The purpose of this funding opportunity is to support solution-driven projects from county governments to prevent, investigate, and prosecute commercial sexual exploitation in Texas.

This solicitation is specific to county projects that are not specialty court programs.

Information about other related funding opportunities is provided below and on the Funding Opportunities tab of the eGrants homepage.

• Specialty Courts Grant Program, FY2025. County projects to support specialty court programs. Commercially Sexually Exploited Persons (CSEP) Specialty Courts, are eligible for funding under this grant program.

• Specialized Advocacy for Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, FY2025. Projects to support advocacy services for children and transition-aged youth within the CSEY Advocacy model.

• Community-Based Services for Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth, FY2025. Projects to support community-based programs for children and transition-aged youth (non-CSEY Advocate programs).

• General Victim Assistance Grant Program, FY2025. Projects to support services and assistance to victims of crime. Services to adult survivors of human trafficking, inclusive of sex and labor trafficking, are eligible activities under this grant program, as are long-term residential programs (shelters) to serve child and transition-age youth.

• Statewide Solutions to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation, FY2025. Projects to support statewide training and technical assistance to service providers and tools to improve the response to children and transition-aged youth (non-direct service programs).

State funds for these projects are authorized under the Texas General Appropriations Act, Article I for Trusteed Programs within the Office of the Governor. All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and any modifications or additional requirements that may be imposed by law.

Applications may only be submitted by Texas counties.

Applicants must access the Public Safety Office (PSO)’s eGrants grant management website at https://eGrants.gov.texas.gov to register and apply for funding.

Projects selected for funding must begin on or after 10/1/2024 and expire on or before 9/30/2025. Projects may not exceed a 12-month project period.

Minimum: $10,000

Maximum: Current grantees may not exceed most recent year’s award amount.

Match Requirement: None

Grantees must comply with standards applicable to this fund source cited in the Texas Grant Management Standards (TxGMS), Federal Uniform Grant Guidance, and all statutes, requirements, and guidelines applicable to this funding.

The following list of eligible activities and costs applies generally to all projects under this announcement. 

1. Targeted Investigation and Prosecution

The investigation and/or prosecution of crimes related to the commercial sexual exploitation of people. Projects may include the use of dedicated personnel such as investigators, analysts, task force coordinators, or prosecutors. Proposed projects must be solution-oriented and articulate defined strategies that the project will use to prevent or disrupt the occurrence and continued perpetration of commercial sexual exploitation in their county. 

2. Innovative County Programs

Innovative projects that use solution-driven strategies to address the commercial sexual exploitation of persons in their county. This may include a combination of approaches such as addressing risk and protective factors for victimization or perpetration; prevention education; civil enforcement; outreach and service provision to high-risk populations; and other efforts to disrupt the market for commercial sex.

Please review the following requirements carefully. Failure to provide requested information will be considered in the review process and may result in an application being deemed ineligible for funding.

1. Child Sex Trafficking Team Guiding Principles

The Child Sex Trafficking Team (CSTT) conducts its activities in alignment with its guiding principles. Grantees are expected to adhere to these same guiding principles. The level of commitment to these principles, as indicated by an applicant’s response to “Project Approach & Activities” in the Narrative tab of eGrants, may be considered in the merit review process and ultimately required as a condition of funding. The CSTT’s Guiding Principles are:

• We treat individuals who have experienced exploitation as victims and survivors, not perpetrators.
• We are collaborative.
• We are survivor informed.
• Our systems and programs prioritize the needs of children and transition-age youth who have experienced exploitation and strive to give equal access to services regardless of system involvement.
• We seek to prevent exploitation by educating the public, supporting protective factors for all children and transition-age youth, and by building resiliency among the most vulnerable.
• Our approaches, systems and services are trauma-informed, responsive, and include trust-based relationships.
• We develop and support community-based, sustainable resources and services.
• We are committed to long-term individualized services, including planning for, and re-engaging with, children and transition-age youth after relapse.
• We research the causes of and effective responses to exploitation and we evaluate and continuously improve our activities.
• We work to prevent and reduce demand for exploitation and to hold all exploiters, including facilitators, and those who benefit from exploitation accountable.

2. Trauma-Informed Response

Each application should include proposed strategies to ensure that individuals experiencing commercial sexual exploitation receive a trauma informed response. A trauma-informed response for this population should not be contingent upon a direct outcry of victimization. If conducting an operation in which victims of commercial sexual exploitation may be identified, applicant must provide a detailed plan for engagement of victim service providers. Funds administered through this grant program may not be used in furtherance of activities to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute individuals for engaging in prostitution under Texas Penal Code § 43.02. Strategies for a trauma-informed response should be detailed under “Project Approach & Activities” in the Narrative tab of eGrants. 

3. Additional Requirements | Targeted Investigation and Prosecution Applications

Under “Project Approach & Activities” within the Narrative tab of eGrants, applicants must describe how the proposed strategies will improve local investigations and/or prosecutions of sex buyers, traffickers, and other actors benefitting from the commercial sexual exploitation of people.

Under “Supporting Data” within the Narrative tab of eGrants, applicants should provide the number of registered sex offenders in their county and provide baseline data on sex trafficking-related arrests and prosecutions for the most recent calendar year available. It is understood that arrest data does not necessarily correspond to prosecution data provided for the same time period. At a minimum, data should pertain to the following offenses:

• Section 20A.02. Trafficking of Persons
• Section 20A.03. Continuous Trafficking of Persons
• Section 43.02. Prostitution
• Section 43.03. Promotion of Prostitution
• Section 43.031. Online Promotion of Prostitution
• Section 43.04. Aggravated Promotion of Prostitution
• Section 43.041. Aggravated Online Promotion of Prostitution
• Section 43.05. Compelling Prostitution
• Section 21.02. Continuous Sexual Abuse of Young Child or Disabled Individual
• Section 21.11. Indecency with a Child
• Section 22.011. Sexual Assault
• Section 22.021. Aggravated Sexual Assault
• Section 43.021. Solicitation of Prostitution
• Section 43.25. Sexual Performance by a Child
• Section 43.251. Employment Harmful to Children
• Section 43.26. Possession or Promotion of Child Pornography

4. Community Collaboration

Applicants from communities with an existing human trafficking task force or coalition must upload documentation of active membership in the task force or coalition. Applicants are expected to upload letters of support from any partners critical to achieving the proposed objectives. Failure to provide these will affect funding decisions. All documents must be uploaded onto the Upload.Files tab prior to the submission and certification of the eGrants application.

5. Training and Technical Assistance

Recipients of funding under this announcement may be required to participate in training and technical assistance opportunities recommended by PSO program staff. Grantees must make good-faith efforts to participate in designated trainings as a condition of ongoing funding.

6. Project Evaluation

Each application should clearly identify the goals of the project, including methods for evaluating progress toward those goals, under “Performance Management” in the Narrative tab of eGrants. Additionally, recipients of funding under this announcement may be required to participate in a third-party evaluation funded by PSO and in improvement reviews performed by PSO program staff. Grantees must make good-faith efforts to follow recommendations by the evaluator and PSO staff – including recommended project modifications – as a condition of ongoing funding.

7. Project Sustainability

Applicants must articulate their project’s plan for continued financial sustainability.

1. Local units of governments must comply with the Cybersecurity Training requirements described in Section 772.012 and Section 2054.5191 of the Texas Government Code. Local governments determined to not be in compliance with the cybersecurity requirements required by Section 2054.5191 of the Texas Government Code are ineligible for OOG grant funds until the second anniversary of the date the local government is determined ineligible. Government entities must annually certify their compliance with the training requirements using the Cybersecurity Training Certification for State and Local Governments. A copy of the Training Certification must be uploaded to your eGrants application. For more information or to access available training programs, visit the Texas Department of Information Resources Statewide Cybersecurity Awareness Training page.

2. Entities receiving funds from PSO must be located in a county that has an average of 90% or above on both adult and juvenile dispositions entered into the computerized criminal history database maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) as directed in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 66. The disposition completeness percentage is defined as the percentage of arrest charges a county reports to DPS for which a disposition has been subsequently reported and entered into the computerized criminal history system.

Counties applying for grant awards from the Office of the Governor must commit that the county will report at least 90 percent of convictions within five business days to the Criminal Justice Information System at the Department of Public Safety.

