Civil Rights Training for Recipients of Federal Financial Assistance – Faith-Based Organizations

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, Civil Rights Training for Recipients of Federal Financial Assistance — Faith-Based Organizations, hosted by the Office for Victims of Crime and the Office for Civil Rights, within the Office of Justice Programs. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Chenelle Love, attorney with OJP's Office for Civil Rights to begin the presentation. Chenelle?

CHENELLE LOVE: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us today for today's discussion on the civil rights obligations of recipients of federal financial assistance, with a specific lens and focus toward faith-based organizations. So I am Chenelle Love. I am an Attorney Advisor with the Office for Civil Rights within Office of Justice Programs at the DOJ. And today I'm also joined by my colleagues, Sim and Shelley, who will introduce themselves as we move through the presentation.

So, for the next hour, just--here's a quick roadmap of the things that we hope to cover and that we plan to cover with you all. First, an introduction to OCR and just a discussion of--a bit about what we do. We will also talk about the laws that we enforce at OCR, including the protected characteristics, which you will also hear me refer to throughout the presentation as protected classes or protected categories. And cover the definition of discrimination and set some examples--go over some examples of discrimination. We will also talk about religious non-discrimination and the right--or the obligations and protections of faith-based organizations. And then finally, we'll close out with a discussion of OCR's enforcement mechanisms and leave you all with some resources that we hope will be helpful in the work you do. So thank you again so much for joining us this afternoon.

And so, the learning objectives today, things that we hope folks will take away, you know, first, a deeper understanding of the civil rights obligations and protections of organizations who receive federal financial assistance. And we'll also cover the programs and activities that are subject to those obligations. We’ll talk about the non-discrimination provision of the Victims of Crime Act, which you will hear from--me refer to often as VOCA throughout the presentation. We will talk about the federal protections and requirements of faith-based organizations and other social service organizations under the regulation 28 C.F.R. part 38. And then finally we'll give a sneak peek into how OCR enforces federal civil rights laws.

All right. So before we jump into the meat of it all, we want to give you just a very quick peek into who we are and what we do. So at the Office for Civil Rights, part of what we do is we provide technical assistance and outreach to grantees, so similar to today, through webinars, sometimes onsite in-person trainings. And we also have an enforcement arm, an enforcement piece where we ensure that recipients of financial assistance from our office, so Office of Justice Programs, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, and the Office on Violence Against Women, to ensure that these recipients comply with the federal laws that prohibit discrimination in both employment, as well as in delivery of services.

And so, a really kind of quick blurb also about OCR, oftentimes when people think of civil rights and the Department of Justice, they think of the Civil Rights Division. And so, what we do like to note is that we are different than the Civil Rights Division. So at OCR, we are under the office--we're a program unit within the Office of Justice Programs, under that bigger umbrella of the DOJ. We are an administrative enforcement agency. And so when we receive complaints, we evaluate complaints for example, and investigate and resolve the complaints. We--unlike the Civil Rights Division, we do not litigate these complaints. And we are a neutral fact-finder, so we do not represent anyone in these complaint investigations.

And so, as I said a little bit earlier, we are joined by our colleague from the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. So I'm going to turn it over to Sim and allow him to tell you a bit about what they do.

SIM SINGH ATTARIWALA: Thank you, Chenelle, and good afternoon, everyone. I am Sim Singh Attariwala, the Director of the Department of Justice's recently reestablished Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. It’s a privilege to be here with you today.

The Center is dedicated to connecting federal agencies with faith-based and other neighborhood organizations to facilitate partnerships and to impact specific challenges facing communities across the nation. And these collaborations help advance the effectiveness of programs that you are leading across the nation. The Center and its reestablishment has also been relocated from the Office of Justice Programs to the community service branch at the Department of Justice to reach more diverse sectors of society and to promote greater understanding. The Center will continue to work closely with OJP and the entire Department of Justice to advance these important initiatives. It's with these partnerships that the Center can help exchange information and expertise with you to emphasize best practices and community relationships. I welcome you all to utilize the Center to remain aware of opportunities to apply for federal funding and how they will be open to everyone, both faith-based and secular communities. My contact information will be made available at the end of this presentation.

