U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office for Victims of Crime

JUNE 2003

Background

S

ince 1989, the Federal Crime Victims

Division within the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has provided funding to American Indian tribes through

the Children’s Justice Act (CJA) Partnerships for Indian Communities grant

program. These funds are used to help

tribes develop, establish, and operate

programs to improve the investigation,

prosecution, and handling of child abuse

cases, particularly cases of child sexual

abuse, in a manner that limits additional

trauma to the child victim.

The goal of the CJA grant program is to

improve the capacity of existing tribal

systems to handle serious child abuse

cases by developing specialized services

and procedures that address the needs of

American Indian child victims. The program focuses on developing strategies to

handle cases of child sexual abuse, from

the initial disclosure through investigation and prosecution to case resolution.

Funding

O VC currently supports up to 25grants annually. Each grant requires

an in-kind match to encourage tribal

investment, thereby promoting the

tribe’s ability to establish a program that

can endure when OVC funding is no

longer available. The in-kind match can

be in the form of staff time, facilities,

office space and utilities, employee details or loans, and agency partnerships.

Hard match, or cash, is allowable in lieu

of an in-kind match.

Eligibility

Eligible applicants are federally recognized Indian tribes and tribal organizations. Grant awards are limited to

tribal organizations as defined in the

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (Public Law 93-

638, 25 U.S.C., Section 450b). Awards

may also be granted to nonprofit organizations that provide services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Training and

Technical Assistance

O VC seeks to ensure that all tribalprograms are provided the training

and technical assistance necessary to

help them implement successful programs. A training and technical assistance (T&TA) component is available

for tribes that receive funding through the

CJA grant program. The recipient of the

T&TA award provides comprehensive,

skills-building training and technical

assistance to CJA grantees to help them

develop, establish, and operate projects

designed to improve the investigation,

prosecution, and overall handling of

severe child physical abuse and child sexual abuse cases. The T&TA project team

conducts a survey of all CJA grant projects to determine training and technical

assistance needs, categorizes and establishes priorities for training, and develops

a comprehensive T&TA delivery plan.

Based on the survey results, the T&TA

team arranges individual onsite program

reviews and/or regional training sessions

Children’s Justice Act Partnerships for

Indian Communities
U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office for Victims of Crime

at which experts are available to offer

more indepth training. In addition,

ongoing telephone technical assistance,

resource materials, and specialized cluster

meetings or other training and technical

assistance are provided when requested. 

For More Information

F or more information on this topic,please contact 

Office for Victims of Crime 

U.S. Department of Justice

810 Seventh Street NW., Eighth Floor 

Washington, DC 20531 

202–307–5983

Fax: 202–514–6383

Web site: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc 

For copies of this fact sheet and other

OVC publications or information on

additional victim-related resources,

please contact 

OVC Resource Center

P.O. Box 6000 

Rockville, MD 20849–6000 

1–800–851–3420 or 301–519–5500

(TTY 1–877–712–9279)

E-mail: askovc@ojp.usdoj.gov 

Web site: www.ncjrs.org 

Or order OVC publications online at

http://puborder.ncjrs.org.

For information on training and technical assistance available from OVC,

please contact

OVC Training and Technical 

Assistance Center

10530 Rosehaven Street, Suite 400

Fairfax, VA 22030

1–866–OVC–TTAC (1–866–682–8822)

(TTY 1–866–682–8880)

Fax: 703–279–4673

E-mail: TTAC@ovcttac.org

Web site: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/assist/ 

welcome.html

Activities Funded Through CJA

■ Establishment, expansion, and

training for multidisciplinary

teams.

■ Revision of tribal codes to address

child sexual abuse.

■ Provision of child advocacy services for children involved in court

proceedings.

■ Development of protocols and

procedures for reporting, investigating, and prosecuting child sexual

abuse cases.

■ Improved coordination that minimizes the number of child interviews.

■ Enhanced case management and

treatment services.

■ Specialized training for prosecutors,

judges, investigators, and other professionals who handle child sexual

abuse cases.

■ Development of procedures for

establishing and managing childcentered interview rooms.

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The Office for Victims of Crime is a

component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of

Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice

Statistics, the National Institute of Justice,

and the Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention.

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