Director Rosie Hidalgo Delivers Remarks at the National Sexual Assault Conference

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Good morning! I want to thank VALOR US and Respect Together for hosting this year's National Sexual Assault Conference and for the opportunity to provide remarks today. I also want to extend my deep gratitude to each of you here for your hard work, dedication and service, and for coming together to see how we can continue to learn from one another.

I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as the Director of the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and to collaborate with so many dedicated individuals and organizations committed to furthering our nation's vision for ending sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking and other related forms of gender-based violence.

As you know, OVW is tasked with overseeing the implementation of key parts of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), landmark bipartisan legislation first enacted by Congress in 1994. The hallmark of VAWA is a coordinated community response, which seeks to bring together agencies and community partners across many disciplines to address the needs of survivors. Because survivors' lives do not exist in silos, it is critical that no individual or entity operates in a silo and that we all work together to prevent and address gender-based violence.

Sexual assault and harassment happen wherever life occurs - at home, at work, at school, in public spaces and online - and we know it has profound physical, emotional and spiritual impacts on survivors. That is why we have made strengthening efforts to prevent and end sexual assault a key priority that cuts across all of our grant programs. In the coming weeks, OVW will be announcing awards to support services for survivors of sexual assault across many different VAWA grant programs.

In particular, OVW is pleased to announce that today we will be making 56 grant awards that total over $52 million under our Sexual Assault Services Formula Grant Program - critical funding that helps every state and territory to support rape crisis centers and provide sexual assault services for tens of thousands of survivors of sexual violence. In comparison, in 2020, the Sexual Assault Services Formula Grant awarded $25 million in grant awards. Thanks to your work and advocacy, the appropriations level for SASP has doubled over the past few years, significantly increasing the resources that OVW has available to address the needs of sexual assault survivors in our communities. In the next month, we will also be announcing awards for the Tribal Sexual Assault Services Program, Sexual Assault Services Culturally Specific Program and additional research and technical assistance grants that will further bolster these vital services for sexual assault survivors.

I am also excited to announce that this week OVW is launching Supporting Our Circle: The National Tribal Clearinghouse on Sexual Assault, in partnership with the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition and the International Association of Forensic Nurses. The Clearinghouse is a comprehensive resource hub that empowers Tribal communities - including Alaska Native communities - with essential resources and education dedicated to improving the response to sexual assault. Starting tomorrow, you may access culturally appropriate training and technical assistance, resources for victim safety, support for accountability and more at SupportingOurCircle.org.

Additionally, earlier this year, OVW launched a new grant program that was authorized in VAWA 2022, the Demonstration Program on Trauma-informed, Victim-Centered Training for Law Enforcement on Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking Program, also known as the Abby Honold program. Abby was a college student who was sexually assaulted at the University of Minnesota. Her case was initially mishandled by law enforcement, and she encountered numerous barriers while seeking services from the various systems she approached after reporting her assault. Despite this, she continues to be a tireless advocate for survivors like herself, working to change how such cases are handled, and advocated for the inclusion of this new grant program in VAWA. The Abby Honold grant program will fund training for law enforcement and prosecutors on trauma-informed, survivor-centered responses to sexual assault and domestic violence to improve their response to survivors like Abby.

And just this May, OVW released A Framework for Prosecutors to Strengthen Our National Response to Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Involving Adult Victims. This new guide for prosecutors, which was developed with the input of over 120 prosecutors and advocates, highlights five key principles that, if implemented, will lead to better outcomes for victims, safer communities and greater accountability for perpetrators of gender-based violence. These principles are designed to address myths and misconceptions that can lead to the declination of meritorious allegations: myths about how sexual assault and domestic violence are committed and reported, as well as misconceptions about victim behavior, victim accounts and the evidence required to prove those accounts.

At OVW, advancing equity is viewed as an essential component of ending sexual assault and other forms of gender-based violence by improving outreach, services, civil and criminal justice responses, prevention and support for survivors from historically marginalized and underserved communities, particularly those facing disproportionate rates or impacts of violence and multiple barriers to services, justice and safety.

