Virginia Lawyers Weekly

The University of Richmond and the state’s Department of Criminal Justice Services is conducting Virginia’s first victim assistance academy this week. The academy will train service providers and advocates to more effectively help crime victims regain control of their lives.

Modeled after the National Victim Assistance Academy, the program will make Virginia one of 34 states to offer state-specific victim assistance training.

A multidisciplinary committee spent two years designing the program. It included representatives of the university’s schools of Arts and Sciences and Continuing Studies, the Department of Criminal Justice Services, law enforcement, prosecution, the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, the Virginia Network for Victims and Witnesses of Crime, the Department of Corrections, the Parole Board, the Attorney General’s Office, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund, local victim assistance programs and crime victims. University of Richmond criminal justice professor Joan Neff chaired the curriculum development subcommittee.

“One of the first things we did was to survey over 1,300 people connected to victims’ services in Virginia. We asked them about their backgrounds and training needs. The results helped narrow our focus, concentrating on training individuals with less than three years working in the field,” said Neff.

The six-day, residential academy, which runs from July 27 to Aug. 1, will take place on the UR campus. Admission was competitive – more than 120 service providers applied for 30 slots.

The curriculum will include presentations on the history of the victims’ rights movement, the scope of crime and its impact on victims, understanding trauma, domestic violence, sexual assault, homicide, child victimization and working with special populations. Other topics range from crisis intervention and trauma assessment to bereavement, communication skills and ethics.
Plans are underway to bring the academy back to the university in 2009 and add an advanced academy for providers with more than three years of experience. Applications for the 2009 academy will be available in the spring.

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