And I also want to take a moment to talk about the rule changes discussed today, applies not only to the Department of Justice, but also to eight other federal agencies that provide federal funding to social services. The rule restores religious liberty protections to beneficiaries of federally-funded social services, and clarifies certain matters on non-discrimination notifications. It also maintains longstanding protections for faith-based providers of federally-funded social services, including by making clear that such providers must be allowed to complete--compete on equal footing with secular organizations for awards while retaining their religious character.

Thank you for joining us today. We look forward to further collaboration on these efforts. I hope you find the remainder of this presentation by my colleagues at OJP helpful.

CHENELLE LOVE: Thank you so much, Sim. All right. So we are going to jump into a bit about what we do at the OCR. So on this slide, you'll see a list of protected categories, and these are categories or protected classes, characteristics that are protected by the laws that we enforced at OJP--excuse me, at OCR. And at the bottom of each of those, with the exception of age, you will see Victims of Crime Act. And so, these particular laws apply to not just those recipients of funding under VOCA, but also to non-recipients of VOCA. You will see that some of these laws, the crosscutting statutes, such as Title VI, Title IX, Section 504, Title II, that these laws are not just enforced by OCR at OJP, but also by other federal agencies.

When thinking around the protected categories that you see, so one thing I always like to point out is that we all, every one of us, is a member of a protected class. And what we look to when we're considering protected classes under the law, it's both how we identify ourselves and also how, you know, say a service provider, an employer might identify us when making a particular decision.

One thing that we would like to also kind of call out--so disability is a little bit different in that there are a few ways to fall under or to trigger protections under the disability laws and under the non-discrimination provision of the Victims of Crime Act. So one, either someone who has--an individual has a disability, so an impairment that limits one or more major life activity, or is regarded as such as having a disability, and so that goes again to that perception of, you know, of a service provider, an employer, or someone else, how they perceive us. And so if someone makes a decision, you know, based on--regarding us as having a disability, that triggers the protections of those laws. And then, finally a record of that disability. And so if there was a previous disability and that is on record and someone makes a decision or treats somebody differently on the basis of a record of that disability, then that also triggers the protections of those laws that you see.

And so, you know, again, these laws protect individuals from discrimination, both in employment as well as delivery of services, which we'll discuss a little bit deeper as we get into this. And we will also have a bit of a more deeper discussion around that religion piece as we get deeper into the presentation.

Okay. And so, what gives OCR the authority to enforce these laws or--and even or to provide technical assistance around these laws? And so that's that federal financial assistance piece that we continue to refer to, and that we'll continue to refer to throughout the--throughout today's presentation. And so, when an organization receives federal financial assistance from the offices that we talked about in the earlier slides, so COPS, OJP, whether directly, and so if you have an organization, for example, that is receiving funding for, say, their domestic violence services and use money specifically for that, or whether through an intermediary, so if you have an organization that receives funding and then gives funding out to other organizations, the agencies that touch that funding must comply with the applicable federal civil rights laws. And so this also ties a bit back to that difference between OCR and the Civil Rights Division that we were talking about a little bit earlier, that our connection, so OCR's connection, authority, and jurisdiction is tied to that federal financial assistance. Organizations that receive federal financial assistance from these offices are bound with--by the non-discrimination provisions and things such as VOCA, as well as the cross-cutting federal civil rights statutes that we talked about.

Okay. And so what do we mean? What are activities--what activities are subject to the non-discrimination requirements? And so, this language comes from the laws that we enforce. So any program or activity that receives financial assistance from the DOJ is covered under these federal civil rights statutes and the non-discrimination provisions that are tied to the funding. And "program or activity" generally means all of the operations of an organization receiving DOJ's assistance, and not just the specific DOJ-funded project. And so, emphasis on "generally" which I'll come back to in a second.

And so what we mean by all of the operations of an organization? So let's go back to that example of, we have an organization that's receiving funding for their DV services, specifically for that DV-funded project. And let's say that same organization has a substance abuse program also. Well, by virtue of receiving funding for that DV program, the entire organization is agreed--is covered under these civil rights statutes, and agreeing not to discriminate based on the protected classes that we talked about a little bit earlier.

Now again, that focus on "generally," so there is, you know, some caveats to that. And so as we'll be discussing later on in the presentation, “program or activity” is construed a bit more narrowly when it comes to religious non-discrimination requirements as applied to faith-based organizations. And so we'll get to that a little bit later in the presentation.

