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April 2020 Featured Resources

National Crime Victims' Rights Week is April 19–25, 2020

The 2020 National Crime Victims' Rights Week theme—Seek Justice | Ensure Victims' Rights | Inspire Hope—commemorates the individuals and groups whose advocacy has propelled the victims' rights movement forward for the past half century, inspiring in victims and their loved ones a feeling of hope for progress, justice, and healing.

The 2020 National Crime Victims' Rights Week (NCVRW) Resource Guide is now available online.

The 2020 NCVRW Resource Guide provides a wealth of materials, in both English and Spanish, to educate the public about victims' rights, protections, and services during NCVRW and throughout the year. The guide includes tips for developing your campaign, communicating your message, artwork, and more.

Organizations can incorporate these materials into their own online campaigns and other efforts to raise public awareness.

Use the 2020 NCVRW Resource Guide to help your organization raise awareness about crime victims' rights and the services available to victims of crime.

Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month

During National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, help raise awareness about sexual violence by visiting the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month website. Download and share campaign content, including posters, social media resources, and more.

During this month, OVC also highlights the following initiatives that seek to improve services to victims and reach unserved victims.

  • OVC Current Funding Opportunities
    Learn about available OVC funding that aims to improve services to victims of sexual assault, including the OVC FY 2020 Expanding SANE Services to Victims of Sexual Assault on Campus solicitation.

  • National Sexual Assault Online Hotline
    With support from OVC, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) provides free, confidential support services for English- and Spanish-speaking survivors of sexual assault through its National Sexual Assault Online Hotline and by calling 800–656–HOPE (4673).

  • OVC Embraces Telehealth to Help Survivors of Sexual Assault
    OVC provides funding to five demonstration sites—Penn State University (SAFE–T Center), Texas A&M University (Texas Teleforensic Remote Assistance Center), Avera Health (eSANE for Rural), Tundra Women’s Coalition, and the University of Arkansas (Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner Network for Evidence-based Telemedicine)—to increase access to high-quality forensic care for victims of sexual assault in rural and underserved areas. The International Association of Forensic Nurses provides technical assistance to ensure that patients who have experienced sexual assault have access to quality, patient-centered, trauma-informed care and to ensure that the demonstration sites have immediate access to the training and technical assistance they need to deliver these services.

  • Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI)
    SAKI is an innovative program of the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) that is improving the response to sexual assault by addressing the problem of unsubmitted sexual assault kits and identifying and apprehending violent offenders. Learn more and apply for the BJA FY 2020 National Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) solicitation.

Service providers are encouraged to visit our Sexual Abuse or Violence page that offers publications, frequently asked questions, and related resources.

National Child Abuse Prevention Month

April is also National Child Abuse Prevention Month. During this month, communities are encouraged to raise awareness and promote strategies that address the risk factors surrounding child abuse.

During April, OVC highlights the Linking Systems of Care for Children and Youth initiative. Through this initiative, OVC is supporting demonstration projects in four states to learn what is needed to bring healthcare, child welfare, justice, and other systems together at a statewide level to coordinate and align efforts to ensure a timely and seamless response to young victims of violence and their families.

View the Linking Systems of Care Toolkit to learn how you can help your community replicate the process of linking systems of care.

Additional OVC resources that support efforts to protect and assist children and youth include—

  • OVC Current Funding Opportunities
    Visit our Current Funding Opportunities page to learn about available funding to improve services to children and youth, including the OVC FY 2020 Enhancing Community Responses to America's Addiction Crisis: Serving Our Youngest Crime Victims solicitation.

  • Through Our Eyes: Children, Violence, and Trauma
    Trauma left unaddressed can have serious consequences for children and youth as they grow up. “Through Our Eyes” encourages everyone to act to protect children from crime and abuse and help them heal from trauma.

  • A Circle of Healing for Native Children Endangered by Drugs
    This video series and companion resource guide weaves Native stories and cultural practices from across the Nation to show many of the ways children, families, and communities are healing from drug endangerment. It highlights a range of culturally relevant approaches to inspire communities to develop, enhance, and share their own responses to these issues.

For additional resources, view the Office of Justice Program’s Child Abuse Special Feature.

Date Published: April 1, 2020