Summary:

When conducting assessments or forensic exams with a victim of domestic violence, any reported history of strangulation places the person at a higher risk for more serious violence or homicide at the hands of their intimate partner. Strangulation can have serious, permanent, or even fatal damage to a victim's throat or brain (Vehling, 2020). However, healthcare providers can help mitigate long-term damage by recognizing signs of strangulation, properly documenting any evidence of abuse, and providing referrals for seeking safety assistance. How do you recognize the signs and symptoms of strangulation? What can you do after identifying a victim of strangulation?
 

Reference

Vehling, S. (2020). Why strangulation in domestic violence is a huge red flag. Shelter for Abused Women & Children. https://naplesshelter.org/strangulation

Summary:

Trauma-informed supervision refers to a supervisory approach that recognizes and addresses the impact of trauma on individuals within an organizational setting. This type of supervision is grounded in an understanding of trauma and its effects on individuals’ thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships. Essentially, it aims to create a supportive environment for those working with trauma survivors, acknowledging the potential impact of their work on their own well-being and providing opportunities for learning and self-care. What are the challenges and benefits to providing trauma-informed supervision?

Summary:

According to the UCLA School of Law, Williams Institute, nearly one in six young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 identify as LGBT. As a victim service provider, what can you do to make it easier for young LGBTQI+ victims of crime to disclose their identity to you? What can you do to provide a safe and empathic space? What support resources are available to the LGBTQI+ community?

Summary:

Sexual assault on college and university campuses is a pervasive problem that often goes unreported. It includes any unwanted sexual activity, from unwanted touching to rape. Alcohol and drugs often play a role in sexual assault on campuses. How can we effectively and compassionately respond to sexual assault on college and university campuses that is victim-centered and trauma-informed?

Summary:

Cyberstalking involves repeated use of technology to contact and harass someone else, causing them to fear for their safety. Cyberstalking is a form of cyberbullying which occurs when someone uses technology to demean, inflict harm, or cause pain to another person through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. Both are common among teens. What is the impact of cyberstalking and cyberbullying on teens? What can teachers and schools do to prevent or reduce their incidence? How do you report cyberstalking and cyberbullying? What laws are in place to protect teens?

Summary:

Drunk, drugged, or distracted drivers are more likely to cause traffic crashes and cause harm or death. Drugged driving is increasing due to the opioid crisis, the prevalence of prescription drugs, and the laws legalizing recreational marijuana use. Distracted driving—engaging in other activities while driving—is increasingly common. How can victim service providers best provide services to survivors, families, and friends following an impaired driving incident?

Summary:

The expressive arts, either writing, painting, singing, movement, or making music, can offer powerful strategies to provide services to victims. The arts can be used to explore feelings, foster self-awareness, reduce anxiety, and increase self-esteem. This session provides an overview of the healing power of the arts and how to incorporate the arts into your work with victims and survivors, even if you are not an artist.

“I found I could say things with color or shape that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for.”  Georgia O’Keefe

Summary:

Victim impact programs are designed to foster empathy from offenders about how their actions harmed others. Correctional and probation employees often facilitate the programs to help guide offenders through various crime types and learn the potential impact each offense may have on victims. By understanding the impact of crime on victims, victims’ families, and communities, offenders can develop strategies to avoid repeating their criminal behaviors. In this session, participants learn about victim impact programs and how best to implement them in young offender and adult institutions.

Summary:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intimate partner violence (IPV) is a serious public health problem that can have a profound impact on lifelong health, opportunity, and well-being. Immigrant women report higher rates of domestic violence and less access to services. Language barriers and cultural taboos can make it more difficult for those seeking help to find it; therefore, many immigrant survivors turn to faith leaders for help. This session provides an overview of the current state of faith leaders’ practices regarding domestic violence and discuss faith leaders’ role in the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of IPV. In addition, participants learn how to engage and collaborate with faith leaders for domestic violence prevention and intervention.

Summary:

Victims of workplace bullying may suffer physical, emotional, and psychological effects. They can exhibit burnout, absenteeism, low morale, less job satisfaction, loss of income, and fewer total hours worked (Scott, 2018). In this session, participants learn about the connections between workplace bullying and burnout among victim advocates and how to promote self-care and prevent work-related stress, trauma, and exhaustion conditions.

Summary:

For decades, collaboration across organizations and systems has been encouraged as an essential part of a community’s effective response to serving crime victims. These collaborations, however, have not come without challenges and unintended consequences. From their wide range of substantive and practical experiences working with diverse teams, including LGBTQ+ communities and communities of color, our facilitators share strategies to navigate the obstacles that come with building effective collaborative partnerships. This session is an opportunity for advocates and other allies to explore the creation of meaningful cross-system priorities and leveraging blended and braided funding to support effective collaboration while leading with a community-responsive approach.

Summary:

Many victim service providers deliver trainings as part of their job. In this session, we provide tips on how to develop effective trainings and deliver them with energy and style, as well as strategies on how to design and deliver trainings that focus on communities of color. We examine how you can create effective PowerPoint slides, engage participants, and increase your comfort when training others.

