Description
The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) issues this Forecast to announce available funding for eligible applicants to submit applications for the Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES) Center grant. The grant recipient will be responsible for establishing a national technical assistance, training, and research center to increase safe access to child support, paternity, and parenting time services for victims of domestic violence. The SAVES Center will conduct research to establish baseline data on victims’ needs and barriers to accessing child support services, gather information on promising practices for safe access to child support and parenting time, and build the capacity of state and tribal child support agencies to integrate comprehensive domestic violence safety procedures into child support program services. Additionally, it will develop and refine training materials and practice guides for child support case managers and legal staff, test and evaluate impacts of domestic violence safety procedures on victim access to child support and parenting time services, and develop and disseminate model domestic violence policies for child support agencies. It will accomplish this by leading cross-system collaborations with assistance agencies, the courts, legal services providers, and domestic violence service providers and coalitions. The grant project should identify national, regional, state, and tribal domestic violence experts who will partner with the applicant in developing and disseminating technical assistance and training resources to child support agency staff, court staff, and community based domestic violence program staff. Grantees are expected to engage a research partner or partners to: conduct primary data collection on incidence of domestic violence with child support program participants, identify barriers to safe access to child support and parenting time services for victims, and assess model domestic violence procedures implemented by state and tribal child support agencies. The SAVES Center will provide training, technical assistance, and research services to OCSE-funded SAVES implementation grantee sites (see companion Forecast), to additional State and Tribal Title IV-D child support agencies, to Title IV-D Judicial officers, and to national, state, tribal, and local domestic violence service providers. For OCSE’s existing policy and program guidance to states and tribes, see IM-14-03 (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/policy-guidance/domestic-violence-awareness-month-focus-resources-collaboration-and), IM-15-02 (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/policy-guidance/safe-access-child-support-services-scope-issue), and IM-19-06 (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/css/policy-guidance/model-procedures-domestic-violence-cases). This award will have a 5-year project period comprised of five separate budget periods. The amount forecasted in this synopsis, $5,882,350, is for year 1 of the project. Grantees will receive up to $1,475,000 in continuation funds each year for years 2-5 of the project. The total project budget for the 5-year project period is forecasted to be $11,782,350.