Resources

Holistic Healing Framework for Boys and Men of Color

Historically, boys and men of color have disproportionately been victims of violence and are underserved by victim service providers. Due to a combination of factors resulting from systemic and interpersonal …
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Holistic Healing Framework for Boys and Men of Color

Historically, boys and men of color have disproportionately been victims of violence and are underserved by victim service providers. Due to a combination of factors resulting from systemic and interpersonal violence, historical trauma, racially-based and state-sanctioned violence (i.e. discriminatory policies, police brutality, mass incarceration) their experience of interpersonal violence and trauma is intensified.

The National Resource Center for Reaching Victims and one of its partner organizations, Common Justice, developed a Holistic Healing Framework using a Restorative Integral Support model, an application of Integral Theory specific to addressing accumulated adversity and trauma to foster resilience and recovery. This paper conceptualizes a framework for a holistic approach to healing, called The Holistic Healing Framework, and offers a theoretical perspective on why it should be applied in victim service provision.

Common Justice
Supporting Deaf & DeafBlind Survivors

Deaf people are 1.5-5 times more likely than hearing people to experience domestic and sexual violence. Despite being at greater risk, they face significant barriers to accessing victim services. Many …
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Supporting Deaf & DeafBlind Survivors

Deaf people are 1.5-5 times more likely than hearing people to experience domestic and sexual violence. Despite being at greater risk, they face significant barriers to accessing victim services. Many mainstream hearing programs want to serve Deaf survivors, but are often unaware of the unique experiences and cultural values of Deaf survivors and are not prepared to provide sign language interpretation.

The Vera Institute of Justice brought together some of the country’s leading experts in supporting Deaf and DeafBlind survivors to answer the field’s most pressing questions about how to support survivors from these communities and best practices for finding and working with qualified interpreters. We created a series of videos about Deaf and DeafBlind culture, best practices for working with Deaf and DeafBlind survivors, and how to find qualified interpreters. There is also a panel discussion highlighting key factors that contributed to a successful partnership between a hearing and Deaf organization.

This video series features five leaders in the Deaf and DeafBlind communities: Roberta Eaton and Najma Johnson with DAWN, Liam Esposito and Amber Hodson with DeafHope, and Raylene Lotz with the Vera Institute of Justice. The videos were filmed in American Sign Language and created by a Deaf video producer, Elizabeth Sorkin.

To make them more accessible for a hearing audience, voice over audio was added. Closed captions are also available.

Vera Institute of Justice
Strategies to Recruit, Hire, and Sustain Diversity in the Workplace

There is strong empirical confirmation that effectively recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse staff is positively correlated with increased organizational performance. Many studies and surveys show however, that recruiting, hiring, …
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Strategies to Recruit, Hire, and Sustain Diversity in the Workplace

There is strong empirical confirmation that effectively recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse staff is positively correlated with increased organizational performance. Many studies and surveys show however, that recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse staff is a challenge that many organizations face. Strategies to Recruit, Hire, and Sustain Diversity in the Workplace responds to this by providing suggestions towards a more comprehensive recruitment strategy and an interview and selection process that addresses biases perpetuated through existing hiring practices. More importantly, Strategies to Recruit, Hire, and Sustain Diversity in the Workplace provides a primer to think about and redesign the existing structures that impede inclusion and equity in the workplace and to create the foundation needed to sustain diversity.

Caminar Latino
Transformational Collaborations: Considerations to Apply a Racial Equity Lens

There is a strong interest and movement towards collaboration in the victim services field. A critical analysis of collaboration efforts that involve culturally specific organizations, however, show they often amount …
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Transformational Collaborations: Considerations to Apply a Racial Equity Lens

There is a strong interest and movement towards collaboration in the victim services field. A critical analysis of collaboration efforts that involve culturally specific organizations, however, show they often amount to little more than a referral network, function independently, and centralize leadership and control. Traditional collaboration concepts fail to critically examine how power is conceptualized, activated, and institutionalized in the United States. This leads to a frequent and pervasive exclusion of culturally specific organizations that perpetuates inequities; even in projects intended to address them. The Transformational Collaborations: Considerations to Apply a Racial Equity Lens will help expose the subtle, yet insidious mechanisms that lead to the marginalization of people of color and culturally specific organizations, offer strategies to resist these mechanisms, and provide recommendations to transform collaborations into equitable partnerships.

