Justice Department Awards $2.13 Million to Combat Domestic Violence in Louisiana

The Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women awarded $2,130,000 in grants to three Louisiana entities, U.S. Attorney Kurt L. Wall announced on May 6, 2026.

The Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response Center, the Baton Rouge City Office of the Treasurer, and the Louisiana Department of Justice received the collective funding. The Office on Violence Against Women administers formula and discretionary grants that support victim services, law enforcement training, and prevention programs focused on domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.

The grants increase available resources for victim advocacy, counseling, and coordinated community responses that previously operated on prior-year allocations now supplemented by the new awards. The funds take effect immediately upon the announcement and will be disbursed to the named recipients for program implementation during the current fiscal cycle.

Louisiana agencies and the Baton Rouge-area foundation must now allocate the money to specific victim-service projects, submit required progress reports to the Office on Violence Against Women, and coordinate with local law enforcement and courts on service delivery.

The additional dollars trigger expanded capacity at the Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response Center, which will serve more survivors in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area, while the Louisiana Department of Justice can scale statewide training and enforcement initiatives.

Baton Rouge city officials will direct their portion toward municipal victim-assistance programs that connect households to emergency shelter and legal aid.

This disbursement continues a pattern of annual Office on Violence Against Women grant cycles that have distributed similar amounts to Louisiana organizations in recent years. The awards align with the federal Violence Against Women Act framework first enacted in 1994 and reauthorized multiple times since, including the 2022 reauthorization that expanded grant purposes to include housing assistance and legal services for survivors.