Supporting Statement - FAV survey - 12.15.25

Supporting Statement for Paperwork Reduction Act Submission

Optional Flexible Financial Assistance for Victims Program (FAV Program) Survey

A. Justification

1. Statutorily Mandated Need for Information

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) administers grant programs authorized by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and subsequent legislation and provides national leadership on issues of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. OVW grants support coordinated community responses that provide services to victims and hold offenders accountable.

The Financial Assistance for Victims Program (FAV Program) helps victim service providers, Tribal governments, and Tribal organizations with providing flexible financial assistance to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, alongside other victim services. Flexible financial assistance is intended to support survivors in achieving safety, stability, and healing by paying for necessities that are not easily met by traditional service providers, with the flexibility to meet self-identified needs quickly. Congress has appropriated funds, annually, for this purpose since 2023.¹ These appropriations provide for an evaluation of the effectiveness of funded projects. OVW has chosen to conduct a formative evaluation, in lieu of a systematic impact or outcome evaluation, to limit costs and ensure that most of the appropriated funds are used for implementation and disbursements to victims.

2. Use of Information

OVW will use data from this information collection in multiple ways. This survey will allow OVW to perform a formative evaluation of the FAV program. More specifically, this survey will help OVW understand how the FAV program operates from the victim’s perspective. The questions are designed to assess the impact of flexible financial assistance on victims. For example, this survey will include questions about the types of costs that victims incur from their experiences with violence and the types and format of distribution of flexible financial assistance needed. The responses will be used to evaluate any challenges or gaps in the implementation of this new program and identify ongoing needs.

These initial insights will be essential in determining whether this program meets the needs of victims or whether there is a need to change the implementation and operation of the FAV program in the future. This information will also be used to respond to inquiries from Congress, DOJ, the Office of the Inspector General, the public, and others about how flexible financial assistance grant funds are used. Additionally, OVW will use these survey results to monitor how the FAV program operates and to ensure that the goals and objectives of the grantees are met.

OVW will continue to use other techniques to assess the performance of OVW grantees. These may include grantee site visits, grant-funded training and technical assistance events, staff review of products prior to dissemination, and ongoing consultation with OVW staff.

3. Use of Information Technology

This survey will be conducted using Qualtrics, a survey software platform that has been approved for use within the DOJ. The electronic, user-friendly format will reduce the amount of time spent navigating the survey and increase operational efficiency.

4. Duplication of Information Request

There is no other mechanism by which OVW collects this type of information about grant-funded activities included in this information collection. Performance reporting information does not track individual experiences and does not provide sufficient detail on the types of financial assistance provided via the FAV program.

Furthermore, this survey provides unique information that is not available elsewhere. Research and programmatic information on the implementation of financial assistance programs, specifically for victims of violence, is limited.

5. Impact on Small Entities

There is minimal impact on small entities because this is an anonymous optional survey completed by individual victims. Small entities may choose to make this survey available for participants in the FAV Program, which might require minimal printing and staff time.

6. Consequences to Federal Programs or Policy

The FAV Program provides flexible financial assistance directly to victims. This approach is unique and requires a customized monitoring strategy focused on feedback from the victims themselves. This information collection will allow OVW to use victim feedback to assess whether this program improves safety, stability and healing for victims, by paying for self-identified needs. If OVW is unable to collect this information, it will be difficult to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the FAV program, identify unmet needs of victims, and identify an unallowable use of funds.

7. Special Circumstances

To limit the length of the survey, OVW does not ask any demographic questions and participation is anonymous. Given the limited scope of the data, OVW believes that adding additional categories would burden grantees, and ultimately victims, and would not deepen or enhance the utility of the data.

8. Federal Register Publication

OVW has consulted with people outside the agency, including all organizations who are funded through the FAV program, who have advised that the collection of such data is not burdensome. OVW hosted virtual office hours and conducted a presentation about this survey at the New Grantee Orientation. OVW has solicited public comment on this form in accordance with the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. A 60-day notice was published in the Federal Register on September 17, 2025 (Federal Register, Volume 90, page 44845) and a 30-day notice was published in the Federal Register on November 26, 2025 (Federal Register, Volume 90, page 54386). OVW did not receive any public comments.  

9. Payment or Gift to Respondents

There will be no payment or gifts to respondents.  

10. Confidentiality

This survey will not collect personal information about victims that could identify them as specific individuals. The survey does not collect any identifiable information about the individual who submits the survey, including name, email, phone number, and address. There is no guarantee of confidentiality.  

11. Specific Questions

The survey will not contain any questions of a personal, sensitive nature such as sexual behavior and attitudes, religious beliefs, and other matters that are commonly considered private. The questions selected for this survey are consistent with extensive literature on how to evaluate such programs.²

12. Hour Burden of the Collection of Information

This collection is not overly burdensome. The total annual hour burden to complete the information collection forms is 433 hours. OVW anticipates that 13 grantees will administer this survey to an annual average of 200 people who receive flexible financial assistance. Two hundred participants each at 13 sites total 2,600 people completing the survey each year. If it takes 10 minutes to complete the survey, then that is 26,000 minutes annually, which is approximately 433 hours.

FAV program grantees were informed about the planned evaluation of this program during the application process and during the grant award process.   

13. Cost Burden of the Collection of Information

OVW does not believe that there is any cost burden on respondents or recordkeepers resulting from the collection of this information, as the survey has been created by and will be administered by OVW. The only cost for respondents will be the time necessary to complete the survey. The only cost for small entities is the time it takes to make victims aware of this optional survey.

14. Annualized Costs to the Federal Government

The annualized costs to the Federal Government resulting from OVW staff review of all survey responses are estimated to be $24,556. This includes the cost of drafting and reviewing this information collection, as well as administrative costs.

15. Program Changes or Adjustments

There are no program changes or adjustments reported on the burden worksheet.

16. Published Results of Information Collections

Data generated through this information collection will be exploratory. There will be minimal complex analytical techniques used in connection with the publication of information collected under this request. Limited data from this survey may be shared in a report on the effectiveness of all grant-funded activities on a biennial basis. This data will be shared in an aggregate manner, and the data will undergo limited quality control, such as removing clear errors or excluding incomplete responses. The remainder of the information will be used exclusively for internal, formative evaluation and will involve the production of descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis.

17. Display of the Expiration Date of OMB Approval

OVW will display the expiration date of OMB Approval in the upper right-hand corner of the survey.

18. Exception to the Certification Statement

OVW is not seeking any exception to the certification statement identified in Item 19, Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions, of OMB Form 83-I.  

1 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Pub. L. No. 117-328, 136 Stat. 4459, 4532; Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, Pub. L. No. 118-42, 138 Stat. 25, 143; Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, Pub. L. No. 119-4, 139 Stat. 9, 10; and Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, Pub. L. No. 119-37, 139 Stat. 495.

2 See, for example, Adams. A. & CSAJ. (2022). Economic Well-being Survey. https://csaj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/DV__EWB_Study-Service_Provider_Report_FINAL.pdf; Machado, D. B., de Siqueira Filha, N. T., Cortes, F., Castro-de-Araujo, L. F., Alves, F. J. O., Ramos, D., & Barreto, M. L. (2024). The Relationship Between Cash-Based Interventions and Violence: A Systematic Review and Evidence Map. Aggression and violent behavior, 75, 10190 and Hess, C., & Del Rosario, A. (2018). Dreams Deferred: A Survey on the Impact of Intimate Partner Violence on Survivors’ Education, Careers, and Economic Security. https://ncvc.dspacedirect.org/handle/20.500.11990/1464.

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