3. Eligible applicants operating a law enforcement agency must be current on reporting complete UCR data and the Texas specific reporting mandated by 411.042 TGC, to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) for inclusion in the annual Crime in Texas (CIT) publication. To be considered eligible for funding, applicants must have submitted a full twelve months of accurate data to DPS for the most recent calendar year by the deadline(s) established by DPS. Due to the importance of timely reporting, applicants are required to submit complete and accurate UCR data, as well as the Texas-mandated reporting, on a no less than monthly basis and respond promptly to requests from DPS related to the data submitted. 

4. In accordance with Texas Government Code, Section 420.034, any facility or entity that collects evidence for sexual assault or other sex offenses or investigates or prosecutes a sexual assault or other sex offense for which evidence has been collected, must participate in the statewide electronic tracking system developed and implemented by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Visit DPS’s Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking Program website for more information or to set up an account to begin participating. Additionally, per Section 420.042 "A law enforcement agency that receives evidence of a sexual assault or other sex offense...shall submit that evidence to a public accredited crime laboratory for analysis no later than the 30th day after the date on which that evidence was received." A law enforcement agency in possession of a significant number of Sexual Assault Evidence Kits (SAEK) where the 30-day window has passed may be considered noncompliant. 

5. Local units of government, including cities, counties and other general purpose political subdivisions, as appropriate, and institutions of higher education that operate a law enforcement agency, must comply with all aspects of the programs and procedures utilized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to: (1) notify DHS of all information requested by DHS related to illegal aliens in Agency’s custody; and (2) detain such illegal aliens in accordance with requests by DHS. Additionally, counties and municipalities may NOT have in effect, purport to have in effect, or make themselves subject to or bound by, any law, rule, policy, or practice (written or unwritten) that would: (1) require or authorize the public disclosure of federal law enforcement information in order to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection fugitives from justice or aliens illegally in the United States; or (2) impede federal officers from exercising authority under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), § 1226(c), § 1231(a), § 1357(a), § 1366(1), or § 1366(3). Lastly, eligible applicants must comply with all provisions, policies, and penalties found in Chapter 752, Subchapter C of the Texas Government Code.

Each local unit of government, and institution of higher education that operates a law enforcement agency, must download, complete and then upload into eGrants the CEO/Law Enforcement Certifications and Assurances Form certifying compliance with federal and state immigration enforcement requirements. This Form is required for each application submitted to OOG and is active until August 31, 2025 or the end of the grant period, whichever is later. 

6. Eligible applicants must be registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM) database and have an UEI (Unique Entity ID) number assigned to its agency (to get registered in the SAM database and request an UEI number, go to https://sam.gov/)

Failure to comply with program eligibility requirements may cause funds to be withheld and/or suspension or termination of grant funds.

Grant funds may not be used to support the unallowable costs listed in the Guide to Grants or any of the following unallowable costs:

1. Investigation, arrest, detainment, or prosecution of individuals for engaging in prostitution selling under Texas Penal Code § 43.02;
2. Construction, renovation, or remodeling;
3. Law enforcement equipment that is standard department issue;
4. Judges;
5. Lobbying or advocacy activities with respect to legislation or to administrative changes to regulations, whether conducted directly or indirectly; or
6. Any other prohibition imposed by federal, state, or local law or regulation.

1. Application Screening

The Office of the Governor will screen all applications to ensure that they meet the requirements included in the funding announcement.

2. Merit Review

All applications with be reviewed by the Office of the Governor to understand the overall demand for the program and for significant variations in costs per item. Projects may also be reviewed by a panel selected by the Executive Director of the PSO. The Office of the Governor will determine if all eligible applications can be funded based on funds available, if there are cost-effectiveness benefits to normalizing or setting limits on the range of costs, and if other fair-share cuts may allow for broader distribution and a higher number of projects while still remaining effective. 

3. Final Decisions

The Office of the Governor will make all final funding decisions. Other factors impacting the decision may include eligibility, compliance with program-specific requirements, quality of the application, cost-effectiveness, availability of funding, state government priorities and strategies, legislative directives, or geographic distribution.

For more information, contact the eGrants help desk at egrants@gov.texas.gov or (512) 463-1919.