ombrocisStateCoalition2021supportstatement

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
Semi-annual Progress Report for the Grants to Support State Domestic Violence
and Sexual Assault Coalitions
A. Justification
1.

Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information

The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA 2000) authorized the Attorney
General to award grants to state sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions. The Grants to
State Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Coalitions Program (State Coalitions Program) is
intended to provide federal financial assistance to state coalitions to support the coordination of
state victim services activities, and collaboration and coordination with federal, state, and local
entities engaged in violence against women activities. 34 U.S.C. 10446
Currently, there are different statutory and regulatory reporting requirements that affect
State Coalitions Program grantees. VAWA 2000 requires all VAWA grantees, including State
Coalitions Program grantees, to report on the effectiveness of their programs to the Attorney
General who, in turn, must report to Congress every two years. Section 1003 of VAWA 2000
states that
(a) REPORT BY GRANT RECIPIENTS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of
Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall require grantees under any
program authorized or reauthorized by this division or an amendment made by
this division to report on the effectiveness of the activities carried out with
amounts made available to carry out that program, including number of persons
served, if applicable, numbers of persons seeking services who could not be
served and such other information as the Attorney General or Secretary may
prescribe.
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of
Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall report biennially to the
Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the
Senate on the grant programs described in subsection (a), including the
information contained in any report under that subsection.
34 U.S.C. 10238.
OVW must also comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993
(GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62) which was enacted to increase Congressional and Administrative focus
on the results from government programs and activities. To meet its GPRA reporting obligations
and elicit more meaningful information about grantee performance, OVW has recently developed
performance measures, including output measures, regarding which the State Coalitions Program
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grantees must report on an annual basis.
2.

Use of Information

OVW uses data from the information collection 1 in different ways. OVW will use the
information collected from State Coalitions Program grantees to monitor their grant-funded
activities and qualitatively assess those activities. In particular, OVW is seeking data that
includes baseline information to review activities supported with State Coalitions Program funds,
including, for example, an increase in the number of trainings or an increase in the number of
victims served. OVW will review semiannual progress report to monitor individual State
Coalitions Program grantee’s performance and ensure that the goals and objectives set forth in
applications for funding and award documents are met.
The State Coalitions Program grantees collect information that addresses the following grantfunded activities (different sections on the reporting form): staff, statutory purpose areas,
informational materials, and victim services. Narrative questions at the end of these different
sections enable grantees to give more detailed qualitative information about their grant-funded
activities. In addition, State Coalitions Program grantees must answer narrative questions on the
most significant areas of remaining with regard to improving services to victims/survivors of
sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, increasing victims/survivors
safety, and enhancing community response (including offender accountability for both batterers
and sex offenders), what has federal funding allowed the grantee to do that grantee could not do
prior to receiving funding, additional information about the State Coalitions Program grant
and/or the effectiveness of the grant and any additional information about the data submitted.
In addition to the proposed information collection, OVW will continue to use a number of
other techniques to assess the performance of State Coalitions Program grantees. These may
include OVW staff attendance at site visits, grant-funded training and technical assistance events,
staff review of products prior to dissemination, and ongoing consultation with OVW staff.
OVW will aggregate data from all State Coalitions Program grantees’ progress reports to
assess the performance of the State Coalitions Program as a whole and to respond to
Congressional, Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how State Coalitions Program
funds are being used. In addition, information collected from State Coalitions Program grantees
will support the following OVW GPRA measures:
1 Under a cooperative agreement between OVW and the University of Southern Maine’s
Muskie School of Public Service, data collected from OVW grantees on all of OVW’s progress
report forms is transmitted to the Muskie School for analysis. For the analysis of the data,
standard descriptive statistics (frequency, sum, percentage, mean, etc.) are used to describe the
characteristics of the grantees and report basic findings. All analyses are conducted in SPSS 13.0.
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Number of grant-funded multidisciplinary training events that have occurred;
Number of professionals trained to respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault
and stalking; and
Number of policies developed/revised.
Information collected from State Coalitions Program grantees will enable OVW to respond to
statutory requirements to report on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities. The 2018
Measuring Effectiveness Report to Congress, which includes information about how funds were
expended and an assessment of the effectiveness of funded programs- see
https://www.justice.gov/ovw/reports-congress. This report is based on data submitted State
Coalitions Program grantees reflecting State Coalitions Program awards made and State
Coalitions Program‐funded activities engaged in during calendar years July 1, 2015- June 30,
2017. OVW is in the process of submitting the 2020 Report to Congress.
The data that OVW collects on the semiannual progress reporting forms is currently not used
in connection with an evaluation of the State Coalitions Program. OVW is currently exploring
the development of a multi-layered evaluation agenda for its grant programs.
3.

