VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative

In December 1999, OVW contracted with the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service’s Institute for Child and Family Policy (hereinafter the Muskie School) to conduct the “Snapshot Project”. The project gathered statistics and vignettes from states, tribes, and local communities, highlighting changes that occurred as a result of funding through the VAWA. The state profiles describe how this array of funding affects community efforts to improve the response to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

The profiles were not envisioned as a formal evaluation, but as an insight into various communities’ approaches to and successes in meeting the goals of the Violence Against Women Act. This project was designed to be descriptive, to take data and stories from individuals, and to capture these within a standard profile. Staff and consultants initially conducted site visits to 24 states in 2000 and 2001. Program staff and community groups exchanged information and stories about how these programs had changed the way they are doing their jobs and how their communities have changed how they are addressing violence against women. The site visits allow for grantees to document both quantitative and qualitative data through focus group and individual site visit formats.

Continuing with the model of the Snapshot Project, the VAWA Measuring Effectiveness Initiative will use these site visits to enrich the information provided by grantees on the effectiveness of VAWA funds across the country. Muskie staff visited six states in 2002 and will visit 12 states/territories in 2003, and 12 more states/territories in 2004. The states visited in 2002 were: Alaska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington.

Site visits generally last for three to four days. Due to this limited time, the project identifies three or four communities and a variety of projects determined through speaking with STOP grant program administrators, contacting statewide commissions, sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions, and feedback from VAWO grant program managers and others identified by advisors as conducting promising programs. The site visits are set up by the project team with assistance from contacts in the states. The visits consist of large group meetings of multiple grantees as well as interviews at individual programs. The interviews and meetings are either conducted by a national consultant and a Muskie team member, or two team members.

More complete data to supplement information gathered in site visits will come through the data collection instruments developed by the project. Forms are distributed through STOP administrators to all STOP grantees who are unable to participate in the group meetings and interviews, ensuring that all grantees have the opportunity to share their successes with the project.

Group meetings include a series of questions designed to gather general information and specific data documenting differences in programs before and after VAWA funding, and the effectiveness of programs who are utilizing VAWA funds. Group meeting participants are asked to discuss:

Grantees are asked to bring baseline data, data collected throughout the course of the project, policies and protocols, flyers, brochures, training curricula, and any other materials that will document their effectiveness.

Upon completion of the site visits, the consultants and team members develop a three to four page state profile for each state visited. The profiles consist of reported findings, quotes from stakeholders, overviews of sites visited, and remaining areas of need. The profiles are designed to be descriptive, to take data and stories from individuals, and to provide an effective tool for stakeholders, communities, and legislators to gain insight into effective approaches being utilized in communities across the country.

To View State Profiles:
Select a Site visit from the list below and click "Go" to view the state profile in Acrobat (PDF) format. As some states have been visited more than once, we have included the year of the visit following the state name.

You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer in order to view the PDF of the State Profiles. You can download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader by clicking on the following icon or link: