The Approach

To meet the goals of the Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services initiative, project organizations are developing four thematic reports and a fifth, final report that synthesizes the findings.

The forums consisted of 25 - 40 invited stakeholders including crime victims and representatives from federal, national, state, local, and tribal organizations and agencies that interact with, serve, or have an impact on victims of crime. At the forums, stakeholders deliberated on issues in a specific, defined topic area.

Issue Areas for stakeholder forums and thematic reports

The Role of the Crime Victims Field in the U.S. Response to Crime and Delinquency
(Participant List)

January 19–20, 2011, Portland, Oregon

Emerging Challenges in the Crime Victims Field (Participant List)

February 8–9, 2011, Jacksonville, Florida

Enduring Challenges in the Crime Victims Field (Participant List)

February 23–24, 2011, Nashville, Tennessee

Building Capacity in the Crime Victims Field (Participant List)

March 8–9, 2011, Washington, D.C.

Each project will incorporate the data collected from the literature reviews, forums, and through other means (e.g., interviews, surveys, online feedback) into individual final reports. These reports will be synthesized into a document developed by a fifth contributing project, which will then be reviewed and discussed at a fifth stakeholder forum.

The final document will serve as a roadmap for OVC and victim service professionals and include—

Analysis of current state of affairs.
Solutions for the future.
Blueprint for implementing solutions.

The final document will include an analysis of the current state of affairs in the crime victim services field in the United States and provide a set of solutions for its future direction. It will serve as a roadmap for OVC and victim service professionals and provide a blueprint for demonstration projects on how to implement the recommendations. This fifth stakeholder forum will be held in September 2011, in Charleston, South Carolina.