rocisombTAsupportstatement revised jul 2007

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Semi-Annual Progress Report for Technical Assistance Program

A. Justification

1. Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) implements the Violence Against Women Act and subsequent legislation and provides national leadership against domestic violence, dating, violence, sexual assault and stalking. At present, OVW administers one formula grant program and eleven discretionary grant programs. These grant programs fund States, local governments, tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations to help communities across America develop innovative strategies to respond to violence against women. Since 1995, OVW’s Technical Assistance Program (TA Program) has provided OVW grantees and subgrantees with training, expertise, and problem–solving strategies to meet the challenges of addressing violence against women and to enhance the success of local projects they are implementing with VAWA funds. Pursuant to Department of Justice regulations, OVW requires all TA providers to submit semi-annual progress reports that detail the activities funded through their cooperative agreements with OVW, including a comparison of actual accomplishments to the objectives established and the reasons for slippage if the objectives were not met.

2. Use of Information

OVW will use the information collected from TA providers to monitor their technical assistance activities, assess the effectiveness of those activities and ensure that TA providers are meeting the needs of OVW grantees. In particular, OVW is seeking data that includes baseline information to illustrate the effectiveness of any activities supported with cooperative agreement funds, including, for example, an increase in the number of law enforcement trainings, an increase in the number of training materials produced, or an increase in the number of site visits for the procurement of on-site technical assistance for OVW grantees. OVW also uses the information collected from TA providers to review the most effective types of technical assistance and to identify gaps where technical assistance is needed.

Therefore, OVW plans to use data from the proposed information collection in two different ways. First, OVW will review each semi-annual progress report to monitor individual TA provider performance and ensure that each TA provider is achieving the goals and objectives set forth in its application for funding and award documents. Second, OVW will aggregate data from all TA progress reports to assess the performance of the TA program as a whole and to respond to Congressional, Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how TA providers use OVW funds.

In addition to the proposed information collection, OVW will continue to use a number of other techniques to assess the performance of TA providers. These include OVW staff attendance at TA-sponsored training and technical assistance events, staff review of TA products prior to dissemination, staff consultation regarding agendas, training materials, and instructors prior to TA events, and staff review of evaluations submitted by grantees and others who attend TA events.

Use of Information Technology

The collection of information will involve the use of automated, electronic, mechanical or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology.

4. Duplication of Information Request

There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects detailed information from TA providers, including information about the number of persons trained, number of products produced, number of site visits by a TA provider in a uniform or consistent manner. OVW will require TA providers to use this new form specifically developed for its TA providers in place of the generic reporting form.

5. Impact on Small Businesses

There is no impact on small businesses.

5. Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

TA providers have held many, many hours of important training for OVW grantees and subgrantees and offered critical technical assistance on behalf of thousands and thousands of OVW grantees and subgrantees. OVW TA providers enhance the effectiveness of the OVW grantees and subgrantees’ activities by providing direct assistance to them so they can implement more successfully the local projects they are supporting with VAWA grant funds. This technical assistance is adaptable to the inevitable changes in the field and economical in its size and scope. It is important for OVW to collect information about the activities of its TA providers to ensure that funded projects are effective and that grantees and subgrantees are receiving the training, materials and technical assistance necessary to improve the response to violence against women.

5. Special Circumstances

There are no special circumstances as identified in the specific instructions for a supporting statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions.

5. Federal Register Publication

OVW has consulted with persons outside the agency who have advised that the data proposed to be collected is available, the annual collection of such data is not burdensome, the form is clear, and that the information is routinely kept by most TA providers receiving funds under the TA Program. OVW has solicited public comment on this form in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. A 60 day notice was published in the Federal Register on March 16, 2007 (Federal Register, Volume 72, Number 12634) and a 30-day notice will be published in the Federal Register in May 2007.

5. Payment or Gift to Respondents

There will no payment or gift to respondents.

5. Confidentiality

This information collection will not involve any personal information about victims that could identify them as specific individuals. However, anecdotal, non-identifying information about the effectiveness of individual TA programs may be included in the report.

5. Specific Questions

The semi-annual progress report form will not contain any questions of a personal, sensitive nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private.

5. Hour Burden of the Collection of Information

This semi-annual progress report is not overly burdensome. OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by the TA providers in the normal course of their programs. OVW estimates that it will take approximately 1 hour for a TA provider to complete the form. OVW developed this estimate based on the fact that information of this nature is already routinely kept by TA providers. The semi-annual progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the different types of activities that TA providers may engage in, i.e. training, developing materials, going on site visits, etc. TA providers will complete only those sections of the form that relate to their specific activities. The data collection tool will be completed by 100 TA providers twice a year. There will be 200 annual responses and it is estimated that it will take TA providers no more than 1 hour to complete the semi-annual progress report form. Thus, the annual reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is 200 hours. TA providers are informed about the reporting requirements during the call for concept papers process and during the award process.

5. Cost Burden of the Collection of Information

OVW does not believe that there is any annual cost burden on respondents or recordkeepers resulting from the completion of this form.

5. Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

OVW does not believe that there are any annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the collection of this information beyond those costs associated with the routine managing, monitoring, and oversight of the TA Program.

5. Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments for the estimates identified in Section 13 and in Section 14.

5. Published Results of Information Collection

There will be no complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of information collected under the request. OVW does not contemplate publishing the results of the information collection.

17. Display of the Expiration Date of OMB Approval

OVW will display the expiration date of OMB approval in the upper right hand corner of the semi-annual progress report.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

OVW is not seeking any exception to the certification statement identified, Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.

6