Caminar Latino
Building a Culture of Trust

Workplace discussion on issues such as racism, ageism, and heteronormativity can be difficult even in circumstances where people have strong relationships and can assume goodwill. Too often, efforts to address …
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Building a Culture of Trust

Workplace discussion on issues such as racism, ageism, and heteronormativity can be difficult even in circumstances where people have strong relationships and can assume goodwill. Too often, efforts to address culture, oppression and equity fail to recognize the absence of trust or fear of vulnerability that limit the ability to generate the learning and positive influence that can come from interactions where differences arise. Building a Culture of Trust provides guidance to help organizations build connections that can foster trust; engage in the development of strong teams; and promote communication and development opportunities between and among staff when embarking on or building up their equity efforts.

Caminar Latino
Supporting Crime Victims with Disabilities Online Training Toolkit

People with disabilities turn to a variety of support systems in the aftermath of victimization, from family and friends to victim services to their local disability service provider or to …
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Supporting Crime Victims with Disabilities Online Training Toolkit

People with disabilities turn to a variety of support systems in the aftermath of victimization, from family and friends to victim services to their local disability service provider or to law enforcement. When those support systems are knowledgeable about the needs of people with disabilities, they can broaden the paths to healing available to victims with disabilities. The Supporting Crime Victims with Disabilities toolkit was designed to provide comprehensive and culturally responsive informational and educational resources, tools, videos, and examples of best practices for law enforcement, forensic interviewers, victim advocates, and others to prepare them to effectively respond to victims of crime with disabilities across the lifespan. Leveraging the guidance and expertise of representatives from these fields, the toolkit embodies ideals of intersectionality, accessibility, and usability among others. The toolkit includes video testimonials from survivors with disabilities, recorded lectures from professionals across a variety of systems, and interactive activities. You can review the content from beginning to end or select specific topics of interest.

Vera Institute of Justice
Building Partnerships Toolkit

The Building Partnerships Toolkit is based on a pilot project designed to enhance collaboration between state level stakeholders responsible for providing services to children and youth victims of crime. The …
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Building Partnerships Toolkit

The Building Partnerships Toolkit is based on a pilot project designed to enhance collaboration between state level stakeholders responsible for providing services to children and youth victims of crime. The intent of the Building Partnerships Toolkit is to share strategies and resources for cultivating collaborative partnerships between state Chapters of Children’s Advocacy Centers, state Victim of Crime Act Administrators and other state-based child victim service providers. This toolkit offers resources to those seeking to develop and improve collaborative relationships and processes in order to better serve children and youth.

The toolkit includes:

White Paper

This paper takes a systems level look at relationships within the children and youth victim services field. Recognizing that improvements in professional collaboration, at any level, often results in improved outcomes for victims we introduce and advocate for the building of intentional partnerships between State Chapters of Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) and State Victim of Crime Act (VOCA) Administrators. Beyond encouragement we offer a model for building and sustaining such collaborative partnerships between state level drivers of child and youth victim services.

Building Partnerships Toolkit

The Building Partnerships Toolkit provides a structured process for building collaborative partnerships. This step-by-step guide offers a comprehensive set of resources, including timelines, agendas, and facilitated modules, to those looking to engage partners and stakeholders in such a process.

Building Partnerships Toolkit Facilitators Guide

This companion resource is aimed at facilitators tasked with leading a partnership building process. This guide shares insights and reflections from pilot projects, as well as a tips for facilitators that will help to ensure a successful process.

