Grant Details

The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) School-Based Victims Services Grant Program:  This grant program is intended to increase access to trauma-informed interventions for victims within schools, expand access to mental health services for victims in schools, and support behavioral interventionist positions serving victims of crime at school.

Funds are being made available to provide services to children and youth who have been the victims of crime, or have been secondary victims (have witnessed violence in the home or community or been exposed to traumatic crimes).

Applicable projects include but are not limited to:

1. Provide school-based treatment that follows evidence-based and best practices for services for victims.
2. Develop a process—through the procurement of a private application or other resource—by which children and youth may report at school when they have become a victim, and connect these individuals to services.
3. Develop a protocol for the use of behavior interventionists for youth victims in schools. Funds could be used to hire those individuals to provide the appropriate interventions to address the student's behavior issues. Services may be provided by local service providers that partner with school divisions to address violence within the education setting.
4. Provide services to child and youth victims of human trafficking. 
5. Serve youth in the school division who are current or past victims of crime.
6. Incorporate a child-centered, trauma-informed space to existing programs working with children and youth who are victims of crime. This may include a separate space for working with children and youth in a full-service agency, or enhancing space in an agency dedicated to serving children and youth.
7. Develop and/or provide training for employees who work with youth victims.
8. Develop a restorative justice program that is victim-focused. This could be for youthful offenders, or for youth victims, so long as the program as a whole is victim-focused.