SMART FY 18 Fellowship: Strengthening Sexual Violence Victim Service Program

on enhancing SORNA jurisdictions’ registration and notification programs by improving their responses to the victims of sexual violence and exploitation. The term “sexual violence and exploitation” is broadly defined for this solicitation and work and includes the following: sexual assault, sex trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, internet-facilitated sexual offenses and child sexual abuse. The fellowship will focus on capacity building in the provision of services to victims of sexual violence and the development of best practices in the field of sexual violence prevention, education and service delivery. This fellowship will also assist the SMART Office in working with those jurisdictions that have not yet substantially implemented SORNA to advance their registration and notification programs and adopt the outstanding requirements of SORNA to enhance the information sharing regarding registered sex offenders and better inform victims.Although states and other jurisdictions have worked for years developing sex offender registration and community notification systems, including SORNA, efforts to develop systems for informing victims, families, organizations and communities about how to use this information have been limited. There are currently a number of thoughtful policies and responses in place across the country that focus on notifying victims and communities not only about registered sex offenders, but also about how best to protect themselves, their families and communities from sexual violence. This fellowship would collect and summarize these practices and highlight the most promising approaches for the SMART Office to share with SORNA jurisdictions. Goals, Objectives, and DeliverablesGoal: The goal of the SMART Office’s Strengthening Responses to Victims of Sexual Violence Fellowship is to enhance SORNA jurisdictions program responses to victims of sexual violence and prevention. The fellow will identify programs and policies focused on addressing the needs of victims of sexual violence to enhance coordination with other law enforcement and criminal justice programming—in particular, registration and notification—and the U.S. Department of Justice. This work will require the ability to leverage and access victim services groups and organizations, and to assist jurisdictions with SORNA-related issues, including adopting effective victim and community notification strategies.Objectives:• To support SMART Office efforts in the area of victim-centered programming in sex offender registration and notification• To enhance sexual violence prevention and education efforts across the SORNA jurisdictionsActivities: • Assist OJP/SMART staff with identifying effective programs and policies for victims of sexual violence.• Develop reports, presentations and documents upon request of the SMART Office to support efforts to raise awareness of sexual victimization and the importance of incorporating victims’ perspectives in sex offender registration and notification practices, policies and research.• Make recommendations and suggestions to improve responses to victims of sexual violence through program development, education and best practices incorporation.• Identify and assess education curricula for current and future law enforcement professionals about preventing sexual violence and sex offending, victim service delivery strategies, and developing recommendations for promoting promising practices in the field.• Inventory policies and responses in place across the country that focus on notifying victims and communities not only about registered sex offenders, but also about how best to protect themselves, their families and communities from sexual violence. • Collect and summarize these notification policies and highlight the most promising approaches for the SMART Office to share with SORNA jurisdictions.• Participate in professional development and training activities in consultation with SMART staff to enhance expertise related to victim services and sex offender registration and notification.• At the request of SMART staff, conduct site visits to assist in the assessment or development of projects or initiatives that are implementing promising sexual violence prevention practices and sexual violence victim services.• Work with SMART staff to identify jurisdictions’ needs related to SORNA implementation and develop solutions that incorporate effective responses to victims of sexual violence.• Participate in internal and external stakeholder meetings, forums and conferences, providing information on OJP/SMART Office efforts to address issues specific to victims of sexual violence, sexual violence prevention and the management of the perpetrators of sexual violence in the community.• Travel to execute the above activities.Deliverables:• Draft and present an assessment of victim services programming in the area of sex offender registration and notification, and related law enforcement activities.• Draft and present an assessment of education curricula focused on preventing sexual violence and sex offending, victim service delivery strategies, and recommendation for promoting promising practices to law enforcement.• Draft and present a summary of notification policies, highlighting promising approaches.• Provide reports, articles, presentations and talking points related to the activities outlined above and the programmatic administration of discretionary programs administered by the SMART Office.• Make recommendations and suggestions as to how SMART can broaden its scope in the area of victim services programming and sexual violence prevention.• Submit monthly/quarterly reports to SMART management and senior policy advisors that detail activities and recommendations for SMART input into the design and execution of SMART forums, conferences, and newsletters on issues particular to the victims of sexual violence.• Submit final report to OJP/SMART on the fellowship project, including accomplishments, challenges and recommendations for improving the fellowship program.The Goals, Objectives and Deliverables are directly related to the performance measures that demonstrate the results of the work completed, as discussed in Section D. Application and Submission Information, under Program Narrative.