So what does it even mean to discriminate? So, a lot of times when we think about discrimination, we think about a person or an entity that doesn't like a particular group, that dislikes a group or has hate for a particular group. The term "discriminate" from case law comes to us and means, "[t]o make a difference in treatment or favor of one," so one individual or group as compared to another individual or a group. And those differences in treatment usually cause some type of harm or injury. Now, what you'll see on this slide is that we have highlighted that malice is not required. So again, kind of getting back to that piece of, sometimes when we think of discrimination, we think of, you know, an entity disliking a group for a particular protected class or a particular characteristic. And that's not necessarily required.

And so to give you kind of a real-life, you know, example of what we mean by malice not being required, so in my previous life, I did housing discrimination. I worked in housing discrimination complaints. And we had a complaint that we received from a complainant where she alleged that her landlord was issuing her warnings, multiple warnings for children playing in the parking lot of her apartment complex. And it had gotten to a point where she was facing eviction because of these multiple warnings. Well, under the Fair Housing Act, there is a protected class of familial status, which means presence of children. You can't discriminate against tenants, or you know, because of the presence of children. And so--and I'm sharing this with you and that the analysis of this is the same. So while the law is different, the legal analysis is the same in terms of the discrimination piece.

And so, indeed, the lease agreement that she had signed did have a provision that explicitly said, "Children cannot play in the parking lot." And there were rules posted throughout the property saying such, "Children cannot play in the parking lot." And so when we went to speak with the landlord and asked about that, his response wasn't, "Ew, kids," you know, or "Kids shouldn't, you know, live in apartments." You know, it was--it was actually quite the opposite. So the landlord explained that they had had problems with people speeding through the parking lot. They had tried posting signs, they had tried posting speed limit signs, to no avail. They had put speed bumps in the parking lot to try to slow people down and none of this was working. And at some point, a child who was riding their bike through a--the parking lot was hit by a car and seriously injured. And so as a result of that, the landlord believed that in an effort to keep children safe, that they would create this rule that children could not play in the parking lot. Now, there wasn't malice there. It wasn't a belief that, you know, kids, you know, shouldn't be in the apartment. It was, you know, a belief that this would be a way to keep children safe. However, it called out a protected category. Treated them or subjected families to adverse consequences, and was ultimately a violation of the law, even though that malice or that intent was not there to discriminate.

And so in continuing to think around examples of what it means to discriminate and applying it a little bit more narrowly to what we all do. So here are a couple of examples, or a few examples. So an organization that receives financial assistance from the DOJ cannot deny services or create barriers to access services because of a person's protected characteristics. So what does that look like? What do we mean when we say that? So let's say, you know, again going back to this organization--an organization that provides domestic violence services to clients and the client who comes in is hearing-impaired and has a need for an ASL interpreter. Let's say this organization says, "Well, we don't have an interpreter on staff. We actually, we don't know how--we have no way to provide, you know, interpretation services. But what we can do is pass back and forth notes to communicate with this particular individual." Well, that could be creating a barrier to access a service. That could be making--providing different treatment to this particular individual versus others who are not hearing-impaired, and ultimately result in a denial of services. And so--and that would be discrimination based on disability.

In the second example we've laid out, an organization that receives DOJ financial assistance can't refuse to hire or cannot fire, refuse to promote, or treat any employee differently in the terms and conditions of their employment because of their protected characteristics. And so this applies to both current employees of an organization as well as prospective employees. And so we put this on here to just kind of name and call out that as employees of these organizations, employees are also protected by these laws. And one thing that, you know, to also note, so for organizations that, you know are passing through funding to subrecipients, that that even includes the subrecipients and the employees and potential employees of those subrecipients.

And then we also have severe or pervasive harassment is also discrimination when it's based on a protected characteristic. And so in thinking around harassment, I always kind of like to give an example you know for this as well. You know, that the actor, the person who does the “bad” thing, for lack of a better word, doesn't have to be an employee of your organization for that liability to attach. And so what do I mean by that?

