National Resource Center for Reaching Underserved Victims

Activating Change is requesting $1.5 million for the purpose of relaunching the National Center for Reaching Victims (NRC), which Activating Change (then a project of the Vera Institute of Justice) successfully led from 2016 – 2020. The overarching goal of the NRC is to transform victim services to provide culturally and linguistically specific, trauma-informed, and accessible services that identify, reach, and meet the needs of underserved victims. The NRC will focus its efforts on children, boys and men of color, former justice-involved individuals, and people with disabilities from these three communities. Primary activities and outcomes will include: updating and remarketing the NRC website (reachingvictims.org) and original resources; conducting an assessment to determine the most critical unmet needs and barriers experienced by survivors from the project’s communities of focus; providing 8 virtual trainings to address these needs; providing up to 12 in-person trainings and/or on-site technical assistance; developing up to 12 resources designed to help remove barriers and successfully serve survivors from the project’s communities of focus; responding to field-generated requests for training and technical assistance; and developing a summary report with tools and resources that identify methods, provide guidance, and outline promising practices for serving victims and their families from the project’s communities of focus that are impacted by community and gun violence. The NRC will work in partnership with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), other Federal grant-making offices, national resource centers, and other efforts with shared goals to avoid duplication and ensure leveraging of all resources. The intended beneficiaries of the NRC are victim service providers in the service area of the United States. Subrecipients include the Center for Justice Innovation and a to be identified subrecipient to lead the work on child victims. The NRC is specifically designed to address racial inequities and to increase access to victim services for victims from communities that have been underserved and marginalized – four communities, specifically: boys and men of color, children, former justice-involved people, and people with disabilities from Black and brown communities. Racial equity, access and inclusion, and community engagement are foundational pillars of the NRC and woven into all aspects of the project, including staffing, assessment, and project design. Activating Change and partners will prioritize people who are from their respective communities of focus and who have lived experience as victims to serve on their expert work groups.