Office on Violence Against Women Grant FAQs

The mission of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women’s (OVW) Campus Program is to develop effective, culturally-relevant, campus-based programming that builds strong campus and community partnerships to strengthen services for victims/survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking and promote multifaceted prevention strategies within the campus community.

The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Campus Grant Program operates on three-year funding cycles. Keene State College’s current award began on October 1, 2023, and is scheduled to conclude on September 30, 2026.

The FY 2026 OVW Campus Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) has not yet opened. To support continuity of programming during the transition between grant cycles, Keene State has requested a project period extension through the end of the 2026–2027 academic year. Once the FY 2026 funding opportunity is released, the College intends to apply for a new three-year OVW Campus Grant to continue and expand its sexual violence prevention initiatives through September 30, 2029.

• Creating and sustaining a CCRT of on- and off-campus partners to facilitate the grant’s strategic plan, and build a sustainable mechanism to address sexual and interpersonal violence prevention and response on campus;
• Launch of the NASPA Certified Peer Educator Program in Fall 2025;
• Creating a diverse portfolio of prevention programming that addresses topics including consent, healthy relationships, stalking, bystander intervention, trauma, interpersonal safety, digital safety, drug-facilitated sexual assault, and violence within LGBTQ+ relationships;
• Expanding student engagement through campus-wide initiatives that have become KSC tradition such as Turn Campus Teal: The Tea light Campaign, Start by Believing Campaign, Denim Day, the What Were You Were Exhibit;
• Collaborating with a 300-level Sociology class to conduct a review of Keene State’s Sexual Misconduct Policy;
• Partnering with Vector Solutions to provide all incoming students access to the online sexual violence prevention module, RespectEdu;
• Undergoing a collaborative process with staff, faculty, and students to select a bystander intervention program for campus, Bringing in the Bystander;
• Creating and maintaining the Sexual Violence Prevention Virtual Resource Center; and
• Production of multimedia resources such as student-focused videos to expand access to information

Grant projects in progress include:

• Selecting and/or designing assessment and auditing tools and protocols to use in each area of our Strategic Plan;
• Creating a task group to review the current student satisfaction surveys and other data collection tools used to measure the effectiveness of workshops;
• Collaborating with The Art & Design Department to create a Photovoice project or campaign that can be an annual campaign;
• Creating a homegrown Bystander Intervention program prior to September 2027;
• Developing an annual training on sexual violence prevention and response with Campus Safety, and conducting a Campus Safety policy review; and
• Collaborating with internal campus partners to expand our capacity to offer restorative justice options for reports involving dating/domestic violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking

If awarded an another grant cycle of the OVW Campus Grant Program, Keene State will be considered an continuation grantee. A new Strategic Plan will be required, identifying continued and new goals for each of the 5 focus areas (Coordinated Community Response, Comprehensive Prevention, Student Conduct, Law Enforcement, and Victim/Survivor Services). Potential priorities of the new grant cycle are:

• Continued funding for a full-time Project Director and Sexual Violence Prevention Specialist dedicated to big picture planning and implementation of sexual violence prevention and response;
• Expansion of the Certified Peer Educator Program;
• Explore whether it would be feasible to create a homegrown theatrical program to replace the C-Word;
• Earmark more funding to support and sustain the student worker positions and offer stipends to the certified peer educators; and
• Explore funding an on-campus confidential advocate for students

• Progress and momentum will slow significantly, and the chance of long-term success and sustainability will greatly decrease;
• Loss of full-time staff position dedicated to sexual violence prevention and response;
• Loss of guidance and momentum for continuation of the Coordinated Community Response Team;
• Loss of cross-campus collaboration on sexual violence prevention and response trainings, programs, and resources available to the campus community;
• Loss of dedicated resources (student workers, funding, capacity, commitment) to sexual violence prevention and response; and
• Bringing in The Bystander program implementation will be halted