So in another example, and I use a lot of housing examples in that that was years ago and to kind of separate, you know, what we do now, protect, you know, individuals. But we had a complainant who came to us with a complaint that a slur had been etched or carved into his apartment door. And he reported this to the property management company and he alleged to us that the property management company did not take action and the slur remained on his apartment door for six months. And so when we spoke with the property managers, you know, to figure out what was going on, indeed it did remain on his door for six months. It took them time to get this taken care of for this particular tenant. And what the property manager shared was a belief that, “Well, he was so upset and every time he talked about, you know this with him, it really, you know, it re-traumatized the tenant. And so we just didn't know what to do, didn't know how to handle this.” Well, the inaction of the property management company resulted in a severe--actually severe and pervasive environment for this tenant. And so while the property managers and those folks who work for the company weren't necessarily the ones who initiated the harassment, they weren't the ones who carved the slur into this tenant's door, their inaction resulted in this severe and pervasive environment for this individual and liability attached to that property management company for not taking action to fix it.

And then finally, and what's actually a callout that's not listed on this slide, but it also falls under the protections of these laws, is retaliation. And so if someone who complains or participates in an investigation, you know, of an allegation of a violation of one of these laws, that's engaging in what the law calls a protected activity. And it is unlawful to subject that person to a bad action or an adverse action because they have participated or complained about something that has risen or a potential violation of one of these laws. And then a thing--another thing to note just with retaliation is that the underlying complaint does not have to be founded in order for retaliation to be an issue.

Okay. So the Victims of Crime Act, so VOCA, and you know, these slides that have gotten us and everything that we've talked about, you know, so far really kind of is summed up and tied up in the language of VOCA. So the non-discrimination provision of VOCA states that, "No person shall on the ground of race, color, religion, national origin, handicap, or sex be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, subjected to discrimination under, or denied employment in connection with any undertaking funded in whole or in part with sums made available by this subchapter." And so everything that we've talked about so far really kind of takes pieces of VOCA. We've talked about every piece of that so far.

So the who. So no individual shall on the grounds of their protected characteristic be discriminated again, so that includes exclusion from participation, and that includes denial of services and that includes employment, right? “In connection with anything that's funded.” So any program or activity that is funded, so VOCA funds in whole or in part. And so, when we were talking about generally, the entirety of the organization's processes are covered under this. And again, we'll get to it a little bit more when we dig into the faith-based organizations, we'll dig a little deeper into that. But this is where the previous things that we've covered, this is where all of this kind of comes from and sums it up in the non-discrimination provision of VOCA. And I'll note that similar language you will see in the other statutes that apply to even organizations that do not receive VOCA assistance but still are covered under these federal civil rights statutes.

Okay. So religion, the definition of religion includes, "All aspects of religious practice as well as belief.” And this also includes a sincerely held moral or ethical belief. And so when we think around practice, this includes attendance of worship services. This includes wearing of symbols, this includes, you know, refraining from certain acts, this includes prayer. And then with regard to beliefs, this can be a belief that's held of a traditionally-practiced religion. But it also includes non-belief. It includes, you know, belief in what is right and wrong. It doesn't have to be a widely-held belief in order for this protection of--under religion to attach. And protections include, so reasonable accommodations for observance or religious practices. You know, similar to other protected classes that we've talked about on, you know, we can't treat people differently based on their religious beliefs. And association is also covered in this, so we can't subject people to harassment or different treatment based on their association with someone of a particular religion. And so my colleague Shelley will from here, kind of go into a little more deeper dive of faith-based organizations and the obligations and protections of those organizations.

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Wonderful. Thank you, Chenelle. Hello, everyone. My name is Shelley Langguth and I'm a Senior Counsel at the Office for Civil Rights. And so I'm going to be talking about some issues that have a special relevance to faith-based organizations.

So starting in 2002, various presidents have issued executive orders over the years to ensure that faith-based organizations have an equal opportunity to participate in government programs. And so these executive orders made clear that government agencies must remove any barriers for faith-based organizations applying for aid, and that government agencies providing financial assistance could not discriminate either in favor of, or against faith-based organizations.

And so, the DOJ has implemented some regulations to implement these executive orders. And these regulations can be found at Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulation, part 38. And they're entitled, the Regulations on Partnerships with Faith-Based and Other Neighborhood Organizations. And these regulations were most recently revised in April--on April 3rd, 2024. So just a few weeks ago. And as Sim indicated, these regulations were revised through a joint rule that DOJ published in connection with other federal agencies. And so other federal agencies' regulations were also revised in a similar manner.

