In our first podcast, we hear the powerful personal story of Juanita Batchelor – a mother, grandmother, survivor, advocate, and activist – whose life was changed forever when her son was murdered. Juanita discusses the hurdles crime survivors go through trying to exercise their right to victim compensation; and what can be done to improve victim compensation services.
Crime Victim Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story
Episode 1: Juanita Batchelor
Released: April 26, 2022
Intro:
Welcome to the OVC VOCA Center podcast series, Crime Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story. This podcast provides a platform to those who have been impacted due to crime to tell their story. The stories spotlight the perspective of those who have experienced harm due to crime and connects their experience to issues affecting Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, victim assistance, and state compensation administrators resulting in the sharing of promising practices and highlighting areas for improvement. This podcast is made possible through a grant from the Federal Office for Victims of Crime. Opinions and points of view expressed in this podcast are those of the presenters and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Department of Justice. Throughout today's conversation, we may discuss difficult issues such as trauma, violence, and victimization, and their impact on all of us. Please don't hesitate to take a break from listening. Taking care of yourself is what's most important to us.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Thank you for tuning in today to Crime Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story. I'm Aurelia Sands Belle, research instructor at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center located at the Medical University of South Carolina, and I've been an advocate for crime victims and survivors for nearly 40 years. Throughout this podcast series, we'll listen and learn from survivors about out how to make the theme of 2022 National Crime Victims Rights Week rights, access, equity for all victims a reality in their lives and learn about the many challenges that they face on their road and journey toward justice. Over the past 50 years, we've learned that the power of the personal story of crime survivors is the driving force and guiding light of the entire victim survivor assistance profession.
When we take time to listen to survivors, we learn that each survivor is unique with needs that are specific not only to the crime, but also to their extensive life experiences. We learn how we as victim service providers and as concerned community members can do better to identify and meet the needs of crime survivors. And perhaps most importantly, we learn what propels many survivors into a life of advocacy and activism to improve the treatment of crime survivors that follow them on their painful journey to help, hope, and healing. Today, we'll hear the power of the personal story of Juanita Batchelor, a mother and grandmother from Springfield, Massachusetts, whose life was dramatically altered in 2014 and who wants to share her personal experiences as a crime survivor to affect changes in the systems and in the attitudes that victims often confront in the aftermath of violent crime. Let's welcome to the podcast Juanita.
Juanita Batchelor:
Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to be here. Thank you for having me.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
So glad you agreed to do this today.
Juanita Batchelor:
I appreciate it. I'm truly honored.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Well, it is our honor to have you. Juanita, I want to take us back to June 4th of 2014 in Springfield, a day that completely changed the trajectory of your life. Can you tell us about what happened?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. June 4th, 2014 is absolutely the most devastating day of my life. My grandmother's funeral was June 4th. She had passed away in May. And my son Darrell Jenkins Jr. was going to be a pallbearer for her funeral, so he stayed at my house that night and he was getting his hair braided, we were cooking, and everything was going great. Who would have knew by the end of that night that my son would be shot down. At 12:06, I told my son his friends had to go home so we can get sleep for the funeral in the morning. And my son left out at 12:06 a.m. to walk the young ladies down the street to their home, and by 12:26, my son was pronounced dead. And between that, I heard knocking on a door and they said, "Auntie, they're shooting out here. They're shooting out here." And I said, "Well, where's Darrell?" And they're like, "We don't know. We don't know."