Use of Information Technology

The collection of information will involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or
other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology. OVW
grantees are required to submit semiannual progress reports through the JustGrants system.
4.

Duplication of Information Request

There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects information about grant funded
activities including number of victims served, victims seeking services who could not be served,
or persons trained.
5.

Impact on Small Entities

There is no impact on small entities as the collection of this type of information is
routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds under the State Coalitions Program.
6.

Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

By statute, Congress has mandated that State Coalitions grantees report to the Attorney
General on the effectiveness of their activities funded under VAWA. If OVW was not able to
collect the information necessary to complete these reports on behalf of the Attorney General, not
only would it be failing to meet a statutorily required reporting mandate, but also the existence of
this important and necessary grant program could be jeopardized.
7.

Special Circumstances
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There are no special circumstances as identified in the specific instructions for a
supporting statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.
8.

Federal Register Publication

OVW has consulted with persons outside the agency who have advised that the data
proposed to be collected is available, the semiannual collection of such data is not burdensome,
the form is clear, and that the information is routinely kept by most grantees receiving funds
under the State Coalitions Program. OVW has solicited public comment on this form in
accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. A 60 day notice was
published in the Federal Register on November 24, 2020 (Federal Register, Volume 85, page
75038) and a 30-day was notice was published in the Federal Register on January , 2021 (Federal
Register, Volume , page ). OVW received one public comment regarding the existence of this
federal grant program and not related to the information collection.
9.

Payment or Gift to Respondents
There will no payment or gift to respondents.

10.

Confidentiality

Although this information is needed for a public report to Congress, it will not involve
any personal information about victims that could identify them as specific individuals.
However, anecdotal, non-identifying information about the effectiveness of individual programs
may be included in the report. There is no assurance to confidentiality.
11.

Specific Questions

The semiannual progress report will not contain any questions of a personal, sensitive
nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are
commonly considered private.
12.

Hour Burden of the Collection of Information
This semi-annual progress report is not overly burdensome. The data collection tool will be
completed by approximately 88 State Coalitions Program grantees twice a year. There will be 88
semi-annual responses and it is estimated that it will take grantees no more than 1 hour to
complete the progress report form. Thus, the annual reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is
176 hours. State Coalitions Program grantees are informed about the reporting requirements
during the grant solicitation process and during the grant award process.
OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by the grantees in the normal
course of their operations. Thus, the requirement that grantees complete this progress report
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within a period of less than 30 days after receipt of it is not overly burdensome. OVW estimates
that it will take approximately 1 hour for a grantee to complete the form. OVW developed this
estimate based on the fact that information of this nature is already kept by grantees receiving
funds under the State Coalitions Program and that the grantees have been apprized of these
reporting requirements during the solicitation process and reminded throughout the grant award
process. The progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the different types of
activities that grantees may engage in, i.e. training, product development, education events.
Grantees will only have to complete the sections of the form that relate to their specific grantfunded activities.

13.

Cost Burden of the Collection of Information

OVW does not believe that there is any annual cost burden on respondents or
recordkeepers resulting from the collection of this information.
14.

Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

The annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the OVW staff review of
the progress reports submitted by grantees are estimated to be $9856.
15.

Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments for the estimates identified in Section 13
and in Section 14. This is a information collection that is necessary for OVW and its State
Coalitions Program grantees to comply with the statutory reporting requirements and the
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (Pub. L. 103-62).
16.

Published Results of Information Collections

There will be no complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of
information collected under the request. Information will be gathered once a year at the end of
the reporting periods. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on the effectiveness of all
grant-funded activities on a biennial basis.
17.

Display of the Expiration Date of OMB Approval

OVW will display the Expiration Date of OMB Approval in the upper right hand corner
of the Progress Report.
18.

Exception to the Certification Statement

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OVW is not seeking any exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19,
Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.

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