So the DOJ's regulations discuss certain protections that are afforded to faith-based organizations. So of note, these regulations state that the DOJ, in any state or local government receiving DOJ financial assistance shall not, in the selection of service providers, discriminate for or against an organization on the basis of the organization's religious character, religious motives or affiliation, or lack thereof. So these regulations made clear that the DOJ and any state or local government implementing DOJ funding have to be neutral on the topic of religion. The regulations also state that the DOJ may make an accommodation, including for religious exercise with respect to one or more program requirements on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the constitution and with the laws of the United States.

So, the DOJ's regulations also discuss some restrictions that are placed on the use of federal funding. The recipients of direct financial assistance from the DOJ may not use DOJ funding to engage in explicitly religious activities, including activities that involve overt religious content such as worship, religious instruction, or proselytization. But rather, if an agency is going to engage in explicitly religious activities with its own private funds, the agency must insure that explicitly religious activities are separate in time or location from the federally-funded activities, and that they are voluntary for those individuals who are participating in the federally-funded activity.

So for example, if a grantee is using DOJ funding to operate a support group for traffic--for trafficking survivors, and that agency as part of its overall programming also wants to offer Bible study classes using its own private fund, that agency needs to make sure that the Bible study classes are separate in time or location from the federally-funded support group. So for example, an agency can hold the Bible study group either before or after the support group with a clear break in time or they can hold the Bible study classes in a separate location such as a separate room, but whatever is explicitly activity--explicitly religious activities such as Bible study that that agency is engaging in, just needs to be completely separate from the DOJ-funded activity. And again, it must be voluntary for those individuals who are participating in the support group to participate in the Bible study classes.

So, faith-based organizations who receive federal financial assistance retain their autonomy. So a faith-based organization that is receiving DOJ financial assistance can continue to carry out its mission, including the practice and expression of its religious beliefs, as long as it is not using any direct DOJ financial assistance to fund any of its religious activity. So for example, an agency can offer DOJ-funded services in a church or within its facility and does not need to remove religious artifacts, religious symbols, it can continue to express its religious belief in its governing documents, and it can continue to maintain governance over its internal affairs. And so, it's just important to know that if an agency is receiving federal financial assistance, it can still express its religious beliefs and carry out its religious practices. It just needs to make sure that it is not using federal fund to do so.

So the DOJ's regulations also contains a non-discrimination provision for both faith-based organizations and for all of DOJ’s funding recipients. The recipients of DOJ financial assistance may not, in providing services supported with DOJ financial assistance, or in their outreach activities related to such services, discriminate against beneficiaries or prospective beneficiaries based on religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to participate in a religious practice. And so agencies need to make sure that they are serving everybody regardless of religion in their DOJ-funded services. And so, as Chenelle indicated earlier in the presentation, generally, when we are enforcing this non-discrimination provision, they apply to all of the grantee programs or activities and not just the federally-funded activities. However, we interpret that a bit more narrowly when it comes to religious discrimination. Instead, the prohibition against the religious discrimination only apply to the services that are actually funded with DOJ financial assistance. And that is so the faith-based organizations can continue to exercise their religion in accordance with the constitution.

So as I indicated earlier, the DOJ's regulations were just revised a few weeks ago. And one of the notable revisions is that certain DOJ grantees now are required to provide written notice to beneficiaries of certain civil rights protections. So an organization that is providing social services supported by DOJ financial assistance must give written notice to beneficiaries and prospective beneficiaries of the following. That the organization may not discriminate on the basis of religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to participate in a religious practice. That the organization may not require beneficiaries to participate in any explicitly religious activities, and that any participation in such activities is voluntary. That the organization must separate in time or location any privately-funded explicitly religious activities from the activities that are supported with direct financial assistance. And that a beneficiary or prospective beneficiary may report an organization's denial of these protections by filing a complaint with the OCR. And agencies must provide this written notice prior to the provision of services if feasible. And there's a sample written notice that grantees can use at Appendix C to the DOJ regulation. And again, this provision was just inserted into the DOJ regulation a few weeks ago. So the DOJ is still on the process of having internal discussions about exactly how this is going to be implemented and how we are going to convey this to grantees, and so further guidance from the DOJ on this provision will be forthcoming.