So I said, "Let me go put my clothes on and we're going to go look for him." And I come back outside and I see the medics working on him. I just dropped in the middle of the street. They wouldn't let me near him, touch him, of course. And then when he was pronounced dead, the police came and he was now part of a crime scene, so I really couldn't touch him or just hold him. So he just died with me standing there watching him in front of our home. So that's a vision I can never erase out my head. My son was 23 years old at the time with two daughters, so it was very devastating. And people put it on Facebook, so by the time the police and everybody knew, so I didn't get to tell his father's side. They found out through Facebook. So that was another devastating [inaudible 00:06:17]. And I had to tell his sister who was at the time pregnant with twins who fainted and had to go to the hospital. So it was just very devastating. It was very devastating.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
You described Darrell as a loving son and he was a father. He also had his profession and he was an aspiring musician. Homicide family survivors speak out for their loved ones who no longer can speak for themselves, and you've been telling us about Darrell's life and his impact within your family and the way that you were notified and the impact on his sister. Can you tell us a little bit more about the interaction that you had that night with law enforcement?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. So I was in a straight shock, numb. I remember police asking me do I know the names of people he was with. I know the main thing that I can't get out my head is how long my son was laid in the street covered with that black bag. But they were questioning me and all I could focus on is my son laying in the street. And I was just out of it. And I think personally for me, that it's difficult trying to talk about what's going on at that particular time. I don't think I was in the right state of mind. I couldn't remember people's names that were my family members. I really didn't feel with the state of mind I was in, the police should have been questioning me. I think maybe if we had some kind of advocacy or a homicide social worker or advocate or something there to kind of get to me and get... Or be able to talk to me and ask me these questions or understand what I was going through at that time. It might have been an easier process.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
So Juanita, you didn't have a victim advocate come and talk to you? Or at what point did you have a victim advocate to come in and to talk to you?
Juanita Batchelor:
Okay. So, no, I didn't have a victim advocate at the scene of the crime. It was just the police and the medics. I did end up getting an advocate maybe a few days later when the detectives came to meet me. I'm not quite sure on the time for that, but I know it was after... The police came and they told me the detective that was going to be on my case and they gave me a card so that I can have an appointment to go down to the courthouse, and that when I met with the detective and assistant DA, that's when I met my advocate.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Okay.
Juanita Batchelor:
So I met my advocate in a courthouse.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
You said something earlier, and it's so important for people to understand, that the initial trauma of victimization means things like it's hard to understand and to be in real time.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Experience what's going on. And you talked about not being able to even think clearly. Grief has a way of doing that anyway, but traumatic grief, what you experienced, the things that linger in your mind, they can affect how you interact with the law enforcement, with other service providers, even with your own family and friends. You said some of that when you were talking about not being even able to give basic information on some level to law enforcement. Do you remember?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. Yes. It was very difficult. Like I said, they were asking me who my son was with, and it was some of my nephews. I could not think of their names. I just was so numb and shocked and I know I was focused on his body just laying in the street, because he was literally just in the street for hours and hours. So yes, that affected me, it kind of got me... Started getting me angry. I went from numb to angry, like "I'm not leaving my son" and fighting and yelling, like "I'm not leaving my son out here in the street by himself."
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Oh my goodness. That feeling of helplessness.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
And disbelief, it sounds to me.
Juanita Batchelor:
Definitely helpless. Like I said, I couldn't save my baby. I couldn't save him and... Sorry.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Yeah. That's okay. It's all right. It is okay. I know this is hard.
Juanita Batchelor:
I couldn't save him. I didn't know his last words. Was he calling for me? And when he left out, I blamed myself, like I shouldn't have told him to go walk the girls home. I should have... So I started blaming myself that this happened to him because I let him walk the girls. So a long time, that was a big thing too.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Yeah. Just [inaudible 00:11:49] those haunting images that you have of him, as you described, in the condition that he was in, lying in the streets. But that was in front of your home. Am I correct?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes, it was. So when people started coming from hearing it on Facebook, they started coming and jumping the crime scenes and the lines and then his baby mom ended up bringing the kids, who at the time were seven and one, so they got to see... The seven year old... The one year old doesn't remember now that she's eight, but the seven year old who is now 14 was there at the time, and that was just chaotic. It was chaotic. I just felt lost.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
And it's so important that we all remember that there's so many people who are impacted by the things that happen. So when you talk about what you saw and people who were in your home saw and then it spread through social media and then his children were brought to the scene, the impact it had on his sister, there's so many touch points with this kind of crime. And what we've seen in the United States is that nearly 25,000 people are murdered and were murdered last year, and it's up to people like you and to all of us to honor their lives and to recognize what is lost. Each and every homicide in America.
So it's not that just the 25,000, but that's multiplied by three, four, five, 10, 15, impacted by that one person's life, and probably more than that, because we don't even know that extent. You talked about some things that we've talked a lot about around the issue of trauma cues. And we used to say trauma triggers, but we're trying to use some different language and say that there are things that cue us to our traumatic feelings. And those trauma cues are some of the things that you've described that you faced, things that remind you of what your experience was that night and things that literally take you back to the scene of the crime. Could you tell us about any particular things that cue you to the trauma that you experienced that night, that remind you, that bring to memory what you experienced?
