Domestic violence
grant bids due

Today marks the last day
nonprofit organizations can
request federal money

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By Nelson Daranciang
Star-Bulletin

Today is the deadline for nonprofit organizations that serve domestic violence and sex assault victims to submit bids to receive a share of an annual federal grant the state receives to provide such services.

The money is part of the state's fiscal year 2000 allocation of the STOP Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program. STOP stands for Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors.

"We didn't get approval to release funds until the end of February. We're now going through the RFP (Request for Proposals) process. Everything was late this year," said Tony Wong, planning specialist, state Department of the Attorney General.

The state received $954,000 for FY 2000. Of that, the county police departments and prosecutors each split about 25 percent, or $228,000.

The state attorney general places an amount into a discretionary account, and the state Judiciary gets about 5 percent. Service providers are vying for $285,433.

The Judiciary uses its share to educate and train judges and probation staff members. The county prosecutors use their money for training and to prosecute offenders. And the police departments use their share for training and to provide sub-grants to service providers.

In 1997 the state attorney general used some of the grant money to set up a victim information management system with service providers.

The system was designed to allow the attorney general to collect and analyze victim data for statistical research and to provide information to providers to help them decide how to allocate their resources.

Service providers who miss out on a share of the FY 2000 grant will not have to wait long for a chance at the FY 2001 allocation.

The Justice Department announced Hawaii's grant will be $944,000. Wong expects that money will be available by June.

Interested organizations can submit bids to the Attorney General's Office.