ombrocisJUNE2012NEWeldersupportstatement

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Semi-Annual Progress Report for Enhanced Training and Services to End Violence Against Women Later in Life Program

A. Justification

1. Statutorily-Mandated Need for Information

Recognizing that older individuals, as well as victims who are persons with disabilities, who are victims of abuse and sexual assault face unique barriers to receiving assistance, Congress created the Training Grants to Stop Abuse and Sexual Assault Against Older Individuals or Individuals with Disabilities Program to provide training to assist law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and relevant officers of Federal, State, tribal, and local courts in recognizing, addressing, investigating, and prosecuting instances of elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and violence against individuals with disabilities, including domestic violence and sexual assault, against older or disabled individuals. In 2005, Congress re-authorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and amended the Training Grants Program to add additional authorized grant-funded activities. The Enhanced Training and Services to End Violence Against Women Later in Life Program (Abuse in Later Life Program) funds projects that will provide training to criminal justice professionals, governmental agency staff and victim assistants to enhance their ability to address elder abuse, neglect and exploitation in their communities; provide cross training opportunities to professionals working with older victims; develop or enhance a community coordinated response to elder abuse; and provide or enhance services for victims who are 50 years of age or older.

Currently, there are different statutory and regulatory reporting requirements that affect recipients of federal funds under the Abuse in Later Life Program. First, VAWA 2000 requires all VAWA grantees, including Abuse in Later Life Program, to report on the effectiveness of their programs to the Attorney General who, in turn, must report to Congress every two years. 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.

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 activities Abuse in Later Life Program grantees are engaged, will enable OVW to meet its reporting obligations under GPRA.

2. Use of Information

OVW uses data from the information collection¹ in different ways. OVW uses the information collected from Abuse in Later Life Program grantees to monitor their grant-funded activities and qualitatively assess those activities. The forms collect information that addresses the following grant-funded activities(different sections on the reporting form): staff, statutory purpose areas, training, community coordinated responses, policies, products, data collection and communication systems, specialized units, system improvement, victim services, protection orders, and the criminal justice system (law enforcement, prosecution, courts and probation). Narrative questions at the end of these different sections enable grantees to give more detailed qualitative information about their grant-funded activities. In addition, grantees must answer narrative questions on the most significant areas of remaining need and what federal funding has allowed the grantee to do that it could not do prior to receiving the funding.

In addition to the proposed information collection, OVW will continue to use a number of other techniques to assess the performance of Abuse in Later Life Program grantees. These may 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.

OVW aggregates data from all Abuse in Later Life Program grantees’ progress reports to assess the performance of the Abuse in Later Life Program as a whole and to respond to Congressional, Department of Justice, and other inquiries about how Abuse in Later Life Program funds are being used. In addition, information collected from Training Grants Program grantees will support the following OVW GPRA measures:

Number of victims receiving requested services;

Number of protection orders issued;

Number of policies developed/revised;

Number of communities with improved community coordinated responses;

Percentage of victims requesting services who received them;

Number of grant funded multi-disciplinary training events that have occurred; and

Number of professionals trained to respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Information collected from Abuse in Later Life Program grantees will enable OVW to respond to statutory requirements to report on the number of grants made and funds distributed under the Abuse in Later Life Program grants; a summary of the purposes for which those grants were provided and an assessment of their progress; and a statistical summary of persons served, detailing the nature of victimization, and providing data on age, sex, relationship of victim to offender, geographic distribution, race, ethnicity, language, and disability.

The structure of the Congressional report on the discretionary VAWA grant programs (cited in the previous section) includes a chapter that sets out the statutory origins and outlines of the Abuse in Later Life Program, the sources of the data and how funds were used during a specific calendar year– what types of agencies and organizations received funding and the types of activities they engaged in. Much of the data collected helps OVW monitor the grants to ensure that Abuse in Later Life Program funds are being used for the purposes authorized by law and provides important information about the quantity of authorized activities (e.g., number of trainings, number of victims served, etc.) produced by the funds. OVW primarily relies on two sources of information to make sure that our grantees are effective. First, OVW collects data from grantees about what they do with VAWA funding; second, to support our assessment, the body of existing research evaluating responses to violence against women is examined.

The data that OVW collects on the semi-annual progress reporting forms is currently not used in connection with a evaluation of the Abuse in Later Life Program. OVW is currently exploring the development of a multi-layered evaluation agenda in order to meet the statutory requirement to report on an evaluation of the effectiveness of programs funded.

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. Abuse in Later Life Program grantees are required to submit semi-annual progress reports through the Grants Management System (GMS).

3. Duplication of Information Request

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

3. Impact on Small Entities

There is no impact on small entities as the collection of this type of information is routinely kept by Abuse in Later Life Program grantees under this federal grant program.

3. Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

Through VAWA 2000, Congress mandated that all OVW grantees, including Abuse in Later Life 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 certain provisions of statutorily required reporting mandates, but also the existence of this important and necessary discretionary grant program could be jeopardized.

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 semi-annual collection of such data is not burdensome, the form is clear, and that the information is routinely kept by most Abuse in Later Life Program grantees receiving funds under this federal grant 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 19, 2012 (Federal Register, Volume 77, page 16064) and a 30-day was notice was published in the Federal Register on May 22, 2012 (Federal Register, Volume 77, page 30323). OVW received no comments.

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 reporting 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.

3. Hour Burden of the Collection of Information

This semi- annual progress reporting form is not overly burdensome. The data collection tool will be completed by 18 Abuse in Later Life Program grantees^. There will be 18 semi-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 semi-annual reporting and recordkeeping hour burden is 36. Abuse in Later Life Program grantees are informed about the reporting requirements during the grant solicitation process and during the grant award process.

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

The annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from the OVW staff review of the progress reports submitted by grantees are estimated to be $2,016.

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 Training Grants Program grantees to comply with the statutory reporting requirements and 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. OVW is statutorily required to submit a report on grant-funded activities on a biennial basis as discussed in paragraphs 1 and 2. This report is delivered to Congress and made public on the OVW website. In addition, OVW publishes data reports that aggregate information from all Abuse in Later Life Program grantees. These Summary Data Reports reflect aggregate information provided by grantees and include the number of grant-funded staff, the number of people trained, and the number of victims/survivors seeking services that are served, partially served, and not served. Demographic data on the victims/survivors served, the types of services provided, and criminal justice activities data are also included in the Summary Data Reports.

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 reporting form.

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.

1 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.

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