Juanita Batchelor:
First off, any time I hear firecrackers or gunshots, it brings me back and I'm automatically calling my brother, my nephews, all the boys in my family to see where you guys are at to make sure they're safe, make sure it wasn't them. And another thing that cues me is just the mothers or the family members, of seeing them grieving. It just brings me back to when it was my day, when it was June 4th, and knowing how they're feeling inside. Really, it just eats me up because I know what they're about to experience.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Yes. I'm grateful that you could share those because one of the things that people need to understand about trauma cues is that it's a normal response to what they've experienced, and there are going to be things. And as long as they can recognize what those cues are for them, just like you said, you can kind of sense it and you know from what you experienced, maybe what they might be approaching, and yet what you are also still dealing with and that's still going on for you. There's so many things that can cue us as to what that experience has been, but it is so helpful to have someone help people understand what those reminders are and to figure out ways to handle it because violent crime can re-traumatize a survivor. And as I listen to you, as you help others, you really kind of reexperience that trauma again. Would you say?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes, absolutely. And even though it hurts me, that's what drives me to want to continue to help because I know what they're going to feel. Yeah. Definitely.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
So we should, all of us, recognize that literally anyone who helps a crime survivor, which is now what you are on that side of being a helper, you can also have a trauma cue. And so we ask victims who are witnesses to repeatedly talk about what happened, and even though we are here to help them, we often are a reminder of the pain of their victimization. And so it's... It means that we have to try to work really hard at one, managing our own feelings and getting help for the stress of the jobs that we do on a day to day basis, but also recognize that sometimes, although we're there to help, we are a memory in what they have experienced.
So we can't take that personal. I will say that in Massachusetts, as in all 50 states, crime victims have rights under the law. That includes the rights to be informed about what's happening in their case, the right to reasonable protection, and the right to apply for crime victim compensation. They help pay for some of the expenses that occur as a result of the crime. Things like funeral services and counseling are the kinds of things that crime victims compensation can help with. Were you able to get anyone to tell you about those services as a family of a homicide victim? Was there anyone who told you about the availability of crime victim services?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. The funeral home director.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Okay.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yeah. She told us about those services.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Was she instrumental in helping you complete the application or did you have to do that on your own?
Juanita Batchelor:
Well, my sister-in-law worked with Ms. Paulette, the funeral home people. They basically were handling my paperwork at that time because I was still too... I was too emotional and distraught to do any of the paperwork.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
I want to talk a little bit more about that process for you, but I'd like right now for us just to take a short break and then we'll come back and pick up with that application process, how it went for you, and some other questions and areas that we want to talk to you about. Okay?
Juanita Batchelor:
Thank you. Yes.
Speaker 1:
For crime survivors who may be experiencing some of the same mental health challenges that Juanita discussed, the National Alliance on Mental Illness can help. NAMI is the nation's largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness, such as depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder. NAMI has more than 600 state organizations and local affiliates across the country. You can learn more about NAMI's services at its website, nami.org, that's N-A-M-I.org. For survivors who are experiencing a crisis, please call NAMI's toll-free helpline at 800-950-NAMi. That's 800-950-6264 Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. You can also text NAMI for help at 741741.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Thank you so much, Juanita, for coming back, and let's kind of complete this conversation we've been having. You talked about getting help with the crime victim compensation application by working with a funeral home director. Was that challenging in terms of going through that process? How did that work for you and your family?
Juanita Batchelor:
It was difficult because we all were grieving and we were all in disbelief and this was all new to all of us. So Ms. Paulette had actually just did my grandmother's funeral there, so that's why she... Well, one of the reasons we were already to know to ask her to find out about the victim's pay. But it ended up being a very long time before we got it. They had to investigate my son to make sure he wasn't the cause of his own death or something, I guess they do. So I did, but I did end up finally getting it through the process, and I think it could be a different process of how quick you can get it or be in the way they screen you to get it. But we did end up getting it in the long run.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
So could you speak to that a little bit more? You said that the way they screened you and you talked about investigating your son.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. For me, my opinion, I feel what they told me is that "We have to make sure he wasn't the cause of his own death" so he didn't do anything to anybody or he didn't do anything to deserve this. And also, I just feel they did that as the color of his skin. They automatically judged him.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Because...
