LSS Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims

OVC’s mission is to enhance the Nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and provide leadership in changing attitudes, policies, and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by administering discretionary award programs supported by the federal Crime Victims Fund to develop innovative training and technical assistance, and to provide direct services to improve the overall quality of victim assistance. The purpose of the FY 2018 Enhancing Community Responses to the Opioid Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims is to address an urgent gap in crime victim services related to the opioid epidemic and to expand upon existing or establish new programs to provide services to children and youth who are victimized as a result of the opioid crisis. The overarching goal of this program is to support children and youth who are crime victims as a result of the opioid crisis by providing direct services and support to these young victims at a community or jurisdictional level.

With this award, the Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Inc., will implement programming for all children with a substantiated finding of child abuse and neglect related to opioid abuse. Children placed both in and out of home will be eligible. The project will extend service provision to keep children in care for up to 1-year post termination of parental rights, adoption, or re-unification.

CA/NCF