Action Plan

V. ACTION PLAN

Planning Group participants grouped their ten recommendations into five categories: national network, training and technical assistance, medical and EMT, promising practices, and protection and security. Participants established a working group for each, and developed a preliminary action plan to provide direction for the next year. Each working group was asked to focus its efforts by addressing what they wanted to accomplish in the future; what products would result; and what could be achieved within one year.

To facilitate planning, a presentation was made by Janice Lord, National Director of Victim Services, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Ms. Lord described the following key components formulated in MADD's evolution to an effective national victims' organization:

  1. Enlist a charismatic and tireless spokesperson.

  2. Choose a good name that is "catchy" or symbolic.

  3. Develop a simple mission statement to stay focused.

  4. Have a financial and emotional link.

  5. Enlist many tireless volunteers (MADD chapters and community action teams go with heart as well as cognitive commitment).

  6. Cultivate strong credible support of federal leaders.

  7. Generate media visibility with a press kit, high quality literature, and annual event.

  8. Diversify the leadership and power.

  9. Diversify fundraising with telemarketing and corporate support.

  10. Establish an organization to meet the financial and administrative requirements of the 501(c)3 and National Charities Institute Bureau criteria.

Each working group developed recommendations that comprise a one-year action plan for moving forward on implementing the Planning Group recommendations. The working group action plan summaries are contained on the following charts:

NATIONAL NETWORK WORKING GROUP

ACTION PLAN GOALS RELATED PRODUCTS
Develop a name that is recognizable and clearly states the mission of the national network. The suggested name is "Network for Victims of Gang Violence."
Promote the following mission statement: "To assist victims of gang violence and to stop gang violence." Conduct a strategic planning session to review, revise, and expand the five working groups' action plan recommendations, and develop a one-year "road map" to initiate a strong national network.
Conduct outreach to identify community- and system-based victim assistance organizations that currently provide, or are interested in providing, assistance to victims and witnesses of gang violence. Write newsletter articles about the creation of a national network for professionals and volunteers who assist victims and witnesses of gang violence, to be disseminated through publications sponsored by national victim assistance and criminal justice organizations.
Develop methods to link network members together on an ongoing basis. Produce biannual newsletter that offers an overview of the victims of gang violence initiative, Planning Group recommendations and action plan, and new national network, and solicits involvement from key stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels in both community- and system-based programs.
Develop and implement a public awareness and community outreach program and materials. Produce a brochure (and eventually a press kit) that describes the mission and goals of the national network.

 Identify spokespersons, including victims of gang violence, "front-line" service providers, and a celebrity spokesperson, who can address media inquiries, and form a speakers bureau to publicize the victims of gang violence initiative, as well as the new national network.
Collect and assess current training resources and curricula relevant to victims and witnesses of gang violence. Conduct literature review through OVC Resource Center, consult with OJJDP, and include article in the NIJ National Editors' Advisory Group monthly mailing.

TRAINING AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE WORKING GROUP

ACTION PLAN GOALS RELATED PRODUCTS
Identify target audiences to receive training and technical assistance, including but not limited to: victim/witness service providers; emergency room and EMT personnel; funeral directors; schools, and all individuals within the criminal justice system who have contact with and obligations to crime victims, including all first responders. Identify how target audiences are trained (including orientation and continuing education curricula and forums), and develop modules for inclusion in existing training opportunities.
Identify who currently provides training and technical assistance for target audiences, and apply victims of gang violence issues and concerns to their professions and goals. Develop concrete examples of how expanding training and services in the area of victims of gang violence directly benefits them, for example, for law enforcement - solving more crimes; for prosecutors - winning more cases; for victims - increased satisfaction with the criminal justice system.

 Develop training modules - including a training outline, overhead transparencies, audio/visual aids, handouts, and suggestions for interactive exercises, including role playing and experiential examples based on real experiences - for each target audience, such as law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, judges, court personnel, community and institutional corrections professionals, victim assistance professionals, victim compensation personnel, medical professionals, funeral directors, and educators.

 Conduct a train the trainers symposium to help ensure consistency in the creation, instruction, and dissemination of the curricula and training modules.
Identify national training opportunities. Develop an annual calendar and seek opportunities to conduct workshops at conferences and other training forums.

