Family Violence Prevention Department to Expand Housing, Advocacy, and Child Protection

The Osage Nation was just Awarded $737,245 from the Department of Justice for Violence Against Women

From the Osage Nation Family Violence Prevention Department

Pawhuska, Okla., Osage Nation Reservation (Monday, October 1, 2018)–The Osage Nation Family Violence Prevention Department (ONFVPD) was just awarded the Coordinated Tribal Assistance grant from the Department of Justice for Violence Against Women for three years in the amount of $737,245.

The Osage Nation Grants Department (ONGD) successfully applied for and secured the funding to strengthen current services and efforts by the ONFVPD to address domestic violence and sexual assault in Osage County. “In 2016, there were twelve domestic abuse-related sex crimes, twelve domestic assaults, and 131 domestic assault and battery offenses in Osage County,” said Chris Standing Bear, ONGD Grants Manager, about the rate of violence, assault and abuse in the area.

“This grant is a continuation of the work we have done over the past three years with the Department of Justice with some very notable exceptions,” said ONFVPD Director Olivia Gray about the expanded housing and child protection services provided with the new funding.

ONFVPD will complete their initial three-year Coordinated Tribal Assistance grant on September 30, 2018. Gray assumed the director’s position at ONFVPD following the first year that grant was completed. Her first act in administering the first grant was to change the scope to provide more services for victims along with increased community outreach and awareness.

“We simply didn’t have enough people to do the work, so we added two full time positions and a lot of training to the scope of the work to be done,” said Gray about the addition of staff with the funding and ONFVPD now being able to provide more and improved direct services.

Housing for Victims
“The Office of Violence Against Women let me know that we were supposed to write policies for a transitional housing service. I did some research and came up with something that I thought would work for our clients without setting them up to fail,” said Gray whose current efforts have built a new emergency housing site and expanded services in just a few years. “I know that coming out of a domestic violence situation, it takes a lot of time and support to put your life back together. With that in mind, we designed a service that works. That service was used more than we ever anticipated. This time we asked for a specific line item in the budget just for transitional housing in addition to our shelter.”

Child Protection
ONFVPD will also be hiring another full-time advocate that specializes in child protection. “What we have found over the past two years, when we study our numbers and our trends, is that a great number of our clients have active child protection cases because of the domestic violence present in their lives. We wanted to have someone on board who could help them successfully navigate that system. Living in a home with domestic violence is traumatic enough for everyone without the added stress of children being separated from their non-abusive parent because of violence in the home.
ONFVPD is open Monday thru Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm even though you can usually find an Advocate working in the main office well past closing time.Tsi Ohasay (The Refuge), the Nation’s new Domestic Violence Shelter, is open 24 hours each day, including all holidays. In addition, ONFVPD has a 24-hour crisis line available to those in need of help after hours and on weekends.

Osage Nation Family Violence Prevention Mission
To empower those seeking our services with the tools they need to rebuild their lives and become the strong individuals they were created to be; to effect social change through outreach and education in order to put an end to intergenerational violence; and to partner with state, county, and tribal court systems and law enforcement to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes.
Office: 918-287-5422
24 Hour Crisis Line(866) 897-4747
The Crisis line is answered 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Please be advised that for security reasons, the number appearing on your caller I.D. will be different than the crisis line number dialed.

Osage Nation Grants Department
The mission of the Grants Department is to effectively support and facilitate the Nation's overall strategic plans by applying sound project and grants management principles and best practices.
Physical Address
627 Grandview
2nd Floor
Pawhuska, OK 74056
Phone
918-287-5383

For Media Inquiries: Osage Nation Communications 918-287-5599communications@osagenation-nsn.gov