As in past years, staff turnover in the victim service agencies and other criminal justice partner agencies creates a need for constant training to ensure advocates have basic knowledge on crime victim compensation policies and procedures so they can inform, educate and assist victims effectively. Training must also be given to law enforcement officers and prosecutors to raise their understanding of the importance to cooperate with program advocates, victims and the Division's Compensation Benefit Specialists in providing accurate and timely reports and information to allow the processing of claims.



Additionally, the frontier rural aspect of Wyoming creates isolation through either challenges due to the distance geographically to reach victims or the ability to contact them by phone or e-mail. For example, phone services is available to only 26% of residents on the Wind River Indian Reservation. 



Another issue is the difficulty of following up with victims who may be transient. These individuals may have been "passing through" Wyoming as tourists or may have been traveling through Wyoming on one of the major interstate highways, such as I-80.

There are a number of examples of how VOCA funds support coordinated public and private efforts within our communities to aid crime victims.



A DV/SA program in Laramie County uses VOCA funds to place an advocate in the local field office of the Department of Family Services (DFS). Not only do the DFS caseworkers raise their awareness and understanding of violence against women and children but the advocate is also able to "ride along" on home visits and can provide on-the-spot advocacy when appropriate.



Wyoming now funds three local sexual assault response teams which promotes the coordination of services across all disciplines of advocacy, medical, law enforcement, and prosecution.



Victim services programs are sending more staff members to trainings, such as the Native American Victim Services Conference, to improve their ability to effectively collaborate with programs across cultures.



The majority of Wyoming's victim service providers are actively involved in their communities and participate in local health fairs, county fairs, community celebrations and presentations in the schools.



Beyond the efforts by individual programs and communities, the Division works with all programs to improve collaboration and coordination. Subgrantee programs are required to develop and work within MOU agreement between all partners in their communities as part of their funding application requests. When site visits are conducted, program managers visit all programs within the community and require them to participate in a community meeting which focuses on community collaboration. Obstacles and challenges identified are then addressed through training and technical assistance to the programs by the Division.

The Division of Victim Services, as well as local programs, work cooperatively with Wyoming's U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI to ensure federal crime victims are served. Local subgrantee programs understand the requirement for VOCA recipients to serve federal victims or crime and know how to contact all federal agencies which work with victims of crime in Wyoming.



Additionally, cross-training  between the US Attorney's Office and the Division is provided frequently at each agency's annual conference on new trends and best practices for serving victims. Representatives from the partnering agencies are involved in committees and provide information upon request at Division staff meetings.

The Division continues to work in a variety of ways to improve the delivery of services to victims. We have developed and maintain meaningful working relationships with the Wyoming Department of Corrections, Board of Parole, and the Wyoming Departments of Health and Family Services to ensure a consistency of inforamtion, training, policies and procedures that support and benefit victims of crime in wyoming. We regularly consult and work with the Wyoming Prosecutor's Assocation, the Sheriffs & Chiefs Association, the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and the Wyoming Crime Victims Coalition. We continue to monitor all subgrantees through monthly and periodic reports and regular site visits. Comments from our annual Victim Services Conference state the quality and quantity of speakers and information provided surpass many national conferences.

A Victim/Witness program in Teton County reports they have used VOCA funds to provide assistance to victims which would not have been able to have been provided without the funds. Two cases which were significant were: assistance for a victim of arson in re-establishing his life and sense of safety after the crime; another victim was a young woman your was a victim of stalking and was assisted in returning to her family before the offender was released from custody.



A dual DVSA & V/W program in Johnson County used VOCA funds to assist the family of a victim of vehicular homicide due to DUI. The family described a great sense of closure in their son's death due to the support and assistance they were provided as the case progressed through the criminal justice process.



A Child Advocay Program in Natrona County wrote about their assistance of a seven year old girl whose grandfather was sexually abusing her along with a number of other neighborhood girls. The young girl was able to disclose the abuse safely and she, along with her non-offending parents, were supported through the investigation and prosecution phases of this case. The grandfather was  sentenced to seven to thirteen years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary.



A dual DVSA & VW program in Sheridan County reported working with a male victim of stalking and assault. The victim was particularly traumatized that he as a "big man" could be vulnerable to attack. The program supported him throughout the criminal justice process with education, resources, referrals, and attendance and reporting on the criminal proceedings as he was not comfortable being a participant in the hearings. 

The Division of Victim Services has reorganized the way we provide monitoring and technical assistance to programs serving victims of crime in Wyoming. We now have three regions with a dedicated program manager in each region. The program manager works with all funding streams and all victim service programs and projects within their region. This provides greater consistency in information and technical assistance than in the past. We believe this will result in the Division providing better support to the programs so they can provide more comprehensive and a higher quality of services for victims.



In local communities, we see a couple of issues or trends which either are already affecting services for victims or we anticipate they will affect services in the future.



Due to a boom in energy development and mining in our State, Wyoming is experiencing an influx of workers who are highly paid but may not have the roots or permanency that Wyoming communities are used to. The impact of these workers and the high wages affect victim service programs in a number of ways. They are seeing higher levels of alcohol and drug abuse, which impact the community through a greater incidence of assaults, thefts, sexual assault and domestic violence.



Programs find it harder to recuit and retain staff because they cannot compete with the wages being paid by the mines and other energy employers.



The transient or itinerant nature of these workers, along with an increased number of non-english speaking service workers coming to Wyoming by the tourism industry, make it difficult for programs to have access to or stay in contact with victims of crimes within these populations.



The non-english speaking workers bring an increased need to specialized outreach and translation services within victim service programs.



Methamphetamine, and the crimes associated with its use and manufactuing, remains a serious issue in Wyoming, particularly on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

The Division of Victim Services has used the VOCA administrative funds to meet our commitment to improving training for victim service providers and criminal justice partners so they can provide greater quality and quantity of services to victims of crime in Wyoming. All of our administrative funds are used to bring high quality speakers and trainers to our annual Victim Services Conference and other trainings. Evaluations indicate the quality of the conference is better than most national conferences. Attendees report their appreciation for the information they receive on trends and best practices, and especially acknowledge the benefit of receiving information they can take back to their communities immediately to improve services for victims and collaboration with their partners.