Helping Victims of Crime

Al Lenhardt, President and CEO

April 23-29, 2006, marks National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW). Presented by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), this year’s theme will be Victims’ Rights: Strength in Unity. This message pays tribute to crime victims and survivors who, for many decades, have joined together in mutual support and advocacy to promote victims’ rights and services. It also recognizes the ongoing efforts of countless victim service providers, justice professionals, and allied professionals and volunteers who dedicate their lives to helping victims of crime.

I urge you to use National Crime Victims’ Rights Week as a time of remembrance, reflection, and recommitment for crime victims, survivors, and those who serve them. NCVRW seeks to raise individual and public awareness about the rights and needs of crime victims, the challenges that victims face in seeking help and hope in the aftermath of crime, and the positive impact that individuals and communities can have by providing services and support to victims and survivors of crime. 

All too often victims of crime feel that the criminal justice system doesn’t restore what crime and criminals have take from them. At the National Crime Prevention Council, we believe that the process of justice should address the broken relationships that occur when a crime has been committed   -   relationships between victims and offenders and the larger community. 

NCPC’s Youth Outreach and Victim Assistance (YOVA) program seeks to address the problem of teen victimization by initiating awareness campaigns to educate youth about victimization and the services that can support teen victims of crime and by providing resources to victim service providers so they can better reach and serve teen victims. Schools, victim service providers, faith-based groups, and community youth centers from across the United States were selected to serve as YOVA sites.  Our YOVA work includes

• Conducting a national training for more than 90 youth and adults from the YOVA sites.  Each site sent at least two youth and one adult to the training that was held in Washington, DC, last August.
• Publishing Reaching and Serving Teen Victims: A Practical Handbook to provide strategies for assessing the extent and nature of teen victimization in the community, creating effective outreach, making the service environment teen-friendly, and interacting with teens in helpful and productive ways. More than 1,500 copies were ordered from the Council’s Fulfillment Center within six weeks of the printing, depleting the stock. This resource has been reprinted and is also available online.
• Providing technical assistance via monthly conference calls and site visits to the 28 active YOVA sites.

For more information on crime victims, visit www.ovc.gov. For more information on YOVA, contact Joselle Shea at 202-261-4111 or jshea@ncpc.org.