Penquis Response to Child Victims of the Opioid Epidemic

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 Penquis C.A.P., Inc., (Penquis), Project will prioritize the needs of child and youth crime victims resulting from substance abuse, identifying and implementing solutions in the Penquis region while considering how they align with and can inform statewide recommendations and activities. Penquis, Maine’s largest community action agency, will lead the collaboration, which has the support and commitment of 14 community organizations, representing victim services, healthcare, social services, local government, and law enforcement. Additional stakeholders will be identified and engaged in the initial stage of the project. The project will include a partner mental health agency and will develop and deliver targeted trainings to ensure child crime victims are provided seamless and comprehensive responses. The project will build and implement a feedback system to further identify and define the scope of the community or jurisdiction-specific problem, the associated victim needs, the resources and services available, and remaining gaps to be addressed. CA/NCF