Your monthly Underserved Grant Resource Email

December 2019

YEAR IN REVIEW SPECIAL EDITION
This product of the  ALSO Underserved TA Project  is designed for Underserved grantees to provide them with regular and concise information including resources, training opportunities,  open solicitations   and more.

You can always find more resources  on the  Underserved TA Tools and Resources page   on ALSO's website or through the  Online Private Portal   for OVW Underserved Grantees.

Happy Resource & Opportunity Finding!
Your Underserved TA Team
Reflections on the Last Year
As 2019 comes to an end, we at ALSO are reflecting on a year of working with such vibrant and inspiring cohorts of grantees. We are thankful to be partners with you in this work, and are eager to start a new year to continue assisting you in reaching the goals and objectives of your Underserved project. 

To wrap up this year, we have included in this edition some highlights of the technical assistance provided to grantees, as well as illustrations designed to give a snapshot of the organizations currently funded by the Underserved Program.

We hope you enjoy this special edition of our newsletter, and join us in reflecting about the past year and the possibilities ahead. May the start of 2020 bring a sense of feeling invigorated, refreshed, and hopeful. 

Warmest regards,
The ALSO Underserved TA Team
Snapshot of the Underserved Grantees
The purpose of all grants made by the Underserved Program is to provide or enhance population specific outreach and services to adult and youth victims in one or more underserved populations. The vibrancy of the communities being served through these grants is both intentional and central to this program.
This first chart details the distribution of grantees by their grantee type (based on the communities they are primarily funded to serve).
Image Description:  A pie chart of titled Grantee Types . Going clockwise, the data reads: Culturally Specific - Asian (12.9%), Culturally Specific - Hispanic (12.9%), Culturally Specific - Native American (9.7%), Deaf & Hard of Hearing (9.7%), Disability (16.1%), LGBT (16.1%), Religious Minority - Jewish (6.5%), Religious Minority - Muslim (16.1%).
The map below shows where all of the Underserved grantees are located . This map of the United States has greater saturation of the color blue based on the density of the number of grantees in that state. This visual representation is accompanied by a column chart beneath it to give more specific state by state information.
Image Description:  A map of the United States of America with certain states shaded in various shades of blue. There is a key to indicate the range of 1-8 organizations, and the saturation of blue in the lower left corner.
Image Description:  A column chart titled Breakdown of Current Grantees in Cohort by Location . The Y Axis is titled Number of Organizations , with a range of 0-8. The X Axis is titled States , and includes Alaska (1), Arizona (1), California (3), Colorado (1), Florida (1), Illinois (3), Iowa (1), Massachusetts (1), Michigan (2), Minnesota (1), New Mexico (1), New York (8), Ohio (1), Pennsylvania (1), Texas (1), Washington (1), and Wisconsin (3).
Webinars
This year, the ALSO Underserved TA Project hosted two webinars. Webinar trainings are opportunities to engage in different ways on subtopics related to purpose and priority areas, and often reinforce or supplement topics covered at in-person training events and one-on-one TA consultations. Topics are selected based on grantee expressed needs or areas of identified need.

The topics this year were Intake Best Practices - A Follow Up to the 2018 Fall Institute , held in February and Trauma-Informed Design: Creating Responsive Environments , held in May.

Both of these webinars have English and Spanish captioning. All webinars are recorded and stored on the Grantee Private Portal for grantees to access when most convenient to them.
In-Person Institutes
The ALSO Underserved TA Project hosted a second annual in-person Institute. The focus of the Institute and its primary topics were related to training and education and data collection. Institutes are annual in-person training events with supplemental training materials including tailored worksheets and exercises, action planning tools, and other substantive resources.

This year's Institute was held in July in Atlanta, Georgia.

Past Institute materials can be found on the Grantee Private Portal . If you need assistance accessing the Portal or setting up your account, please reach out to [email protected] . 
Grant Progress (Muskie) Reporting
Grant progress reporting is due January 30th!

Here are some resources from VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative (VAWA MEI) at the Muskie School of Public Service. These resources are tailored for the Underserved Program to assist grantees in their reporting.

For any questions or to request hands on technical assistance related to completing grant progress reports, you can reach out to VAMA MEI which is funded by OVW to provide this assistance at no cost to grantees.

VAWA MEI Contact Info
Phone Number: 1-800-922-8292




Please also be aware of this note on the Underserved Program Training Video page that may be useful information in your reporting:

As of this reporting period, July to December 2019, OVW is no longer asking grantees to report the number of products distributed . This information is not reflected in this webinar recording.

Additionally, OVW is encouraging grantees to use the additional information narrative question (final question on the reporting form) to discuss the OVW-sponsored training and technical assistance they have received.

Webinar Opportunity
Time: 11:00 am PT, 12:00 pm MT, 1:00 pm CT, 2:00 pm ET
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2020 
In this webinar, trainers will review the overall reporting process, why your data matters and how it is used, whom to contact for help, and how to respond to the questions on the form. There will also be time for trainers to answer your questions! Grantees of the Culturally Specific Services Program will be joining us for this webinar.

Open OVW Solicitation
The solicitation is now available for the FY20 Underserved program .The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) invites you to apply for their programs. Please be aware that the application is due February 12, 2020.

Please check out OVW's website to stay informed about this and other open OVW grant solicitations. 
Your ALSO TA Team
Image Description: ALSO's Underserved TA team posing
in a beige hallway at the 2018 Grantee Orientation.

From L-R: Quenette Walton, Lori Crowder, Lisa Gilmore,
Cristina Damiani, Zarena Leblanc, Topher Williamson 
Have Questions? We are here to help!
  • For questions about grant administration: Contact your OVW Program Manager Kara Moller at [email protected].
  • For technical assistance support related to substantive and programmatic issues: Contact your ALSO Underserved TA point of contact at their individual email or the team at [email protected]. 
Underserved TA Project   | 773.235.5705 |   Email   |   Website
This project is supported by Grant No. 2019-TA-AX-K016 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, Department of Justice.
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