Important VOCA Information

February 22, 2024

Dear VOCA Subgrantees,

For those of you that do not know me, I’d like to briefly introduce myself.  My name is Moriah Pease.  I have been with UOVC for the past seven years and I have been overseeing the STOP VAWA Program.  I am excited for the opportunity to now dive into VOCA as well.  I look forward to getting to know each of you better.  Please feel free to send this email to anyone in your agency who is affiliated with the grant, that may not be on this VOCA emailing list.  *This VOCA listserv should include grant POC and FPOC for each VOCA funded agency.  

The purpose of my email is to provide some important VOCA related information, outlined below. 

1. The updated PMT tool and clarifying information regarding proration

Attached is the updated tool and a draft of instruction.  The proration tool has been updated so that if a 1 is put into the following categories, it will round up to 1, regardless of the proration percent:

  • Total Individuals who received services
  • Total number of anonymous contacts
  • Total new individuals who received services
  • All Demographic
  • All Types of Victimizations
  • Special Classifications of Individuals
  • Number of individuals who received services in each service category

This adjustment was made so that any subgrantees who provide services to 1 victim at a proration lower than 50% will still be able to report on services provided. Additionally, this will ensure that victims from our underserved demographics, special classifications, and less common victimizations are still accounted for. This adjustment will make it more common for the “SUM” of categories to not align with the number of new individuals receiving services, which makes the red boxes appear. Due to this issue please provide a summary in the “Notes” box for reductions that were made. For example: if the demographic section “SUM” box is red you can reduce the number of White individuals served when reporting in the PMT system and make a note that it was reduced. We will be updating the proration video this week and will post it to our website.  

2. Reporting victims as “NEW” in the PMT

After much internal discussion and verification from OVC, an organization should report all individuals as new victims during the “first reporting period of the subaward” (July-Sept), NOT the federal fiscal year (Oct-Dec).  Here is the updated version currently posted on the OVC website which clarifies: VICTIM ASSISTANCE FORMULA GRANT PROGRAM PERFORMANCE MEASURES SUBGRANTEE DATA REPORT (ojp.gov)

We recognize this is different from the direction UOVC has given previously.  We appreciate your patience and understanding.  *You do NOT need to go back and correct previously reported data.  However, you should keep this in mind and be sure to report accurately in year 2.  

3. Grant amendment restrictions in Quarter 4 (April-June, 2024)

As we get closer to the 4th quarter of this grant cycle, we would like to provide some reminders on budget guidelines.  As you are aware, in recent years we have tightened restrictions on moving funding between categories in an effort to best utilize limited funding.  In addition, there is no movement of funding within the budget during the 4th quarter (April-June).  This guidance was provided by Dale Oyler on April 25, 2023.  These same restrictions remain in place for the remainder of this grant cycle.  We understand these restrictions can be a source of frustration, however, UOVC will continue to implement these guidelines in an effort to responsibly manage limited VOCA funding.  *You are still able to request amendments that are pertaining to personnel/fringe name changes during the 4th quarter.  If you believe you have extenuating circumstances and would like your grant analyst to consider an amendment request outside of these guidelines, please reach out to your grant analyst.  Please note, any deviations or exceptions to these practices will be at the sole discretion of UOVC staff.  

Please do not hesitate to reach out to your grant analyst with any questions or concerns you may have.  

Thank you,
Moriah Pease
Grants Program Manager
Utah Office for Victims of Crime