So now, I'm going to go through a couple of scenarios. So you can see how the regulations play out in practice. And so, I'm going to read each scenario and then I will pause for a few seconds so you can think to yourself what you believe the answer is.

So the first scenario is that an organization requires an atheist participant in the--in a domestic violence survivors support group funded with DOJ financial assistance to participate in an opening prayer session before the group begins. Is this acceptable? And the answer is no. As I indicated earlier, a faith-based organization cannot require a beneficiary of a DOJ-funded activity to participate in privately-funded explicitly religious activities such as prayer. That again, participation must be strictly voluntary on the part of the beneficiary.

So another scenario is a woman seeking services at a local nonprofit shelter for human trafficking survivors funded with DOJ financial assistance is told not to use her prayer rug in her room while she is a resident of the shelter. Is this acceptable? And again, the answer is no. That would constitute a denial of that individual's exercise of religion and access to items of her religious faith, without an apparent legal justification.

And the last scenario is an organization receiving DOJ financial assistance for a transitional housing program requires all beneficiaries to participate in a substance abuse recovery group, and the only offering is Alcoholics Anonymous, or AA, a twelve-step recovery program. Is this acceptable, do you think? And some of you may be surprised by this answer but the answer is no. Federal case law has consistently held that twelve-step recovery programs such as AA are religious activities. And so accordingly, organizations who are receiving DOJ financial assistance cannot require beneficiaries to participate in twelve-step recovery programs. So if a DOJ grantee is requiring its beneficiaries to complete some type of substance abuse recovery program, if they are offering AA, they also need to make sure that they were--they are offering at least one alternative program that is secular in nature.

So, now I'm going to pivot for a moment to some employment considerations. The DOJ's regulations made clear that DOJ-funded, faith-based organization do not forfeit Title VII's exemption from religious discrimination in employment. And so as some of you may be aware, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, this generally prohibits agencies from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of religion, but there is an explicit exemption for religious organizations to allow them to take religion into account when they're making their employment decision. But some DOJ programs, however, such as VOCA, contain an independent statutory provision prohibiting all grantee from discriminating in employment on the basis of religion, and there is no explicit exemption for faith-based or religious organizations. And so the DOJ's regulations indicate that the DOJ will determine the scope of any such non-discrimination provision.

So the DOJ has determined that on a case-by-case basis, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act may allow grantee faith-based organizations to hire based on religion. And I'm including a link to a section on the OJP's website which discusses this determination in detail. [https://www.ojp.gov/funding/explore/legaloverview2023/civilrightsrequirements#5] And so, if a faith-based organization wants to take religion into account when they're making their employment decision, they need to complete a certification regarding their hiring practices and submit it to the OJP. And so on this certification form, a faith-based organization must certify that it will offer all federally-funded services to all qualified beneficiaries; that any explicitly religious activities will be voluntary and will be kept separate from the federally-funded activities; and that it is a religious organization that sincerely believes that abandoning its religious hiring practice in order to receive federal funding would substantially burden its religious exercise. So if an agency can certify to these three things, the DOJ will allow it to take religion into account when making employment decisions.

And so previously, grantees would complete this form and then submit it to the OJP through our previous grant management system. As you are all aware, OJP now utilizes JustGrants. And so OCR is in the process of working with IT to update JustGrants to enable grantees to upload their certification forms to JustGrants. And so, until that happens, agencies who wish to complete the certification can email it to OCR and we will maintain it on file. And at the end of the presentation, we are going to be providing the email address for OCR along with the specific email addresses for Chenelle and I.

So, now I'm going to briefly discuss exactly how the OCR enforces all of the laws that we've covered during this presentation. So one way are through Equal Employment Opportunity Plans, or EEOP. So agencies who are receiving funding from the Office for Victims of Crime, or funding that’s authorized under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, are subject to EEOP requirements. And these are requirements that require certain grantees to prepare and submit to the OJP a written plan discussing how they will ensure equal employment opportunities to women and to minorities. But it's important to note that non-profit organizations such as faith-based organizations are exempt from the EEOP requirement. However, even if an agency is exempt, they still need to complete a verification form testifying to this exemption and submit it to the OJP. And so if you go on OCR's website, we have a lot of really helpful information about the EEOP requirement, who it applies to, and how you can submit an EEOP or verification form to the OCR.

