic violence. Language access allows for people with limited English proficiency to use and benefit from a wide range of services. Any organization that receives funding is required to provide language access to its services. Types of language access services include in-person (face-to-face) interpreting, remote (telephone & video) interpreting, and document translation.

Personnel, employee benefits, and cost of supplies and travel to perform the following activities are allowable costs. Overtime for grant funded staff is an allowable cost, but to claim the increased rate, there must a separate line item in the budget that includes the overtime rate of pay.

• Prevention services such as outreach, parenting, employment training, educational services, promotion of good nutrition, disease prevention, and substance abuse prevention.


• Counseling with respect to family violence, counseling or other supportive services provided by peers, either individually or in groups, and referral to community social services.


• Safety plan development and supporting the efforts of victims to make decisions related to their ongoing safety and well-being.


• Culturally and linguistically appropriate services such as interpreters and/or having documents translated into other languages.


• Technical assistance with respect to assisting victims with obtaining financial assistance under Federal and State programs.


• Housing advocacy to assist in locating and securing safe and affordable permanent housing and homeless prevention services.


• Medical advocacy including referrals for healthcare services (including mental health and alcohol and drug abuse treatment), but shall not include reimbursement for any healthcare services.


• Legal advocacy to provide victims with information and assistance through the civil and criminal courts, and legal assistance.


• Children’s counseling and support services, and childcare services for children who are victims of family violence or the dependents of such victims, and children who witness domestic violence.



The following are other expenses that are allowable for reimbursement when providing services to victims of domestic violence:

• Operating expenses (rent, utilities, etc.) of victim service facilities at a prorated amount.


• Supplies for facilities including office supplies, cleaning supplies and victim supplies (clothing, toiletries, etc).


• Emergency flexible funding to support survivors’ immediate financial needs.
  • Emergency financial assistance is defined as financial assistance that assists survivors with re/establishing their lives free of domestic violence.
  
  
  • Assistance may include but is not limited to rental assistance, utility deposits, or transportation costs.
  
  
  • Funds may not be used as a direct payment to any victim, thus the domestic violence program would have to pay the cost directly to a third-party vendor. Subrecipients should have an established policy in place to make these funds available to all program participants; to ensure these funds meet a reasonable, basic need.
  
  
  • A victim financial assistance request form must be submitted with all requests for reimbursement. An example of a financial assistance request can be found on CJI website.



Administrative costs are an allowable expense but are limited to 10% of the total grant funded budget. Administrative costs include time to complete DVPT-required time and attendance sheets and programmatic documentation, reports, and required statistics; and administrative time to collect and maintain satisfaction surveys and needs assessments used to improve services delivery within the DVPT funded project.

The following budget items listed below are ineligible and will not be supported by this program’s funding:

• Direct financial assistance to a client such as cash or gift cards.


• Food and beverages except emergency food and beverage for victims.


• Lobbying.


• Fundraising (including financial campaigns, endowment drives, solicitation of gifts and bequests, and similar expenses incurred solely to raise capital or obtain contributions) and time spent procuring funding including completing federal and state funding applications.


• Purchase of real estate.


• Construction and physical modification to buildings, including minor renovations (such as painting or carpeting).


• Purchase of vehicles.


• Indirect cost rate and/or de minimis rate.