GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Office of Justice Grants Administration and Victim Services

Open Government Report 2014

To institutionalize a culture of transparent and open government, accountability, and to
expand opportunities for resident participation and collaboration, this Report describes
how the Office of Justice Grants Administration and Victim Services has and will
continue to develop and enhance transparency, public participation, and collaboration. In
accordance with Mayor’s Order 2014-170, this report addresses the following topics:
1)

Transparency
Describe the steps your agency has taken or plans to take to be more transparent.
Please include a description of:
The Office of Justice Grants Administration and Victim Services (JGA/OVS)
shares information with the public through the use of its websites
www.jga.dc.gov and www.ovs.dc.gov, as well as newsletters. The JGA and OVS
websites are updated regularly with updates on grant availability and
multimedia presentations on the various programs that the office supports. The
focus areas of JGA are: reentry, juvenile delinquency, and school attendance
improvement efforts. The Show Up, Stand Out (SUSO) initiative, which works to
improve in-school attendance and reduce truancy, produces a newsletter
highlighting the progress of the truancy program on a quarterly basis. This
newsletter is made available to community partners.

OVS provides leadership and coordination for agency and community-based
service providers who provide medical forensic, emergency/crisis, advocacy,
professional mental health care, and housing services to victims of all violent
crime in the District. Some of OVS’ major initiatives include: Project CHANGE, a
multidisciplinary response team for polyvictims; DC Sexual Assault Nurse
Examiner (DC SANE), a multidisciplinary response team that provides on-call
medical forensic care and advocacy to victims of sexual assault, IPV ACCESS, a
multidisciplinary response team that provides on-call medical forensic care and
advocacy to victims of intimate partner violence, the Cultural Competency and
Language Access (CCLA) Initiative, that seeks to build bridges between culturally
specific service providers and core service providers in the District through
training and enhanced language access policies, the Victim Assistance Network
(VAN), which is a collaboration of service providers in the District, and Domestic
Violence housing, which is a multi-million dollar initiative to provide safe and
secure emergency and transitional housing in the District. All initiatives are
served by dedicated OVS staff who take minutes of meeting, share minutes with
the group, and act as a focal point on collaborative matters.
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In order to increase public awareness, the Office of Justice Grants Administration
and Victim Services staff engages in numerous community events over the
course of the year. JGA staff regularly accompanies the Deputy Mayor of Public
Safety on community walk-throughs where these walk-throughs are an
opportunity for community members and organizations to learn about available
grants and solicitations. JGA also participates in more program specific activities
to increase public awareness. Program staff for Show Up, Stand Out have
attended numerous events and passed out literature to the public on services
available to increase their child’s school attendance. JGA also procured a
marketing firm to promote the Show Up, Stand Out program. Signage can be
found on the metro system and online at http://www.showupstandout.org/.
Additionally, OVS staff have a robust campus initiative, during which OVS staff
are active and visible in the campus communities, a military initiative, in which
OVS staff collaborate with the military installations in the District to train the
service members on bystander intervention and services available, and are
launching an awareness initiative in six additional languages to reach all of the
District’s residents. Finally, OVS has worked extensively to create an application
and website to promote the District’s services.

As a recipient of Title II Formula Grant funding from OJJDP, and per the OJJPDP
Act the Justice Grants Administration appoints the Juvenile Justice Specialist to
staff the Juvenile Justice Advisory Group (JJAG). This group consists of
community members, nonprofit organizations and District government
personnel. This committee is responsible for publishing an annual report on how
the District of Columbia curbs juvenile delinquency. This report can be viewed
on the JGA website. In addition, the Chair serves on the Boards of Commissions
which they publish all meetings, meeting minutes, and agendas on the BOC
website.
2)

Public Engagement and Participation
Describe the steps your agency has taken or plans to take to enhance or expand
opportunities for the public to participate in agency decision-making. Please include
a description of:

Both JGA and OVS actively solicit public participation in agency decision making. JGA staff
members participate on several task forces and committees with community member
representation. The Program Director for Stand Up, Show Out participates in the Truancy Task
Force. This is an interagency and community taskforce that meets bimonthly to discuss issues
surrounding truancy in the District and how to respond to the Attendance Accountably Act. In
the context of Truancy, the Program Director meets monthly with community based
organizations, DC Public and Charter Schools providing feedback on successes and
troubleshoots challenges that will enhance services.

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The public is made aware of and invited to join the JJAG by contacting the Juvenile Justice
Specialist at JGA. Once the Juvenile Justice Specialist is informed of a community members
interest in JJAG the application is forwarded to DC Boards and Commissions for final approval.
The Juvenile Justice Advisory Group Collaborates with other District of Columbia agencies
during the JJAG meetings. These members provide support in the completion of the federal
application, grant reviews, technical assistance and training and conferences.
OVS, as well, staffs a variety of Task Forces, Committees, and Teams that are comprised of both
agency-based and community-based stakeholders, all of whom are afforded equal access and
voice in the decisions that OVS makes. Examples of these initiatives are the DC Sexual Assault
Response Team (staffed by OVS but comprised of representatives from the Metropolitan Police
Department, the United States Park Police, Department of Forensic Sciences, Office of the Chief
Medical Examiner, US Attorneys’ Office, and six community-based non-profit agencies), the
Victim Assistance Network (staffed by OVS, but a collaborative of all victim services providers
in the District), the Sexual Assault Victims’ Rights Amendment Task Force (staffed by OVS,
and created by legislation), and several project specific work groups.
The public is always welcome to submit feedback via the JGA and OVS websites. On the
website the public can submit emails with their feedback.

3)

Collaboration
Describe the steps your agency has taken or plans to take to enhance or expand
cooperation among departments, other governmental agencies, the public, and nonprofit and private entities in fulfilling its obligations. Please include a description of:

The Office of Justice Grants Administration and Victim Services actively seeks to enhance or
expand cooperation among agency-based and community-based stakeholders by funding critical
projects such as reentry, mental health, truancy, juvenile delinquency, on-call and emergency
victim advocacy services, trauma-informed mental health care, domestic violence housing
programs, and medical forensic services for victims of sexual assault and intimate partner
violence. In FY 14, JGA funded a workforce development position detailed to the Office of
Returning Citizen Affairs. This position is responsible for working with individual residents to
promote education and employment as a critical component of a returning citizen’s
independence. Using a client-centered approach, the Workforce Development Specialist strives
to dramatically increase the number of clients who retain vocational training resources and
competitive employment. Additionally, OVS provided partial funding to the Office of the Chief
Medical Examiner for a Chief Toxicologist to test non-report toxicology samples from sexual
assault victims, funding to the Department of Forensic Sciences to provide full funding for two
forensic scientists that will enable DFS to work more efficiently in processing sexual assault
evidence, funding for attorneys in the Office of the Attorney General to assist victims of stalking,
sexual assault, and domestic violence that receive civil protective orders, and funding to the DC
Superior Court to partially fund a second domestic violence intake center.

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In FY15, JGA will fund the Department of Behavioral Health to provide two forensic case
managers inside of the Correction Treatment facility. These workers will work alongside
Department of Corrections Staff to help identify inmates with co-occurring disorders such as
mental health and substance use. The purpose of this project is to ensure inmates receive the
treatment they need in order to decrease recidivism. OVS will continue the existing
collaborations with OCME, DFS, MPD, OAG, and DCSC, while seeking new collaborations
across agency and community-based stakeholders.

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