Victim Services FAQs
• If grant-funded staff are answering the hotline, or supervising volunteers who answer the hotline, you would report all hotline calls handled by the grant-funded staff and/or the volunteers they supervise.
• If grant funds support a portion of the hotline budget, prorate your agency’s total hotline calls to reflect what portion or percent of hotline calls that grant funds support.
Yes. The form has a question that reports on the relationships of the victim/survivor to offender by type of victimization. If a victim/survivor experienced more than one type of victimization and/or was victimized by more than one perpetrator, report the victim/survivor in all categories that apply. The total relationships may exceed the sum of all victims/survivors.
For the exclusive purposes of OVW grant reporting, questions about disabilities or immigration status should not be on your agency intake form. Some service providers will elect to collect this information if it helps them better understand and address victims’ needs, but intake forms should not be driven by OVW grant report fields. Grantees should fill out the “other demographics” based on what they have learned about the victim/survivor through working with them.
For the purposes of these forms, providing information and routine referrals by themselves are not considered a stand-alone, grant-funded victim services. If a victim does not receive a grant-funded service then they are not reported on the form. Grantees may elaborate on information and referral services in narrative.
If a victim/survivor chooses to discontinue services once they have begun receiving them, then the victim should be reported as served. The same is true if a victim/survivor moves, even if they do not inform you, and they are unable to complete the services. The partially served and not served categories are intended to capture the extent to which issues within your program keep you from providing services to a victim/survivor who requests those services.
Report an unduplicated count of victims for each reporting period. This means that grantees report a victim only once in each reporting period in which the victim receives grant-funded services, regardless of the number of times the victim receives those services. Grantees also report a victim in each reporting period during which the victim receives grant-funded services, so a victim who receives services between February and October of a given year would be counted in both reports submitted for that year.
If a victim/survivor identifies with a demographic category that is not included on the form, please report the victim/survivor in the “unknown category” and use the narrative section to provide further details on demographics. Also note that a survivor can be counted in multiple race/ethnicity categories. OVW is in the process of updating forms to capture more comprehensive and inclusive information about victims/survivors served.
Not at all. By reporting victims as partially served or not served, you are helping OVW and policymakers understand that the scope and burden of violence stretches far beyond what VAWA is able to fund. We encourage grantees to carefully track and report instances of partial service or non-service and to use the narrative questions to provide detail to demonstrate the additional needs that exist in your community. Our aim is to have accurate data, and partial and not served numbers are just as important as served numbers for creating a comprehensive picture of the impact of grant funds.
Grantees only report victims who requested grant-funded services.
Served: Victim received all grant-funded services they requested.
Partially Served: Victim received some but not all grant-funded services they requested.
Not Served: Victim did not receive any of the grant-funded services they requested.
Not Counted: Victim did not request any grant-funded services.