OVC FY 2019 Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking | OVC 2019 15598

Opportunity Information: Apply for OVC 2019 15598

The OVC FY 2019 Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking grant is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), aimed at strengthening how states and tribal jurisdictions respond to children and youth who have been trafficked for labor or sex. The core focus is on improving real-world outcomes for trafficked young people by building stronger, more consistent policy and programming at the statewide or tribal level, rather than relying on isolated local efforts. The program is designed to push jurisdictions toward coordinated, multidisciplinary approaches that connect victim services, child welfare, law enforcement, prosecutors, and other key partners into a more unified system of identification, referral, protection, and case response.

A central expectation of the program is that applicants take an honest, system-level look at what is currently getting in the way of effective action in their state or tribe. Applicants are required to identify the biggest barriers they face in finding and helping child and youth victims of sex and labor trafficking and/or in successfully investigating and prosecuting trafficking cases involving minors and youth. Those barriers might include inconsistent screening and identification practices across agencies, lack of specialized training, gaps in cross-system data sharing, limited trauma-informed services, weak referral pathways, difficulty coordinating across rural or frontier areas, limited culturally responsive services for tribal or marginalized communities, or challenges sustaining multidisciplinary collaboration. The proposed project should then lay out a structured plan to address those barriers in a systematic way, meaning the work should be designed to change how the overall system functions, not just provide one-off activities.

OVC also signals a specific interest in applications from states with high geographic need, indicating that jurisdictions facing broad coverage challenges, large rural areas, remote communities, or significant service deserts may be viewed as especially aligned with the program priorities. The intent is to strengthen statewide or jurisdiction-wide capacity so that trafficked youth can be identified and supported regardless of where they are located, and so that agencies are not working in silos when responding to trafficking cases.

From a funding perspective, the opportunity is offered as a grant, with an award ceiling of $1,500,000 and an expected total of four awards. The funding aligns with CFDA number 16.320 and sits within the broader federal activity areas of income security and social services and law, justice, and legal services, reflecting the program's dual emphasis on victim support and effective justice system responses. While the eligibility field is listed as "Others" with additional clarification expected in the full announcement, the framing makes clear that the target applicants are state and tribal jurisdictions capable of implementing policy and practice improvements at a broad level.

Key dates included in the announcement were a creation date of May 31, 2019, a pre-application webinar scheduled for June 13, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time (with registration directed to the OVC grants webinars page), and an application deadline of July 1, 2019. Overall, the grant opportunity is geared toward helping states and tribes build more coordinated, consistent, and effective systems that improve safety, services, and long-term outcomes for child and youth survivors of both sex and labor trafficking, while also strengthening the capacity to investigate and prosecute these complex cases.

• The Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime in the income security and social services, law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "OVC FY 2019 Improving Outcomes for Child and Youth Victims of Human Trafficking" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.320.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 31, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 01, 2019. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for OVC 2019 15598

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