Requirements for all grant-funded victim/witness programs:

  • Separate Waiting Areas Available: Indicate if there are designated places for victims to wait during court proceedings to afford them privacy and protection from intimidation (this includes a witness room, the victim/witness program office, etc.).
  • Directory of Services Developed: indicate whether the victim/witness program has a compilation of social services and community resources available to crime victims. The directory must be current (updated within the last two years). 

  • Continuance Notification Process Established: indicate whether the program maintains a system that is used to assist victims in minimizing unnecessary trips to court (e.g., a 24-hour docket line, procedures that encourage victims to call the day before trial, or criminal justice professionals who notify victims personally). 

    Note: If "no" is provided as a response to any of the above in the Victims Services Data Collection System (VSDCS), describe in the narrative, under “Plans For Next Quarter,” the steps the program will take to meet the requirement.

 

Before the generation of the progress report in VSDCS, each program must enter and save responses to the following:

  • Client Feedback Surveys: Provide the number of formal client surveys distributed and returned.
  • Percentage of Grant-Funded Staff Hours Devoted to the Provision of Services to Witnesses: The Program has spent 5% or less of grant-funded staff hours on the provision of services to witnesses.  Note: If "no" is provided as a response to any of the above in VSDCS, describe in the narrative, under “Plans For Next Quarter,” the steps the program will take to meet the requirement.
  • Volunteer Hours:  Indicate the number of hours contributed to the provisioning of services to victims by volunteers with a numerical value. Record the number of hours contributed by volunteers during each quarter to the provision of services to victims. Volunteers can include students and unpaid interns. All grant-funded victim/witness programs are required to have a volunteer hour during the fiscal year. 

 

Number of Hours Contributed to Campus Sexual Assault Charged Offenses: 

The VSDCS automatically generates the total number of hours a program enters into VSDCS for services to Adult and Child Campus Sexual Assault Services on the quarterly progress report. The types of victimization, Adult or Child Campus Sexual Assault, must be selected and minutes entered in VSDCS to generate the number of hours of service provision on the progress report. Manual entry of the number of hours of services to Campus Sexual Assault Victims is not available in VSDCS.  

              Note: Campus Sexual Assault services can include primary, secondary, college, or university students, faculty, and or staff.