Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative: Training and Technical Assistance

OVC’s mission is to enhance the nation’s capacity to assist crime victims and provide leadership in changing policies and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. OVC achieves this mission, in part, by administering competitive award programs supported by the federal Crime Victims Fund to develop innovative training, technical assistance, and direct service projects designed to improve the overall quality of services delivered to crime victims. The purpose of the FY 2019 Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative: National Scope Training and Technical Assistance is to build upon existing evidence-based resources and expertise (at the national, regional, tribal, state, and local levels), weave these resources together with in-depth and tailored technical assistance, based on the unique needs and resources in a particular community, and provide free and accessible support and technical assistance that results in a robust established and sustained response to vicarious trauma.

With this award, The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) will lead a project team to undertake the Vicarious Trauma Response Initiative project and create a model for best practice by providing dedicated resources, support, and TTA to communities seeking to address the impact of vicarious trauma on their victim response teams. To do so, the project will integrate both national scope and community-based approaches that mitigate the negative effects of vicarious trauma, thereby ensuring the highest quality of services to victims and survivors. The project team, led by IACP, will work alongside community teams to assess their readiness for change, identify approaches that reflect the community’s stage of readiness, implement and adapt organizational strategies stemming from OVC’s Vicarious Trauma Toolkit, and then replicate these in a wide range of communities. In depth-TTA will be provided to up to 12 unique community implementation sites based on a competitive application process. The project team will support these sites to create new, and strengthen existing, local community collaborations to provide resilient networks of victim response teams that provide the highest quality of care for victims and survivors. The project team will actively analyze, synthesize, and share lessons learned to guide successful replication of these practices in communities across the nation.

(CA/NCF)