Summary:

Environmental crimes often involve injury or harm to human, pet, and wildlife health and the environment. These criminal violations may result in direct and proximate harm in the form of adverse health impacts or, in the most extreme cases, death. Organizations and businesses may also suffer economic harm due to violations of federal environmental laws and other associated crimes. This session provides an overview of the Environmental Crime Victim Assistance Program and addresses the unique victim identification and rights issues associated with environmental crimes.

Summary:

Given the positive effects on survivors, many victim service providers have added or are considering adding a professionally trained facility dog to their programs. During this session, experts provide practical information about how you can incorporate a courthouse facility dog into your Child Advocacy Center, District Attorney’s Office, Family Courts, Tribal Courts, or other direct victim service programs. Learn how these highly trained facility dogs can work alongside victim service and law enforcement professionals to provide emotional support and positive interactions with children and other survivors. Discover the training required to become a facility dog handler and find accredited assistance dog organizations through Assistance Dogs International.

Summary:

While vicarious trauma is both a normal and inevitable response to working with victims of crime, there is growing recognition of the need to build trauma-informed organizations and supportive partnerships to mitigate the negative impacts of secondary trauma and expand opportunities to enhance resiliency. This session provides an overview of OVC TTAC’s engagement with communities across the United States in developing and sustaining vicarious trauma peer-to-peer collaboratives.

Summary:

Indigenous people across the country have sounded the alarm for years about the disturbing and disproportionate rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the United States. It is only in recent years that the media and public attention began to look at the crisis. This session is an opportunity for advocates and other allies to increase their understanding of the alarming prevalence of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and how, as the Urban Indian Health Institute says, “… institutional practices allow them to disappear not once, but three times—in life, in media, and in the data.”

Summary:

This session provides participants with practical guidance and insight on creating inclusive environments, practices, and policies that support transgender survivors. As a result of this session, participants will be better equipped to discuss factors that contribute to increased risk of victimization for individuals who are transgender; define and implement inclusive language and terminology within service provision; and learn how to create and maintain inclusive environments.

Summary:

Although research to date has explored the impacts of exposure to trauma for victim service providers, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, law enforcement, and EMTs, fewer studies have explored secondary trauma among prosecutors. This session provides an overview of the findings of a research study that applied qualitative methods to examine the perspectives of prosecutors in Virginia who work sex crime cases. The discussion includes mitigation strategies for criminal justice system personnel designed to enhance resiliency while working with victims of crime.

Summary:

Mass violence incidents require preparation and coordination across a wide range of organizations and stakeholders. As a victim assistance provider, you may be expected to respond and support victims in extraordinary circumstances. Some of these activities may be very similar to the work you do every day, but there will be differences, and your role may expand to providing leadership and support to more nontraditional critical activities. How can you and other victim service providers in your community be best prepared to be part of an effective response? What existing trainings and activities used by other agencies and emergency management planners would be most helpful for your preparation? This session covers proactive strategies for connecting with local resources and identifying resources that can help prepare victim assistance practitioners for their role in mass violence incident response and recovery.

Summary:

The International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program (ITVERP) is a unique federal program that provides financial reimbursement to victims of international terrorism and their families for expenses related to medical and mental health care, funeral and burial, repatriation of the victim’s remains, property loss, and miscellaneous expenses such as emergency travel. Eligible victims include U.S. citizens and foreign nationals working for the U.S. Government at the time of the terrorist act who suffer direct physical or emotional injury from an act of terrorism while outside the United States.

ITVERP is funded through the Antiterrorism Emergency Reserve (the Emergency Reserve), a component of the Crime Victims Fund (the Fund). The Fund is financed by fines, penalties, and forfeitures paid by convicted federal criminal offenders as well as gifts, donations, and private bequests; it does not use tax dollars. This session provides an overview of ITVERP and provides an example of a typical claim and the process for responding to claims.

Summary:

Measuring victim service outcomes is a key element in determining a program’s effectiveness and improving the quality of services for survivors. Data are critical for demonstrating a program’s success. Several common barriers make collecting data difficult and burdensome. Those barriers include determining what outcomes to measure, selecting an appropriate tool or method for collecting data, finding solutions that best represent the program, and integrating outcome measurement into existing processes and procedures. In this session, participants discuss best practices in measuring victim service outcomes and share solutions to common challenges. In addition, the hosts share findings from the new Outcomes Measurement Tool, a resource developed by the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center to assist programs with developing and tracking outcome data and establishing more streamlined measures.

Summary:

This Q&A session, presented by staff from the U.S. Department of Justice National Elder Fraud Hotline To Assist Victims of Financial Fraud, provides examples of common types of financial fraud that occur among the older adult population, along with tips on how to identify a scam. Presenters also provide ideas for caregivers to help identify when an older adult may be experiencing a fraudulent situation and how to address it with the older adult.

Summary:

Trauma affects individuals and communities in profound and unique ways. First responders and victim service providers may be seeking best practices to address the effects of trauma, especially for those who have experienced homicide and other forms of violence. This session provides participants with strategies to develop and deliver a coordinated response to victims that addresses the impacts of trauma using a replicable national model, Frontline Service's Traumatic Response Team.