MEDICAL AND EMT WORKING GROUP

ACTION PLAN GOALS RELATED PRODUCTS
Develop training for trauma physicians and interns relevant to victims and witnesses of gang violence. Create a curriculum that addresses victim sensitivity, victims' rights and needs, death notification, cultural diversity issues, protection and safety concerns, medical evidence coordination with the criminal justice system; and information and referral dissemination to victim assistance and support services, including victim compensation.
Establish volunteer programs in hospitals, emergency rooms, and trauma centers to assist victims and witnesses of gang violence, utilizing the "Teens on Target" program as a reference. Develop written policies and protocols to guide hospital-based volunteer victim assistance programs, and a volunteer orientation and training curriculum.
Develop protocol for medical professionals to provide victims with information about their rights, and about the criminal justice system. Create a summary of federal- and state-specific guidelines about victims' constitutional and statutory rights, an informational brochure about the criminal justice system, and written/video information about victim compensation programs, and coordinate efforts with existing resources to avoid unnecessary duplication.
Educate medical professionals about the severity of the gang violence problem and its relevance to victims and witnesses, and what they can do - as individuals and as a profession - to help. Write a series of articles for publication in relevant national association newsletters, such as the American Medical Association, American Association of Emergency Room Physicians, American Nursing Association, National Association of Counties, National Association of Mayors, Council of State Governments, and public employee publications.
Expand victim outreach at hospital, emergency room, and trauma center sites. Produce a public service videotape that can be broadcast on hospitals' closed-circuit networks to victims and witnesses of gang violence and their family members, utilizing support from the U.S. Department of Justice audio/visual division, and using Planning Group participants (diverse by culture, gender, geography, and type of gang victimizations) as spokespersons.

PROMISING PRACTICES WORKING GROUP

ACTION PLAN GOALS RELATED PRODUCTS
Identify specific risk factors for victim assistance professionals and volunteers who help victims and witnesses of gang-related crime. Develop recommended safety plans and protocols for situations including, but not limited to: crisis response; home visits in gang-infested neighborhoods; hospital response; and funerals.
Coordinate with the Training and Technical Assistance Working Group to develop curricula that highlight promising practices in serving victims and witnesses of gang violence. Augment the training and technical assistance curricula with policies and protocols for debriefing victim assistance personnel and crisis responders.
Identify equipment needs for vertical units. Develop a checklist of basic equipment needs for victim assistance/crisis responders, including items such as beepers, bulletproof vests, crime scene clean-up supplies, and blankets to cover deceased victims.
Develop an operating manual that guides promising practices in victim and witness assistance. Write a manual that incorporates written standard operating procedures, guidelines, and protocols for responding to victims and witnesses of gang-related crime, both on a short- and long-term basis.
Conduct Planning Groups with law enforcement, EMTs, and schools to assess their needs, concerns, and issues specific to victims and witnesses of gang-related crime. Summarize Planning Group findings in a report that highlights each profession's issues and concerns, and incorporate findings into a training and technical assistance curricula and efforts sponsored by the national network.
Develop host sites - using Orange County, California, as a model - to provide on-site training and technical assistance by example to jurisdictions seeking to establish vertical victim assistance units and/or improved outreach and services to victims and witnesses of gang violence. Create protegee programs that incorporate the goals and products of all five working groups.

PROTECTION AND SAFETY WORKING GROUP

ACTION PLAN GOALS RELATED PRODUCTS
Develop education and awareness programs to enhance public and private sector efforts to provide greater security and protection to victims and witnesses of gang violence. Write a series of law review articles targeted toward prosecutors and judges that incorporate promising practices in victim/witness protection, court safety, responses through the justice system to threats against and intimidation of victims and witnesses, and relocation issues.

 Develop a help series of training and technical assistance publications for allied professionals - including victim advocates, medical professionals and housing providers - that address promising practices in victim/witness protection and related issues.
Develop plans, policies and protocols to utilize the resources of federal, state, and local agencies and organizations to provide alternative safe housing for victims and witnesses of gang-related crime who perceive or have been threatened with harm. Identify and publicize existing policies, protocols, and programs that provide for victim/witness protection, such as that at HUD, in order to utilize all available resources needed from both departments to provide safe, alternative housing for victims and witnesses of gang-related crime on an ongoing basis.

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This document was last updated on March 19, 2007