National Training Conference 2009: Washington, D.C.
The National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards holds its National Training Conference September 29 - October 2, 2009, in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators (NAVAA). We look forward to our member programs joining in three full days of workshops on the issues relevant to optimal operation of crime victim compensation programs. More details are available at our partnering organization's website, www.navaa.org/conf.

The Association's latest newsletter has been mailed to all compensation programs. Information about VOCA grants and our recent Regional Training Conferences is included, and we've got some results from recent surveys. New outreach ideas are highlighted, and there's a primer on contributory conduct, too.

REGIONAL Training Conferences

The Association's Regional Training Conferences for compensation-program personnel were held in Hilton Head, SC, March 9-11, and in Santa Fe, NM, April 13-16. Twenty states participated in the conferences, discussing a wide range of issues. We appreciate the help of our host state programs -- the South Carolina State Office of Victim Assistance, and the New Mexico Crime Victim Reparations Commission.

Contact NACVCB at (703) 780-3200; e-mail nacvcb@aol.com; P.O. Box 7054, Alexandria, VA 22307.

Crime Victim Compensation Helps Victims . . .

• Victims of violent crime and their families received benefits totaling $461 million in federal fiscal year 2008. This was an increase from the $426 million paid in 2005, the $444 million in 2006, and the $453 million paid in 2007.
• Programs paid $29 million for forensic sexual assault exams, continuing a dramatic increase for this cost, reflecting more states compensation programs' involvement in this area.
• Assault claims formed half the caseload, with more than a third of those claims coming from domestic violence victims.
• Victims of child abuse comprised 19% of the recipients of crime victim compensation.
• Domestic violence victims were 22% of all adult victims compensated (crimes other than child abuse, drunk driving, and international terrorism). Of all assault claims, 35% are paid to domestic violence victims.
• Medical expenses were 52% of all payments; economic support for lost wages for injured victims, and for lost support in homicides, comprised 16% of the total; 11% of total payments went for funeral bills; and 8% went toward mental health counseling for crime victims.
  
  Click here for a FACT SHEET on Crime Victim Compensation. Click here for a current contact list of state compensation programs.
• For information about an individual state victim compensation program, click on the Program Directory on the menu in the upper-left-hand corner of this page.
  

Essential VOCA for Compensation Programs

An effort to capture in a one-page summary all of the essential provisions relating to compensation programs contained in the Victims of Crime Act -- Click here to see. For Word document version, click here. (This is an Association summary, not from the Office for Victims of Crime.)

States Face Budget Problems

State legislatures may be eyeing crime victim compensation program funding in some states in efforts to meet substantial budget shortfalls in the coming year. Twenty-two states have projected budget gaps for FY 2009, including shortfalls of 15% in California, 16% in Arizona, 11% in Florida and Rhode Island, and close to 10% in Alabama, New York, and New Jersey.
In prior years, several compensation programs' funds have been raided by legislatures. Reminding lawmakers that many more victims could be seeking compensation; that mass violence is always a threat and would require sudden greater outlays to victims; and that some "reserve" is necessary to prevent backlogs may be among the strategies useful in countering unwanted compensation fund reductions.

Compensation programs have struggled to keep up with demand in recent years, with some states facing dire fiscal crises. Some programs that have managed to do well fiscally have then faced having funds taken away from legislatures for other purposes. With cuts in private insurance and on the Medicaid rolls (a byproduct of state budget crises), an explosion in health care costs, and an increase in the violent crime rate (after 10 years of decline), state compensation programs continue to seek sufficient funding to provide adequate financial assistance to victims of child abuse, domestic violence, rape, assault, and murder.

VOCA Fund Developments -- FY '09

Economic Stimulus Package Includes Supplemental Grants for Victim Compensation

The economic-stimulus law signed by President Barack Obama on February 17 includes supplemental grants to state victim compensation programs totaling $47.5 million. The Association calculates that each state likely will get approximately an extra 27% in VOCA funding, in addition to its regular VOCA grant in FY 2009. VOCA assistance grants also will be supplemented by $47.5 million this year. The money should be available to the states within a few weeks, though details are being worked out by the Office for Victims of Crime in the U.S. Department of Justice.

The outgoing Administration's budget for FY 2009 calls for $590 million cap, which when combined with some other adjustments to VOCA spending, would result in nearly a 25% cut for VOCA assistance funding from FY 2006 levels. In real numbers, this is almost a $100 million drop in VOCA assistance grants to states. However, it is likely that Congress will fund VOCA at a higher level. The Senate is poised to approve its Appropriations Committee recommendation of $635 million, and the House Appropriations Committee has passed on to the House its recommendation for $650 million in VOCA spending..

Regular compensation grants to states this fiscal year (FY '09) will remain at 60% of each state's payout in federal fiscal year 2007. Compensation grants from the economic stimulus package will be in addition to regular VOCA grants. We calculate that combining both the economic-stimulus supplemental grants and the regular VOCA grants, each state will get approximately 76% of its state-payout from federal FY 2007. But we emphasize that this is just our own estimate, and that OVC will provide full and official details soon.

The website of our collegial organization, the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators, is a superb source for detailed information on VOCA budget and spending issues.

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Founded in 1977, the National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards promotes an exchange of information and ideas through a nationwide network of victim compensation programs. The Association advances better methods for serving crime victims through various training and technical assistance activities, helping its members establish sound administrative practices, achieve fiscal stability, and engage in effective outreach, communication and advocacy. The Association maintains an executive office near Washington, D.C. from which it works actively to provide support to its members and represent their interests. NACVCB, P.O. Box 16003, Alexandria, VA 22302; phone 703-780-3200; nacvcb@aol.com. Read disclaimers and privacy policy.