I think the main way that OCR enforces these laws are through a complaint. So we get complaints from members of the public alleging that an agency engaged in discrimination and violation of one or more of the laws that we enforce. And so, when we get a complaint, we initially research our records to make sure that the DOJ is providing federal financial assistance to the agency named in the complaint. And we may also reach out to the complainant to gather some additional information regarding their allegation.

If the OCR determines that we do have jurisdiction over the allegation, and if our preliminary review indicates that discrimination may be occurring, then we will open up a formal investigation. And so we will send the respondent a letter explaining that we received this complaint, you know, here are the allegations, and providing the grantee with the opportunity to respond.

The OCR also conducts compliance reviews. And these are a bit broader than an individual complaint investigation, but it's focusing on a grantees' overall policies and practices related to a civil rights matter. So for example, over the past ten years or so, OCR has been conducting compliance reviews of law enforcement agencies and correctional institutions to make sure that they were providing services to people who were limited English proficient. We've also been conducting reviews of state police departments to make sure they are providing equal employment opportunities to women. So those are just some examples of our compliance review initiative. 

And so at the end of a complaint investigation and--or a compliance review, the OCR issues investigative findings where we analyze whether or not the grantee is in compliance with the laws that we enforce. But I think it's important to note that even if the OCR finds that a grantee is in violation of one of the laws that we enforce, we provide the grantee with the opportunity to voluntarily resolve our finding and to come into compliance. And so far I'm very happy to report that we have been able to obtain voluntarily compliance with all of the non-compliance findings that we have issued. And so the OCR really kind of bends over backwards to provide grantees with technical assistance to bring them into compliance.

And in the OCR's investigative findings, we may also offer some recommendations for grantees on how they can further strengthen their practices. And so I just really want to stress that the OCR is always available to provide technical assistance to grantees, whether it's in connection with a complaint investigation or a compliance review, or if you just have a question on carrying out your day-to-day responsibilities. You know, we always have grantees calling us just to ask questions about the laws we enforce and how it may apply to a particular situation that the grantee has. And so we are always happy and available to provide technical assistance to grantees.

And I just want to highlight some resources that you may find helpful. The OCR has several training presentations on our website. [https://www.ojp.gov/program/civil-rights-office/training-resources] And one is geared specifically towards faith-based organizations. The OCR's website also contains a lot of guidance for faith-based organizations covering in more detail some of the things that I talked about today including a link to the certification form regarding hiring practices. [https://www.ojp.gov/program/civil-rights-office/partnerships-faith-based-and-other-neighborhood-organizations] And on our website, we also have an FAQ document on 12-step programs, which, again, explains in more detail about why these are considered to be explicitly religious activities. [https://www.ojp.gov/program/civil-rights-office/initiatives-interest#0-0]

So some key points that I hope that you are all taking away from this presentation is that recipients of DOJ financial assistance must comply with all applicable federal civil rights laws, including laws that prohibit discrimination based on religion. And that government agencies cannot discriminate either in favor of or against faith-based organizations. That recipients must not discriminate against individuals based on religion, a religious belief, a refusal to hold a religious belief, or a refusal to participate in a religious practice in their federally-funded services or associated outreach activities. And that any religious activities must take place at a different time or location from federally-funded activities and must be voluntary for those participating in federally-funded activities.

And again, if you have any questions or concerns following this presentation, please do not hesitate to reach out to the OCR [202-307-0690; www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ocr] or you can reach out specifically to either Chenelle [[email protected]] or myself [[email protected]] and we will be happy to answer any questions that you have. And I'm also including the contact information for Sim [[email protected]] if you have any questions for him or want to learn more about his fantastic organization and how you may collaborate with the Center and how the Center can provide you assistance. And so I have been monitoring the chat and I do not believe we've received any questions.

CHENELLE LOVE: [INDISTINCT] that I'll toss out to you here. So regarding hiring, I think you covered this a few slides back. Great questions, by the way, both. “So regarding hiring, isn't there an exception that can be applied for related to faith-based organizations for this and can you please be speak of this?” And so…

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Yeah. And as I indicated, there is an exemption. And like I said, you do need to just complete that certification form regarding your hiring processes. Certify to--that you will not discriminate, you know, on the basis of religion or religious belief and the delivery of your federally-funded services, and then certify to a few other things and then submit it to OJP. And as long as, you know, you do that, and we don't have any reason to doubt your certification, then you are allowed to take religion into account when it comes to employment decision.

