1122-0028 ombrocis2022CEVsupportstatement_121415

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission
Semi-annual Progress Report for Children and Youth Exposed to Violence
Program
A. Justification
1.

Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information
The Consolidated Grant Program to Address Children and Youth Experiencing Domestic
and Sexual Assault and Engage Men and Boys as Allies (hereinafter referred to as the
Consolidated Youth Program) was enacted in FY2012-FY2022 appropriations legislation
into one comprehensive program. The four programs included in these consolidations
were Services to Advocate for and Respond to Youth (Youth Services), Assist Children
and Youth Exposed to Violence (CEV), Engaging Men and Youth in Preventing
Domestic Violence (EMY), and Supporting Teens through Education and Prevention
(STEP). While OVW develops a new form for this consolidated grant program, certain
Consolidated Youth Program grantees will be using the semi-annual progress reporting
form previously developed for CEV grantees. Currently, there are different statutory and
regulatory reporting requirements that affect the Consolidated Youth Program grantees.
First, VAWA 2000 requires all VAWA grantees, including Consolidated Youth 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.
42 U.S.C. 13789.
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.
Information collected on the semi-annual progress report regarding performance
measures, including output measures, that OVW has developed for the different types of
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Consolidated Youth Program grantees will enable OVW to meet its reporting obligations
under GPRA.
2.

Use of Information
OVW uses data from the information collection 1 in different ways. OVW uses the
information collected from Consolidated Youth Program grantees to monitor their grantfunded activities and qualitatively assess those activities. The Consolidated Youth
Program grantees collect information that addresses the following grant-funded
activities(different sections on the reporting form): staff, training, community coordinated
responses, policies, products, 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, Consolidated Youth Program grantees must
answer narrative questions on the status of the grant goals and objectives, the most
significant areas of remaining need with regard to improving services to children exposed
to sexual assault, domestic violence dating violence and stalking and providing support
for their non-abusing parents and caregivers, what federal funding has allowed the
grantee to do that it could not do prior to receiving the funding. There are also optional
narrative questions addressing additional information on the Consolidated Youth
Program grant and/or the effectiveness of the grant and additional information on 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 Consolidated Youth 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 Consolidated Youth Program grantees’ progress
reports to assess the performance of the program as a whole and to respond to
Congressional, Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how Consolidated Youth
Program funds are being used. In addition, information collected from Consolidated
Youth Program grantees will support the following OVW GPRA measures:
Number of victims receiving requested services;
Number of advocates funded:
Number of protection orders issued;
Number of policies developed/revised;

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 victims requesting services who received them;
Number of grant funded multi-disciplinary training events that have occurred; and
Number of professionals trained to respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual
assault, and stalking.
Information collected from the Consolidated Youth Program grantees will enable OVW to
respond to statutory requirements to report on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities. The
structure of the Congressional report on the OVW grant programs (cited in the previous section)
includes sections that describe all OVW grant programs, the Measuring Effectiveness Initiative,
the effectiveness of different interventions that are funded by OVW grant programs, and specific
topics of interest. The Report also contains specific chapters with more detailed information on
each OVW grant program. Much of the data collected helps OVW monitor the grants to ensure
that Consolidated Youth Program funds are being used for the purposes authorized by law and
provides important information about the quantity of authorized activities (e.g., number of
trainings, number of victims served, etc.) supported by the funds. OVW primarily relies on two
sources of information to make sure that our grantees are effective. First, OVW collects data
from grantees about what they do with VAWA funding; second, to support our assessment, the
body of existing research evaluating responses to violence against women is examined. Further
discussion about research that has found that the types of interventions supported by
Consolidated Youth Program funds are effective is contained in the 2018 Biennial Report to
Congress on the Effectiveness of Grant Programs Under the Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA Report to Congress (justice.gov)) The data that OVW collects on the
semiannual progress reporting forms is currently not used in connection with an evaluation of the
Consolidated Youth 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 semi-annual or annual progress reports through the
Just Grants Management System.

4.

Duplication of Information Request
There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects information about funded activities
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 Consolidated Youth Program
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6.

Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy
Through VAWA, Congress has mandated that OVW grantees report to OVW on the
effectiveness of programs funded. In addition, through VAWA 2000, Congress
mandated that all OVW grantees report to the Attorney General on the effectiveness of
their activities funded under VAWA including the number of victims served and the
number of victims who could not be served. 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. The
Consolidated Youth Program supports projects designed to provide coordinated
community responses that support child, youth and young adult victims through direct
services, training, coordination and collaboration, effective intervention, treatment,
response, and prevention strategies. The Consolidated Youth Program creates a unique
opportunity for communities to increase collaboration among non-profit victim service
providers; violence prevention, and children (0-10), youth (11-18), young adult (19-24)
and men-serving organizations; tribes and tribal governments; local government
agencies; schools; and programs that support men’s role in combating sexual assault,
domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

7.

Special Circumstances
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 annual 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 Consolidated Youth 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 October 27, 2021 (Federal
Register, Volume 86, page 60075) and a 30-day was notice was published in the Federal
Register on December 27, 2021(Federal Register, Volume 86, page 73343). OVW did not
receive any comments in connection with these notices.

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.
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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 semi-annual 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 25 Consolidated Youth Program grantees twice a year as
there are 2 reporting periods- January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December
31. There will be 50 annual responses and it is estimated that it will take grantees no
more than 1 hour to complete the semi-annual progress report form. Thus, the annual
reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is 50 hours. Consolidated Youth Program
grantees are informed about the reporting requirements during the grant solicitation
process and during the grant award process. Because the semi-annual progress report
covers a six month period, grantees are not in a position to complete the form until the
end of each reporting period.
OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by Consolidated Youth Program
grantees in the normal course of their operations. Thus, the requirement that grantees
complete this semi-annual progress report 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
Consolidated Youth Program and that the grantees have been apprized of these reporting
requirements during the solicitation process and reminded throughout the grant award
process. The semi-annual progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the
different types of activities that grantees may engage in, i.e. training, product
development, victim services. Grantees will only have to complete the sections of the
form that relate to their specific 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. OVW does not anticipate that
any respondents will incur any costs from this collection, including costs from
developing, operating, and maintaining data collection and retention systems, that they
would not otherwise incur in the absence of this collection.

14.

Annualized Costs to the Federal Government
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The annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the OVW staff review of
the progress reports submitted by grantees are estimated to be $1,400.
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 an information collection that is necessary for OVW and its
Consolidated Youth Program grantees to comply with the statutory reporting
requirements of 42 U.S.C. 3789 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 twice a year at
the end of the reporting periods, January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December
31. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on the effectiveness of grant-funded
activities on an annual 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 Semi-annual Progress Report.

18.

Exception to the Certification Statement
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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