• FY09 Recovery Act – Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Victim Assistance – Formula Grant Program
• FY09 Recovery Act – Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Victim Compensation – Formula Grant Program

Grant Project Title:                Connecticut – Victim Assistance - PDF  AWARDED

Amount Requested:                    $732,000
Grant Project Proposal: To seek funds to be made to domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, child abuse programs, and victim service projects in community-based agencies. These programs provide services that include: 

• Crisis intervention.
• Counseling.
• Emergency shelter.
• Criminal justice advocacy.
• Emergency transportation.  

States and territories are required to give priority to programs serving victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. Additional funds must be set aside for underserved victims, such as survivors of homicide victims and victims of drunk drivers.

The funds are provided to eligible crime victims assistance programs operating in public and non-profit agencies throughout the state of Connecticut.

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Grant Project Title:                Connecticut – Victim Compensation - PDF AWARDED

Amount Requested:                     $285,841
Grant Project Proposal: The Victim Compensation Program (VCP) can help pay unreimbursed expenses that result when a violent crime occurs. Victims of crime who have been injured or have been threatened with injury may be eligible for help from the VCP.

If a person is disabled as a result of the crime, the VCP also assists with wage loss, dependent support loss, job retraining and home or vehicle modifications. This program will reimburse victims for crime-related expenses such as: 

• Medical costs.
• Mental health counseling.
• Funeral and burial costs.
• Lost wages or loss of support.  

Compensation is paid only when other financial resources, such as private insurance and offender restitution, do not cover the loss. Some expenses are not covered by the compensation program, including theft, damage, and property loss. State compensation programs are not required to compensate victims in terrorism cases.

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The following grant applications were not awarded:

Grant Project Title:                Enhancing Sex Offender Probation Supervision Services - PDF
                                                             NOT AWARDED
Amount Requested:               $9,952,521
Grant Project Proposal:         This project will make Connecticut neighborhoods and communities safer by enhancing the Court Support Services Division’s (CSSD) Sex Offender Probation Supervision Services by hiring 27 adult probation officers and 5 sexual assault victim advocates. Goals include the following: 

• To lower sex offender caseloads of 45 offenders per officer to 30 offenders per officer.
• To implement a statewide prison re-entry risk assessment B evaluation program.
• To increase neighborhood / community presence.
• To increase collaboration with key state agencies and community treatment providers.

Twenty-seven probation officers will be employed and assigned to designated field locations and five Victim Advocates will be hired - 1 per Adult Services Region. Policies and procedures will be enhanced to include statewide prisoner re-entry and collaboration with other state and private agencies. 

Twenty-seven new sex offender officers and 5 victim advocates will allow CSSD to reduce current caseload size by 33%, allowing CSSD to expand the number of geographic/neighborhood based sex offender caseload assignments, provide more contact with offenders, increase community presence, collaborate with other agencies and neighborhood/community organizations, increase public education and information, and provide resources to comply with the Adam Walsh Act.

Grant Project Title:                Hartford Community Court Enhancement - PDF
                                                             NOT AWARDED
Amount Requested:               $1,300,000
Grant Project Proposal:         This project will enhance services currently provided by the Hartford Community Court by increasing the number of community service work crews by two, adding a mediation/restitution specialist to the current mediation program, adding a social services caseworker to the current social services program, and providing funding for the Women's Holistic Health Program. 

This project seeks to create jobs and ensure the provision of essential services by providing the court with the staffing and resources necessary to expand and continue its operation, specifically by providing:  

• Staffing and resources for two additional community service work crews;
• Staffing for client referrals to social services;
• Staffing to offer mediation and restitution services, and;
• Staffing and resources to operate the Women’s Holistic Health Program.

Grant Project Title:                Victim Services Advocate Program Enhancement - PDF
                                                             NOT AWARDED
Amount Requested:               $3,242,640
Grant Project Proposal:         The initial focus of this project will be to hire, train and deploy eighteen new Victim Services Advocates to the courts. The Office of Victim Services will follow standard Judicial Branch hiring policies and procedures in regard to these positions until they are filled successfully. 

The courts that have been selected to receive new staff have been identified by the Office of Victim Services as areas having demonstrated the greatest level of need. These include the criminal court in Hartford, where a second, full-time Victim Services Advocate is needed due to the high volume of serious assault, sexual assault, and homicide cases; criminal courts in Meriden, Norwalk, Stamford, Danbury, Middlesex, Danielson, Bantam, Rockville, and Milford, which at present are minimally covered by Victim Services Advocates who are shared with other courts; and, to Juvenile Matters courts that presently have no Victim Service Advocates or victim services available including courts in Bridgeport, New Britain, Waterford, Middletown, Rockville, Willimantic, Danbury, and Torrington. The project creates jobs and promotes economic recovery and helps ensure that essential services are provided to victims of crime.

Grant Project Title:                Vocational Mentoring Program for Youth - PDF
                                                              NOT AWARDED
Amount Requested:               $859,200
Grant Project Proposal:         The Vocational Mentoring Program for Youth (VMPY) will embed mentoring and vocational programming into an existing community-based program that currently offers an array of effective treatment interventions. The design includes an evaluation that will fill gaps in the research on the effectiveness of mentoring with court-involved youth. VMPY integrates key mentoring and best practice principles: 

• Targets criminogenic risk factors.
• Mentoring occurs in conjunction with evidence-based programs.
• Duration of mentoring is at least one year.
• One-on-one mentoring is model design.
• Provides screening, training and support of mentors.

The program's goals are to reduce juvenile delinquency and gang participation, improve academic performance, and reduce school drop-out rates by enhancing the capacity of  local efforts to develop or expand community collaboratives and partnerships, integrate best practices into mentoring service models, develop strategies to recruit and maintain mentors serving hard-to-reach populations, while ensuring the program's financial sustainability.

Grant Project Title:                Automated Victim Restitution Services Program - PDF
                                                             NOT AWARDED
Amount Requested:               $1,604,144
Grant Project Proposal:         To develop a new victim restitution system that is administered by the Court Support Services Division (CSSD).  Victims of crime will benefit from improved communication from CSSD and a more efficient collection of restitution due to them. The proposed system would produce monthly notification to supervision officers about offenders who have a restitution balance due and are within 90 days of the probation end date. Emphasis can be placed on collection of all restitution due prior to the end of the probation period, resulting in higher restitution collections and fewer violations of probation.

Goals:

• To improve technology.
• To increase restitution services to victims of crime.
• To increase collection and distribution of restitution funds. 

Currently the Judicial Branch is re-writing CSSD’s case management information system. It is expected to have a juvenile probation component in production by fall of 2009 and an adult probation component by spring 2010. The timing in integrating this new victim restitution system into the new case management information system is key to a seamless system.

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