News

The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) announces the awarding of $4.95 million in federal funding as sub-awards to organizations that support Native Women, Men, children, LGBTQ and child survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault seeking services in tribal lands and communities. The NIWRC provides national leadership in ending gender-based violence in tribal communities by uplifting the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen tribal sovereignty.

The grant awards are funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services (OFVPS) that administers the Family Violence Prevention Services Act (FVPSA) and the American Rescue Plan (ARP).  This funding assists NIWRC in expanding its efforts to provide resources to service providers and other organizations in increasing their program capacity while improving access to services for survivors.

On October 28, 2021, HHS awarded $4.95 million in ARP supplemental funding to support community-based organizations to provide culturally specific activities for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence to address emergent needs resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency. Following a competitive application process, NIWRC issued awards for Fiscal Year 2023 to the following organizations:

Under the ARP DV Survivors Grant, NIWRC staff is committed to providing Technical Assistance for sub-recipients by way of:

• Three Peer to Peer Meetings for sub-recipients to discuss challenges, activities, program ideas with opportunity to ask of the Grant Manager and ARP Liaison Coordinator, any questions surrounding programming, funding justification, etc.
• Up to ten (10) training culturally relevant training modules to be uploaded to the NIWRC permanent library in topic areas such as Shelter, policy and procedure development, self-care, avoiding burnout when providing services to relatives, seeking funding, and traditional/cultural means for self-care.
• Site Visits to
  • See and experience first-hand the service area each sub recipient serves
  • Meet in person with staff providing services, answer questions and provide recommendations for staff members such as trainings.
  • Review documents such as Policy and Procedure, Code of Ethics/Conduct, Confidentiality, Intake, Releases, and seeing that they are in place, updated annually and also respects the cultural aspect/grass roots efforts
  • Meet with the financial department to review accounting procedures and reports

Please click here to view the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services official statement published May 25, 2023.

About FVPSA

Since 1984, the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) has been an integral part of our nation’s public health response to domestic violence by providing funding, oversight, training, technical assistance, and guidance to emergency shelters, crisis hotlines, prevention programs, specialized resource centers, and a wide-range of federal, state, local and tribal partners across the United States. By addressing domestic violence as a public health epidemic, FVPSA’s reach is broad and changes lives. Each year, FVPSA-funded state and tribal programs serve more than 1.3 million victims and their dependents and respond to 2.7 million crisis calls; with these supplemental funds, FVPSA grant programs will be able to provide critical supports to even more families all across the country.

For more information on the ARP-FVPSA funding visit, https://www.acf.hhs.gov/fysb/policy-guidance/2021-fvpsa-495-million-american-rescue-plan-support-survivors-domestic. More information about the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services (OFVPS) which administers FVPSA funding can be found at www.acf.hhs.gov/ofvps.