National Children's Advocacy Center
Changing The Identity of Justice

HybridLove Stories is a project that collectively lifts the veil of layers that reside across concurrent identities that fluctuate in and out of the spotlight of anti-violence work. This includes: …
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Changing The Identity of Justice

HybridLove Stories is a project that collectively lifts the veil of layers that reside across concurrent identities that fluctuate in and out of the spotlight of anti-violence work. This includes: Survivor/Advocates; Bi or Multi-Racial Identities; Leadership/Allyship (Helpers); Systems of Justice and Equity; Historical Standards/New Social Change; and the complex “isms” that often decide program processes and our direct services that support Survivors.

This webinar highlights these intersections and layers, offers troubleshooting concepts, and real-time advocacy brick and mortar tools for equity in the anti-violence movement, from the bedrock to the keystone!

Presenter: Rebecca Balog

Webinar Recording

Recorded in September 2020; not live

Other and Vera Institute of Justice
Strategies to Ensure Equitable Programming: Understanding the VOCA Victim Assistance Rule and Funding Opportunities at the State Level

This webinar provides participants with critical information surrounding VOCA Victim Assistance funding, the 2016 rule change interpreting allowable uses of these funds, and key data findings regarding access to services …
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Strategies to Ensure Equitable Programming: Understanding the VOCA Victim Assistance Rule and Funding Opportunities at the State Level

This webinar provides participants with critical information surrounding VOCA Victim Assistance funding, the 2016 rule change interpreting allowable uses of these funds, and key data findings regarding access to services currently across the field. It highlights strategies for leveraging opportunities through VOCA to expand the reach of programming to survivors within the states.

Presenter: Heather Warnken

Webinar Recording

*Recorded in August 2020; not live

Other and Vera Institute of Justice
Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder: Impact on Marginalized Communities

This virtual session explores the connection between violence, trauma and dissociative identity disorder (DID). The presenter discusses what DID is, how it develops, and how it complicates a person’s ability …
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Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder: Impact on Marginalized Communities

This virtual session explores the connection between violence, trauma and dissociative identity disorder (DID). The presenter discusses what DID is, how it develops, and how it complicates a person’s ability to move through the world and healing. Additionally, the presenter explores who is able to access healing from DID and the reality that marginalized communities are left out of identifying the challenges of DID in people’s lives and therefore, unaccounted for in the systems set up to support healing. This session also suggests some ways in which to address this gap and barrier.

Presenter: Olga Trujillo, Director of Education and Social Change at Latinos United for Peace and Equity, a project of Caminar Latino.

Webinar Recording

*Recorded in August 2020; not live

Latinos United for Peace & Equity (LUPE) at Caminar Latino and Vera Institute of Justice

Resources

Holistic Healing Framework for Boys and Men of Color

Holistic Healing Framework for Boys and Men of Color

Supporting Deaf & DeafBlind Survivors

Supporting Deaf & DeafBlind Survivors

Strategies to Recruit, Hire, and Sustain Diversity in the Workplace

Strategies to Recruit, Hire, and Sustain Diversity in the Workplace

Transformational Collaborations: Considerations to Apply a Racial Equity Lens

Transformational Collaborations: Considerations to Apply a Racial Equity Lens

Building a Culture of Trust

Building a Culture of Trust

Supporting Crime Victims with Disabilities Online Training Toolkit

Supporting Crime Victims with Disabilities Online Training Toolkit

Building Partnerships Toolkit

Building Partnerships Toolkit

The toolkit includes:

Changing The Identity of Justice

Changing The Identity of Justice

Webinar Recording

Strategies to Ensure Equitable Programming: Understanding the VOCA Victim Assistance Rule and Funding Opportunities at the State Level

Strategies to Ensure Equitable Programming: Understanding the VOCA Victim Assistance Rule and Funding Opportunities at the State Level

Webinar Recording

Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder: Impact on Marginalized Communities

Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder: Impact on Marginalized Communities

Webinar Recording

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