Cultural Considerations in Assisting Victims of Crime
Office of Victims of Crimes (OVC), U.S. Department of Justice

NMCI has entered into its fourth year with OVC in its Cultural Considerations in Assisting Victims of Crime program. Based on the tremendous need in this country for programs that provide culturally competent victim services to a diverse population, the National MultiCultural Institute, through its grant from OVC, surveyed victims services provision, addressing gaps that exist in current training curricula, and disseminated materials via trainings, nationwide.

NMCI conducted an assessment of the need and developed a training curriculum on Cultural Considerations in Assisting Victims of Crime, designed for law enforcement officers and administrators, victim advocates, and prosecutors. NMCI now has disseminated trainings in California, Texas, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Washington DC. Overall, NMCI has directly trained approximately 370 individuals from law enforcement, prosecutors' offices, and victim advocacy and health care organizations. These 370 professionals have trained many more victim service professionals. This project continues to set a new standard for culturally competent victim services, while simultaneously striving to create a network of trainers across the country to ensure comprehensive dissemination and ownership of the program.

Participants in these workshops developed skills, knowledge, and understanding that is necessary to deliver one-day trainings. The response from participants has been overwhelming, with many in both trainings expressing an interest in continuing the work with NMCI to further develop their skills as trainers in Cultural Considerations. Evaluations from both workshops reflected the participants' satisfaction. Some comments included:

“Resources and training materials/manuals as well as the opportunity to practice and use the materials are INVALUABLE.”

“Extremely useful and timely...this meets a major need for Domestic Violence providers and will assist in enhancing cultural competence in Domestic Violence program and services in Maryland.”

“...I have been so favorably impressed by the training workshops (the TOT, and the initial session in September of last year) that I have formally proposed a cross-training plan for victim service agencies which recommends cultural competency training as an integral component of the plan.”