Juanita Batchelor:
Because of the neighborhood he was in and the way he was more murdered, I feel they thought he was gang related, and he was clearly not gang related. It was in the papers that he was not a gang member. So I didn't feel they should have investigated him or judged him because that left him sitting. So my baby laid in the street for hours and then he sat in the funeral home for more days. He was killed on June 4th. We couldn't bury him until the 18th and we still hadn't received the victim witness compensation by that time. We ended up receiving it May 2015.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Well, a year later or almost a year later.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
You alluded that you thought it had to do with him being a Black male?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. A Black male in the neighborhood or a Black gang member.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
That's very hurtful.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. Yes.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
How did you find out about your case and how it was moving? Were you able to work with your victim advocates?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes, but I felt when I went to my first meeting, it was... I felt uncomfortable. It was the DA, my advocate, and the detective all on one side of the table, and then it was me on the other side, and I felt like I was still alone. I didn't know what to do, like what questions should I answer? What questions shouldn't I answer. I mean, they were asking me questions about other homicides and I felt like I was in interrogation more than in a place, a space that was here to help me solve my son's case.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Oh my goodness. So there was an assumption made that your son was involved in a gang even though you were able to provide information from the police to department as well as from the local papers that they did not believe that he was involved, and then you go to a meeting with your crime victim advocate, and I guess it was law enforcement there and you were still being questioned?
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. Yes.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
My goodness. And I think that it's important for us to recognize even, even for those of us who are system based, we are there to help victims, and that hopefully we figure that out and to see how if you are sitting on one side of the table away from the victim, that doesn't speak very highly of the support that that victim and that family would need. There's just so much to your story and what you're telling us, and that whole notion of going through the, I guess, allegation or theory that your son may have been involved in some activity that you had trouble getting him buried. I mean, it took some time. How did you raise the funds or how did you get him buried?
Juanita Batchelor:
I was working at the time. Well, once the homicide happened, I just stopped going to work, but I had a couple checks left. He paid for his funeral kind of because he had a few checks left. My job raised money for me. My church raised money for me. And it's very hurtful because I had a policy on my son, and even with that, I had to fight for his policy, so I was just fighting all the way around and not really getting my space to grieve, and that wears and tears on your mental health.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
It does. It does. So speak of the word mental health, could you tell me, what did you do? What was available to you for addressing your mental health needs?
Juanita Batchelor:
Well, eventually I ended up signing myself into a BHN because I was so distraught. I had to fight to move out of the house. I had to fight to get my son's children through DCF.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
What does that stand for? I'm sorry to interrupt you, but [crosstalk 00:26:50].
Juanita Batchelor:
Department of Children and Family. So I was just fighting and it was just back to back where I wasn't getting any grieving. I started self-medicating, and I just know once I got guardianship of the kids, I had to get myself together. And I admitted myself into the BHN respite and started getting help. And then I went to, when you graduate from the respite, they send you to the day program, like the day groups, and I would go to the day groups from eight to three. And I got back involved with my church because I had lost all hope with God. I got back into my church and started getting counseling from my bishop, and I also was in South Bay getting therapy from the counselors from South Bay.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
There's so much here. It's just so much to think about how all of this comes together and can impact a person. And when we talk about mental health, you've talked about what I would describe, and you tell me, hopelessness, despair, what to do, and for you, it was to, while you're battling your own internal things, you still are trying to fight this system to get children in your care. So you were self-medicating, but you saw that that was not the answer and you knew how to reach out for help. There's some traditional things you mentioned, which I think are wonderful, and then you did some spiritual care. So if you were looking at traditional mental health services, were they available to you and your family?
Juanita Batchelor:
There were places that we can go and groups and therapy, but at the same time, we felt out of place. A lot of the people did not look like us. A lot of their stories were way different. People still looked at us in the groups like he... Just how the police and everybody. It was already like we were judged in these groups because some murders were vehicle homicide, some were school shootings, but then here goes my Black son, six feet, just got shot in front of his mom's house for no reason at all. And from there it just... I felt uncomfortable and I didn't want to tell my story. I didn't feel comfortable talking anymore after certain things were said or questions asked, like "Why was he outside?" Or stuff that wasn't asked when the other families were telling their stories.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Was that group specifically a homicide support group? Was it sponsored by your victim advocacy program?
