ombrocissafe havenssupportstatement

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Semi-annual Progress Report for the Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program

A. Justification

1. Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information

The Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program (Safe Havens) was authorized through the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 2000 and by the VAWA of 2005. The Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program (Supervised Visitation Program) provides an opportunity for communities to support the supervised visitation and safe exchange of children in situations involving domestic violence, dating violence, child abuse, sexual assault, or stalking. Studies have shown that the risk of violence is often greater for victims of domestic violence and their children after separation from an abusive situation. Even after separation, batterers often use visitation and exchange of children as an opportunity to inflict additional emotional, physical, and/or psychological abuse on victims and their children. Visitation and exchange services provided through the Supervised Visitation Program should reflect a clear understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking; the impact of domestic violence on children; and the importance of holding offenders accountable for their actions.

VAWA requires the Attorney General on a biennial basis to report to Congress on the number of individuals served and the number of individuals turned away from visitation programs and services and safe visitation exchange; the number of individuals from underserved populations served and turned away from services; the type of problems that underlie the need for supervised visitation or safe visitation exchange, such as domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, other physical abuse, or a combination of such factors; the numbers of supervised visitations or safe visitation exchanges during custody determinations under a separation or divorce decree or protection order, through child protection services or other social services agencies, or by any other order of a civil, criminal, juvenile, or family court; the process by which children or abused partners are protected during visitations, temporary custody transfers, and other activities for which supervised visitation is established under this section; safety and security problems occurring during the reporting period during supervised visitation under this section, including the number of parental abduction cases; and the number of parental abduction cases in a judicial district using supervised visitation programs and services under this section, both as identified in criminal prosecution and custody violations. 42 U.S.C. 10420.

Again, under VAWA 2000, all grant recipients are statutorily required to report on the effectiveness of their programs, and the Attorney General must report to Congress on the effectiveness of each project. Section 1003 of VAWA 2000 states that:

(a) REPORT BY GRANT RECIPIENTS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall require grantees under any program authorized or reauthorized by this division or an amendment made by this division to report on the effectiveness of the activities carried out with amounts made available to carry out that program, including number of persons served, if applicable, numbers of persons seeking services who could not be served and such other information as the Attorney General or Secretary may prescribe.

(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.- The Attorney General or Secretary of Health and Human Services, as applicable, shall report biennially to the Committees on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives and the Senate on the grant programs described in subsection (a), including the information contained in any report under that subsection.

42 U.S.C. 3789.

In addition to VAWA, other statutory requirements require that Safe Havens Program grantees collect and maintain data that measures the effectiveness of the grant-funded projects. OVW must also comply with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) (Pub. L. 103-62) which was enacted to increase Congressional and Administrative focus on the results from government programs and activities. Information collected on the semi-annual progress report regarding performance measures, including output measures, that OVW has developed for the different types of Safe Havens grantees will enable OVW to meet its reporting obligations under GPRA.

2. Use of Information

OVW will use the information collected from Safe Havens grantees to monitor their grant-funded activities and qualitatively assess those activities. In particular, OVW is seeking data that includes baseline information to review activities supported with Grant funds, including, for example, an increase in the number of trainings or an increase in the number of families served.

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 Safe Havens grantees’ performance and ensure that each grantee is achieving the goals and objectives set forth in its application for funding and award documents. Second, OVW will aggregate data from all Safe Havens Program progress reports to assess the performance of the Safe Havens Program as a whole and to respond to Congressional, Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how Safe Havens grantees 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 Safe Havens grantees. These include OVW staff attendance at site visits, grant- funded training and technical assistance events, staff review of products prior to dissemination, and ongoing consultation with OVW staff.

Under a cooperative agreement between OVW and the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service, data collected from OVW grantees on all of OVW’s progress report forms is transmitted to the Muskie School for analysis. For the analysis of the data, standard descriptive statistics (frequency, sum, percentage, mean, etc.) are used to describe the characteristics of the grantees and report basic findings. All analyses are conducted in SPSS 13.0.

3. 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.

3. Duplication of Information Request

There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects information about grant funded activities, including number of victims served, victims seeking services who could not be served or persons trained.

3. Impact on Small Businesses

There is no impact on small businesses.

3. Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

Through VAWA 2000, Congress has mandated that all OVW grantees including Safe Havens Program grantees report to the Attorney General on the effectiveness of their activities funded under VAWA including the number of victims served and the number of victims who could not be served. If OVW was not able to collect the information necessary to complete these reports on behalf of the Attorney General, not only would it be failing to meet a statutorily required reporting mandate, but also the existence of this important and necessary grant program could be jeopardized. The Safe Havens Program provides an opportunity for communities to support the supervised visitation and safe exchange of children, by and between parents, in situations involving domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, or stalking.

3. Special Circumstances

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

3. 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 grantees receiving funds under the Safe Havens 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 June 19, 2007 (Federal Register, Volume 72, page 33773) and a 30-day was notice was published in the Federal Register on August 28, 2007 (Federal Register, Volume 72, page 49312).

3. Payment or Gift to Respondents

There will no payment or gift to respondents.

3. Confidentiality

Although this information is needed for a public report to Congress, it 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 programs may be included in the report. There is no assurance to confidentiality.

3. Specific Questions

The semi-annual progress report 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.

3. Hour Burden of the Collection of Information

This semi-annual progress report is not overly burdensome. The data collection tool will be completed by approximately 33 Safe Havens Program grantees twice a year as there are 2 reporting periods- January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December 31. There will be 66 annual responses and it is estimated that it will take grantees no more than 1 hour to complete the semi-annual progress report form. Thus, the annual reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is 66 hours. Safe Havens Program grantees are informed about the reporting requirements during the grant solicitation process and during the grant award process. Because the semi-annual progress report covers a six month period, grantees are not in a position to complete the form until the end of each reporting period.

OVW is seeking basic information that is routinely kept by the Safe Havens Program grantees in the normal course of their operations. Thus, the requirement that grantees complete this semi-annual progress report within a period of less than 30 days after receipt of it is not overly burdensome. OVW estimates that it will take approximately 1 hour for a grantee to complete the form. OVW developed this estimate based on the fact that information of this nature is already kept by grantees receiving funds under the Safe Havens Program and that the grantees have been apprized of these reporting requirements during the solicitation process and reminded throughout the grant award process. The semi-annual progress report is divided into sections that pertain to the different types of activities that grantees may engage in, i.e. training, supervising visitation, and the different types of grantees that receive funds, i.e., courts, victim services agencies, etc. Grantees will only have to complete the sections of the form that relate to their specific activities.

13. 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 collection of this information.

14. 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 management, monitoring, and oversight of the Safe Havens Program.

14. Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments for the estimates identified in Section 13 and in Section 14. This is a information collection that is necessary for OVW and its Safe Havens Program grantees to comply with the statutory reporting requirements of 42 U.S.C. 3789 and the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (Pub. L. 103-62).

14. Published Results of Information Collections

There will be no complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of

information collected under the request. Information will be gathered twice a year at the end of the reporting periods, January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December 31. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on the effectiveness of grant-funded activities on a biennial basis.

14. 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 in Item 19, Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.

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