CHENELLE LOVE: Then a follow up. Did you say that VOCA does not allow this exemption?

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: No, it does. Yes. And I'm sorry if that was unclear. It's a little bit confusing. I--VOCA does--VOCA prohibits all grantees from prohibit--from discriminating on the basis of religion in employment decisions. However, as I indicated under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, DOJ has decided that even though it's not explicitly stated in VOCA, that there is an exemption in accordance with the constitution that would allow faith-based organizations receiving VOCA funding to take religion into account in their employment decision. And again, all they need to do is complete the certification regarding their hiring practices.

CHENELLE LOVE: Great. And then our next question, “What specific protections, if any, are provided under the TVPA, or do protections for human trafficking victims fall under the more general statutes?” And…

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Yes. The--oh, I'm sorry.

CHENELLE LOVE: Oh, go ahead.

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Go ahead. You know.

CHENELLE LOVE: The joys of the online webinar. Go ahead.

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: So there is no non-discrimination provision in the TVPA. Unlike VOCA, you know VOCA has its own non-discrimination provision that is binding on VOCA recipients. There is no similar non--or any non-discrimination provision in the TVPA. However, agencies that are receiving funding under the TVPA are still bound by the cross-cutting federal civil rights statutes as we call them. And those are federal civil rights statutes that prohibit discrimination by agencies that are receiving any form of federal financial assistance, you know, regardless to what program it's under. So Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on race, color, or national origin. The TVPA grantees are bound by that. You know, Title II on the Americans with Disabilities Act which applies to public entities, and then Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination based on disability for all recipients of federal financial assistance. And then the DOJ regulations at 28 CFR part 38 applies to all of--all recipients of federal financial assistance. And so the TVPA grantees are bound by part 38 in the regulations that I’ve discussed.

CHENELLE LOVE: Okay. That's all for the questions that we have in the Q&A chat. And as we’ve said, if--oh. Oh, I have--yeah. I have one.

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Okay. Yea I was going to say I do see one that just came. Yeah. “Our staff attends a monthly staff development meeting that includes portions of religious activity for federally-funded employees. Can they attend these or would we need to privately fund this meeting? That is an excellent question. And I'm going to be totally honest, off the top of my head, I do not know. That is something that I will need to look into. I see the name of the individual who asked this question. So I am--I can research it and then I can circle back with you if that's okay. My thought is that they can attend if it’s voluntary, but again, I'm going to have to look into that.

CHENELLE LOVE: Oh, I see one more here I'll read off. “So we hold a staff participant gathering with all of the adults and children in our program three times per year. Churches will often allow us to use their facilities at no cost so we sometimes use a church for that event. Is that problematic as long the event itself does not have anything explicitly religious and we're just using the building? Also the event is voluntary.”

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Okay. So I'm just reading through it. I'm sorry. Do you mind read--do you mind rereading the question, Chenelle? I'm sorry. I'm having--I--I'm not seeing it on the chat.

CHENELLE LOVE: It's okay. So this question involves a staff and participant gathering that is held three times per year with both adults and children. Churches often allow them to use the building for this event. So is it okay for the event to take place in that church as long as it does not--it's not explicitly religious and they are just using the building? And also the event is voluntary.

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Yes. Yeah. No that sounds like it's perfectly acceptable. And as I indicated earlier, you know, faith-based organizations can provide DOJ-funded services in a church or in their facilities and they don't have to remove any sort of you know religious symbols or religious things or anything. That is permissible.

CHENELLE LOVE: All right [INDISTINCT] else later, feel free to reach out to us. We are absolutely a resource and, you know, use us. We’re here for you.

SHELLEY LANGGUTH: Yes. Absolutely. And I think that’s all of the questions. So I think we’re going to turn it back over to Daryl for--to--for some concluding remarks.

DARYL FOX: Yes, certainly. Thank you both. Wonderful presentation. A lot of information. And for reference for everybody on today's webinar, the recoding, transcript, and PowerPoints will be posted to OVC's website. So everybody that registered today will receive an email where and when to access those. So on behalf of OVC and the Office for Civil Rights, we want to thank you for joining today's webinar. This will end today's presentation.