This includes addressing the needs of survivors living in correctional and detention facilities, whom we know struggle to access services and support.

As a result, OVW is funding national training and technical assistance to support incarcerated survivors. This includes supporting Just Detention International's Rooted in Resilience Program to expand advocacy services for currently and formerly incarcerated sexual abuse survivors. The project aims to build the capacity of sexual assault service organizations and other survivor service organizations to create sustainable, trauma-informed art workshops across various detention and reentry facilities nationwide.

The Justice Department has also prioritized the work to prevent and address sexual abuse in correctional and detention settings.

In November of last year, the Justice Department held a convening to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which was established with the goal of eradicating sexual assault at federal, state and local correctional facilities, nationwide. At the convening, the Deputy Attorney General noted that dedicated staff in federal, state and local facilities and agencies, such as PREA coordinators and PREA compliance managers, are leading efforts to prevent, detect and respond to sexual abuse and sexual harassment behind prison walls. Nonetheless, she noted that there is far more work to be done.

In 2021, the Deputy Attorney General assigned her principal deputy to form and lead a working group of experts from across the Justice Department to examine from every angle the problem of sexual abuse by Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) personnel, and to identify recommendations for how we can root out sexual assault from the FBOP and ensure the safety of those in the department's care.

The Working Group issued a comprehensive report in November 2022 with over 50 reform recommendations for preventing, investigating, and prosecuting sexual assault in our federal prisons. As a continuation of that work, they launched teams of experts from across the Justice Department to conduct what was termed Sexual Assault Facility Enhancement & Review - or SAFER - visits to women's facilities in each of the Bureau of Prisons' six regions.

Among those recommendations, the report highlighted the need to conduct comprehensive training related to trauma-informed investigations. As a result, OVW will be providing a three-day training - in partnership with Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Bureau of Prisons, FBI, Office of the Inspector General, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys - focused on effectively investigating and prosecuting allegations of staff-committed sexual abuse in FBOP.

Additionally, I want to share some highlights from the 2022 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which included several new federal criminal statutes that will strengthen our ability to address sexual misconduct, not only by federal corrections officers, but also by other corrections officers, law enforcement and government actors at all levels: state, local and Tribal.

We have long had a statute that made it a crime for an FBOP employee to engage in sexual conduct with those in those in federal prisons - where consent is not recognized as a defense. But that statute was limited to misconduct occurring within the four walls of the prison; it did not reach other federal law enforcement officers, including those who transport individuals to and from court and prison; those who supervise individuals on probation; and those who make arrests. Congress recognized this gap and "closed the consent loophole" by enacting a statute that expanded jurisdiction beyond the walls of federal prison. The new statute automatically makes it a crime when any federal law enforcement officer knowingly engages in sexual acts with individuals in their custody, in detention, or under supervision.

We are also launching this year other new grant programs that were established in VAWA 2022 to support additional pathways to safety, healing and justice. Earlier this year we awarded three grants that support national training and technical assistance for restorative practices, including one to VALOR US, and we anticipate selecting up to 15 sites as part of a new restorative practices pilot program, which will be announced next month. This initiative also includes robust funding for evaluation so that we can ensure that these programs are trauma-informed and focused on victim safety and continue to learn how to meet the needs of survivors.

As we prepare to commemorate the 30th anniversary of VAWA this September, it is an opportunity for all of us to collectively reflect on the substantial progress that has been made - but also how much further we have to go. There have been significant paradigm shifts in society's perceptions of gender-based violence and our responses to it, but many survivors still encounter significant challenges navigating complex systems and accessing critical resources and support.

And as we move forward, we must continue to amplify the voices and leadership of survivors - work you all do every day - to lift these issues out of the shadows, support survivors, and hold offenders accountable. Together, we can build a world where sexual assault and other forms of gender-based violence are not tolerated and healing and justice are accessible to all. Thank you.

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