Juanita Batchelor:
I believe it was from the victim advocacy program. They work with the family advocacy center, so they have those folks. And they were really nice folks there, but one of the ladies who ran it was a 20 year old Caucasian woman, and I didn't want to tell her anything because the story made her feel so bad. But like I said, on the older people that were there, how I felt judged with the questions of, "Why was he out here?" Or "Why did this?" Or "Who did it?" Or "Is that a gang area?" And just questions that they would ask in the group and I didn't feel comfortable. So that was one of the first motivations that made me want to start my own support group.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
And I think it's so important, again, that we hear your words. What you said to us is that you went to a group that was sponsored by your victim advocacy program, but yet you didn't feel comfortable and a fit there because culturally, they didn't understand what your experience was. So I'm so sorry again that you went through that. We've talked about every situation being unique, and I'm listening to you about your access to services and how that was limited for you and also how culturally, you were... Things were missing for you and how judgmental people were.
I think again, it calls for us as applicants to really be aware of what each crime survivor is going through and making certain that we don't put judgment on people. In this field, over 10,000 organizations across the nation that help people, but here it is in your experience that I'm hearing that not all of the programs that were available were really a good fit for you. And Juanita, you talked about that experience and moving it to a new level. And so in 2000... 2018, rather, you started Mother Overlooked Reaching Out Empowerment, or MORE. And I found it interesting that it was a singular and I kept trying to hear for that, but it was Mother Overlooked Reaching Out Empowerment. And so that almost looks like your journey. As a mom, you were overlooked. You were reaching out. But now you've got your power.
Juanita Batchelor:
Yes. And thank you on that because a lot of people didn't... They would add S's on it and they think this is a mothers only group, and MORE is not a mothers only group because my whole family was affected by my son's homicide. My whole family. My daughter had her twins at five months because of the stress of the loss of her brother. My brother had to clean up my son's blood and brains and stuff off the ground. We were all traumatized from that. So this is... MORE is a family organization for the children, everybody in the family, the men, the brothers, the uncles, the friends from the community who were stressed about him. I mean, the Department of Social Service people came to the funeral. His teacher from preschool who had him at preschool at home care, she came to his funeral. He was loved by many.
So this is for everybody who was affected. MORE is for everyone who was affected. I just wanted to really make that clear. And like I said, we're here for the families of homicide, offering an in person group at the time with people who look like us. Also, a place for you to just be a safe space where you can feel comfortable in what you're speaking and how you feel at that time. I know in beginning with grieving, you're angry, you're sad, you say stuff, you say you hate God, you hate these people, you want to maybe kill the people who killed your kids or... Just a safe space to be around people who truly understands what you're going through in our peer support groups. So when we're talking to each other, we look like each other, we have the same basically stories, so we believe, or that other family will believe "Yeah, she truly knows where I'm coming from."
Aurelia Sands Belle:
That is really what it looks like on the road to recovery. Juanita, I want to look back, if you can. Here you are eight years out. What advice can you offer families?
Juanita Batchelor:
Well, I can tell them not to give up. I can offer that, not to give up. It's going to be a struggle, but you can't give up on yourself or your loved one. Self care is the best care through this kind of tragic situation. When my son-in-law was murdered in 2021, I almost fell off of "What am I doing? I must not be helping out here." And I was ready to give up myself on the organization. And so many people reached out to me and reached out to help and I realized MORE is needed because I'm learning of these services that I didn't know when my son was around like [inaudible 00:35:33] Mental Health with African Diaspora. I'm learning all these and meeting all these people that weren't there when it was me, when it was my son, but I'm able to pass that along to other families. And that's the reason I say don't never give up because you might can help somebody else in the long run who is going through that, stop them from having such a difficult time during their grieving.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
And if you could you speak to others in the helping profession, for instance, victim service professionals, victim advocates, what would you have them know? What should they learn from your experience?
