The Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) helps lead communities throughout the country in their annual observances of National Crime Victim’s Rights Week every April by promoting victim’s rights and honoring crime victims and those who advocate on their behalf. This year’s National Crime Victim Rights Week will be held April 10-16, and the theme, Serving Victims, Building Trust, and Restoring Hope-presents the opportunity to highlight the importance of providing needed services at the earliest stage of victimization. Early intervention helps prevent both further victimization and involvement in the criminal justice system, thus addressing the cycle of violence and restoring hope for the future.
National Crime Victim Rights Week honors and celebrates the achievements of the past thirty years in securing rights, protections and services for victims. The bipartisan Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), passed by Congress in 1984, created a national fund to ease victims’ suffering. Financed by fines and penalties paid by offenders, the Crime Victims Fund supports services for victims of all types of crime, including assistance for homicide survivors, survivors of child sexual abuse and victims of human trafficking as well as rape crisis centers and domestic violence programs and child advocacy centers. VOCA also funds victim compensation programs that pay victims’ out-of-pocket expenses such as medical care, counseling, funeral expenses and lost wages. During the last grant funding cycle Sanilac County received a total of $121,587.00 in VOCA funding for crime victim services.
In our continued efforts to serve victims, Sanilac County is continuing to move forward by drafting grant proposals to seek additional VOCA funding to help support Sanilac’s new Child Advocacy Center. Further, Prosecutor, James V. Young has proposed that Sanilac County adopt the State of Michigan’s Sexual Assault Policy for all law enforcement to better serve the victims of sexual assaults. To help support implementation of the policy, efforts to bring a training facilitator from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Association of Michigan to Sanilac’s Law Enforcement Officers is currently pending approval of training dates this spring. The month of April also includes the Sanilac Area Violence Elimination Council’s 14th annual Flamingo Fling fundraising event that raises money to support our local women’s shelter program, Eva’s Place.
During Crime Victim Rights week, sharing how VOCA funding impacts us locally, and the continued progressive steps our community is taking, Sanilac County is truly Serving Victims, Building Trust, and Restoring Hope.
Respectfully,
Sherri Lanctot
Sanilac County Victim Services Coordinator