Summary:

As issues around race are being discussed more openly in the current environment, many victim advocates are grappling with the reality of the complex and often harmful impacts of collaborative system responses to intimate partner violence on Black and Brown victims of intimate partner violence. This session provides an opportunity to explore the intersections of experiences of racism in the Black community and offers a reimagining of how our communities respond to intimate partner violence.

Summary:

Increasing numbers of individuals of all ages are experiencing harassment online, which can include physical threats, harassment over a sustained period, sexual harassment, or stalking. Cyberharassment, including cyberstalking, can happen on the Internet and in other digital spaces, particularly on social media sites. This session is an opportunity for advocates and other allied professionals to increase their understanding of the various ways that harassment can take place using electronic means, the effects of this type of harassment, and how best to support victims of these types of crimes.

Summary:

With recent changes to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, victim service providers may be seeking best practices in providing comprehensive support to teen victims of dating violence. This session provides an overview of victims’ rights, resources, and safety measures available under Title IX and ways to advocate and coordinate effectively with Title IX administrators in high schools and on college campuses.

Summary:

Presenters discuss approaches to implementing trauma-informed best practices into volunteer and intern programs, as well as explore how investing time and energy into these programs increases organizational capacity and is effective in strengthening programs, outreach, and advocacy efforts. During this session, participants will identify trauma-informed approaches that organizations can take to strengthen volunteer and intern programs; discuss innovative approaches to volunteer and intern recruitment, management, and retention; and identify resources for additional support and continuing education.

Summary:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), homicide is the third leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women between 0 and 24 years of age, and the fifth leading cause of death for AI/AN women between 25 and 34 years of age. Additionally, indigenous women are more likely than other women to experience sexual and physical violence. This session addresses resources available to indigenous victims of violence.

Summary:

What does a community do when one day they experience a mass shooting and the next day the same community is hit with a devastating tornado? Preparing a comprehensive response to incidents of mass violence or terrorism includes planning for the possibility that an incident could occur when another community crisis is taking place, such as a natural disaster or health response. While all communities have natural disaster response plans and some are prepared for incidents of mass violence and terrorism, we seldom consider that a co-response (responding to two incidents at the same time) may be necessary. This session discusses some of the points of consideration when creating a co-response plan, including suggestions and challenges.

Summary:

This session provides information on understanding sexual assault reporting options in the military, in addition to immediate and long-term support services available to survivors. This session ensures that sexual assault victim advocates have a better understanding of potential gaps in services, as well as assistance, support, and interventions available to victims.

Summary:

Non-fatal strangulation is an insidious form of violence that often goes unreported. This session is an opportunity for advocates, law enforcement, and other allied professionals to increase their awareness and understanding about the serious health, neurological, and emotional effects of non-fatal strangulation within the context of domestic violence and sexual assault. Victims of non-fatal strangulation are at higher risk of death, so it is essential for those working with victims to recognize possible indicators of strangulation injuries and understand the critical importance of referring for medical assistance, even when no visible injuries are present.

Summary:

Launched in March 2020 and managed by OVC, the hotline is available to assist older adults who may be victims of financial fraud in reporting fraud to the appropriate agencies. As a result of the session, participants will be able to identify services available to victims through the hotline and identify resources and approaches for referring potential victims of financial fraud for additional support.

Summary:

In this session, participants will learn about strategies to recognize and respond to work-related trauma exposure and how this exposure may impact successful working relationships with victims of crime in their communities. The session also highlights resources available to first responders to address secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma.

Summary:

Is your organization positioned to continue providing high-quality services to victims of crime while navigating the ebb and flow of resources, changes in organizational assets, and shifting community partnerships? These are just a few factors essential to sustainability, which is defined as the capacity of a program or organization to accomplish long-lasting success and stability. Find out more about starting or expanding your organization’s sustainability planning efforts.

Summary:

Polyvictimization refers to having experienced multiple victimizations, such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, bullying, and exposure to family violence, and occurs when individuals experience different kinds of victimization, rather than multiple episodes of the same kind of victimization. Understanding the prevalence, occurrence, and identification of polyvictimization across all generations is essential for victim advocates and other victim-serving professionals to help ensure that the right types of assistance, support, and intervention are made available.

Summary:

Family Justice Centers provide a “one-stop shop” for victims of family violence (intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse). These co-located, multidisciplinary service centers reduce the number of places a victim must go to receive services following the crime. Services include, but are not limited to, assistance with protective orders, legal services, medical, counseling, safety planning, and more. This session allows the audience to inquire about innovative practices within the Family Justice Center model.

Summary:

Presenters discuss trauma-informed approaches to increasing community awareness of labor trafficking, as well as explore how to help community partners provide potential victims with appropriate resources for support. As a result of the session, participants will: identify approaches that victim service providers can take to expand their knowledge and/or community knowledge of labor trafficking, discuss innovative approaches for outreach and awareness on labor trafficking, and identify resources and approaches for referring potential victims of labor trafficking safely for additional support.