Juanita Batchelor:
Patience. People don't just come from grieving overnight, so you must have a lot of patience. I would also say to try and understand. Learn this person. Don't just automatically try and put everybody under the same category because even though they're all homicides, they're different homicides and they're different ways, cultures, of how people handle things in different ways. Everybody handles stuff... I have one lady, she went to work when her son was murdered and she just worked herself every day, every day. Everybody cannot be under the same umbrella. Treat each individual as that individual. Don't group them as a group.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
That's really good advice. Well, we're kind of nearing the end of our conversation, and there's so much that I wish we had time to delve into, but we do want to make certain that we hear as much from you as possible and looking at Darrell's murder and what it's led you to on your road to now advocacy and being an activist, that you are down a path where the power of your personal story has inspired others to get involved and to make the systems and the services that are out there equitable for all survivors regardless of who they are or where they live or their personal backgrounds. You've voiced that so very clearly. Could you tell us a bit about your life now as a survivor, as an activist, and what else do you hope to accomplish?
Juanita Batchelor:
Well, my life, I did eventually gain guardianship of my two granddaughters, my son's daughters, that live with me. We have made my oldest, 14, the head of our MORE for youth group, so she's the lead youth on that. So she makes... We let her make all the decisions on what things you think the kids would like and how we can get them to come in and we do the groups. My youngest is in third grade now. My daughter has... Her twins that were born early, are now seven and are healthy and good. So our hope is to, me, my hope is to, in my personal life, get a big enough home for me and my daughter to raise all five of these kids together.
And my MORE life, I'm praying and hoping dearly to get a resource center, the Darrell Lee Jenkins Jr. Families of Homicide Resource Center in the Forest Park area where he was murdered. There's barely no resources in this area for Black and Brown folks with this kind of issue, and there's a lot of kids running around and shooting, so my vision is to have a safe space that they can come and where they can come for free, where a lot of moms, some are working enough, just enough to make ends meet, but not enough to pay for after school programs. I want to be that spot to help keep some of these kids, especially during the summer, when it's mostly when all the shootings go down, to be that person to inspire change.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
That sounds wonderful. That sounds wonderful. Juanita, you have been so gracious to share with us today a very painful time in your life with the murder of your son, Darrell. You have given us information about what it's like to be a survivor and an overcomer, and we are taking away from this discussion some very poignant points. You have taken your grief to the streets and you're developing the Darrell Lee Jenkins Jr. Families of Homicide Resource Center. And I want you to please provide a little bit more contact information about that for us.
Juanita Batchelor:
My website is springfieldjustice.org. My office number is 413-273-1763. We're 24/7, so I have a cell for after hours, which is 413-517-4842.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Juanita, we're going to end our session today, but I want to make note that on your website, there's a beautiful statement, and it reads, "There is hope for justice, for recovery, for peace." After all you've been through, what give you hope today and for the future?
Juanita Batchelor:
I would have to say at first of all, God, the man upstairs who kept me alive and showed me this purpose. But my five grandchildren and my daughter, they give me hope when they're... When we're working together on this, making this change, it gives me hope. When I see families that are involved, that gives me hope that there will be change and peace and we will recover from this grief that hurt us so much. Together we can. Together we're stronger. So that's what gives me hope.
Aurelia Sands Belle:
Thank you so much.
Juanita Batchelor:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Outro:
Thank you, Juanita Batchelor, survivor, advocate, activist, for your amazing and important work. Thank you to you. Today we've learned about some of the hurdles crime survivors go through trying to exercise their right to victim compensation and what can be done to improve victim compensation services. We've also learned about the need for ensuring culturally specific victim services are available. We've seen what one determined survivor like Juanita can do to affect positive change knowing that while it can't change what happened to her, it can improve systems and services for crime survivors in the future. And finally, we know that the concept of rights, access, and equity for all victims challenges each of us to examine our programs that help crime survivors to examine the many systems into which victims are thrust in the aftermath of crime and to examine ourselves for ways that we as individuals and together can ensure that the 2022 National Crime Victims Rights Week theme is a reality for all survivors of crime in America.
To learn more about Juanita Batchelor's inspiring work, please visit springfieldjustice.org. And finally, I'd like to thank the US Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime for its support that makes our Crime Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story podcast possible. And remember that 2022 National Crime Victims Rights Week is April 24th through the 30th, a time honored tradition where this year we can help crime survivors find their justice by providing rights, access, and equity for all victims. For more information about 2022 National Crime Victims Rights Week, please visit ovc.ojp.gov. That's ovc.ojp.gov. Thank you so much.
Disclaimer:
Opinions or points of view expressed in these recordings represent those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Any commercial products and manufacturers discussed in these recordings are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Justice.