Announcement Availability of Funds for the College Sexual Assault Policy and Prevention Initiative | WH AST 16 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for WH AST 16 001

The Announcement Availability of Funds for the College Sexual Assault Policy and Prevention Initiative is a federal discretionary funding opportunity designed to reduce sexual violence on U.S. college and university campuses by strengthening campus policies, expanding prevention strategies, and improving institutional responses when assaults occur. The opportunity is grounded in the CDC definition of sexual violence as any sexual act committed without a person s freely given consent, and it recognizes a broad range of behaviors including sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape. It also reflects the CDC categorization of sexual violence that can involve forced or attempted penetration, alcohol or drug facilitated penetration, situations where a victim is made to penetrate someone else (with force or substances), non physically forced penetration resulting from pressure, intimidation, or misuse of authority, unwanted sexual contact, and non contact unwanted sexual experiences.

The justification for the initiative is driven by prevalence data showing sexual violence is widespread and often begins at younger ages, with particular risk concentrated in late adolescence and early adulthood. The CDC estimate cited in the announcement notes that roughly 23 million women have experienced completed or attempted rape in their lifetimes. The opportunity highlights that a large share of victims experience sexual assault before age 25, and that many first experiences occur between ages 18 and 24, aligning with the traditional college years. It also references findings that about one in five female college students report having been sexually assaulted and includes results from a major Association of American Universities survey (over 150,000 students across 27 institutions) reporting that 23 percent of female undergraduates experienced sexual assault since enrolling. The narrative emphasizes common patterns on campuses: incidents frequently occur during freshman or sophomore years, often involve someone the victim knows (such as an acquaintance, classmate, friend, or current or former boyfriend), may involve incapacitation due to alcohol or drugs, and are commonly not reported. The announcement points out that despite the scale of the problem and the large number of post secondary institutions nationwide (approximately 3,000 four year and 2,000 two year schools), many campuses still have limited or underdeveloped policies and procedures to prevent assault and address it effectively.

The core purpose of the funded work is to move beyond awareness raising and toward practical policy and practice change across multiple campuses. Each grantee is expected to form two key sets of partnerships. First, grantees must partner with organizations that are positioned to influence policies and practices at post secondary schools, using those relationships to disseminate sexual assault policy information and proven prevention strategies. Second, grantees must partner directly with a cadre of colleges or universities to help them institute or strengthen concrete policies, practices, and prevention strategies intended to stop sexual assaults before they occur. In other words, the initiative is structured so grantees act as connectors and technical assistance providers, spreading effective approaches through influential networks while also supporting on the ground implementation within selected institutions.

Technical assistance under the initiative is expected to concentrate on three practical areas that map to a typical prevention and response framework. The first is identifying and understanding campus climate, which can include assessing the scope and nature of sexual violence, recognizing risk factors and barriers to reporting, and using climate information to guide policy and programming decisions. The second is implementing bystander education and other prevention programs, with an emphasis on strategies that can change norms, increase intervention behaviors, and reduce the likelihood of perpetration and victimization. The third is strengthening institutional response when a student is sexually assaulted, which generally involves improving reporting pathways, ensuring trauma informed and victim centered procedures, coordinating services and referrals, and making disciplinary or administrative processes clearer and more effective.

This opportunity is offered as a cooperative agreement, which means the federal government anticipates substantial involvement in the funded projects rather than a hands off grant relationship. The administering office is the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, and the announcement specifies substantial involvement from OWH, meaning the Office on Women s Health. OWH is expected to actively participate in developing prevention strategies and policies and to ensure that funded work incorporates steps recommended by the White House Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault. Those steps are framed around four aims: identifying the scope of the problem on campuses, preventing sexual assault, helping schools respond effectively when assaults occur, and improving federal enforcement efforts while making them more transparent. Beyond shaping project direction, OWH will also facilitate collaboration among grantees so they can share best practices and lessons learned, and it will partner with grantees to identify platforms for disseminating evidence based results, signaling an expectation that successful approaches will be packaged and shared broadly.

In terms of eligibility and funding parameters, the announcement states that any public or private entity may apply, making it open to a wide range of applicants such as nonprofits, universities, foundations, and other organizations capable of coordinating policy and prevention work across institutions. The opportunity number is WH AST 16 001, and the assistance listing reference included is CFDA 93.088. Awards are capped at an award ceiling of 250,000 per award, with an expectation of around 10 total awards. The original application closing date listed is 2016 04 08, and the opportunity was created on 2016 01 19. Overall, the grant is aimed at building a coordinated, scalable approach to campus sexual assault prevention by combining policy influence, campus implementation support, and federal partner engagement to drive consistent, evidence informed improvements across higher education settings.

• The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Announcement Availability of Funds for the College Sexual Assault Policy and Prevention Initiative" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.088.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-01-19.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-04-08. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for WH AST 16 001

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