OVW’s Measuring Effectiveness Initiative Supplemental Grant

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), as amended, requires that grantees report on the effectiveness of their VAWA-funded programs to the Attorney General, who, in turn, must report to Congress every two years on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities (Pub. L. No. 106-386, § 1003, 114 Stat. 1464, 1491 (2000), codified at 34 U.S.C. § 10238). Some OVW grant programs also have specific reporting requirements as outlined in their respective authorizing legislation.

In response to these requirements, OVW developed annual and semi-annual performance reporting forms for each OVW grant program that track grant-funded activities and incorporate measures tied to program objectives. Grantees funded by OVW report consistent quantitative data that can be aggregated to reflect the accomplishments within and across grant programs. The forms also collect narrative (i.e., qualitative) information on grantees’ goals, objectives, activities, accomplishments, and remaining areas of need. OVW uses the information collected through performance reports in different ways, including monitoring grant activities (individually and in aggregate across programs), identifying promising practices, meeting reporting obligations under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) and subsequent legislation, reporting to Congress, responding to ad hoc data requests from within and outside government, and spotting training and technical assistance needs and promising practices.

In FY 2022 – FY 2023, the University of Southern Maine (USM) was competitively selected to continue implementing the Measuring Effectiveness Initiative (MEI), which encompasses the data collection described above and involves providing training, technical assistance, and related resources to OVW grantees on performance reporting. USM received 18 months of initial funding in the amount of $2.6 million through a cooperative agreement for a five-year—or 60-month—project, to support project activities through June 30, 2024.

The purpose of this Invitation to Apply is to provide USM with a supplemental award in the amount of $4,143,119 to carry out the next 26 months of the project (i.e., July 1, 2024 – August 31, 2026). With this supplemental funding, USM will continue to: review, clean, and analyze data collected from grantee performance reports; maintain that information in a database; work in partnership with OVW to fulfill reporting requirements and respond to data requests; and provide ongoing training and technical assistance to OVW grantees on collecting data to assess their own performance and accurately completing their performance reports. A significant piece of the training and technical assistance effort during the supplemental period will be completing the launch of a performance reporting tool to assist state administrators of OVW’s two largest formula grant programs in collecting, reviewing, and reporting subgrantee performance data. USM will also assist OVW in the preparation of reports to Congress and additional materials and analyses related to VAWA-funded activities.