The VAWA (Violence Against Women Act) Courts Assistance project is a collaboration between the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), with funding from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

The project encourages innovative use of Violence Against Women STOP Project funds by courts to address domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and dating violence through a variety of tools.  These include:

• a National Summit on State Court Responses to Domestic Violence where state court leaders and STOP Fund agency representatives jointly developed action plans to facilitate more effective use of the STOP 5% set-aside funds by courts; 
• an OVW-Training Travel Assistance Fund to enable court staff access to OVW-sponsored training opportunities;
• and a dedicated listserv, STOPforCourts,  for real-time information sharing on funding and program challenges and successes. 

 For additional information on the project, please contact Brenda Uekert or Shannon Baptiste.