COLUMBUS, Ohio — Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice are coming together to ask lawmakers to prioritize the needs of people like them.
Joined with The Alliance for Safety and Justice, a national organization that aims to win new safety priorities in states across the country, and attorneys general representing New Jersey and Illinois, the group announced their National Crime Victims Agenda.
Their 10-point plan to help Black, brown and underserved crime victims highlight the expansion of victims’ rights, ending discrimination and ensuring more help for victims with less red tape.
10 POINT PLAN:
Expand Victims’ Rights
- Increase legal protections for victims to prevent job and housing loss while victims are recovering from a crime
- Expand victims’ civil legal services to help victims stabilize their lives after violence
- Ensure dignity, respect, and support for the victims of unsolved crimes
End Discrimination
- Expand victim services eligibility to all victims of crime and violence
- Ensure equal access to compensation and services for victims
Ensure More Urgent Help, Less Red Tape
- Reach more survivors in crisis by expanding outreach programs and ensuring programs are delivered in all the places that underserved survivors may frequent
- Fund victims’ compensation to cover the actual costs of recovery and extend deadlines for help
- Ensure trauma recovery services are widely available
- Invest in trusted community-based victim services providers
- Create funding streams to address urgent crises as they happen
“Legislators should prioritize equal access to victim compensation and services to make sure victims from all walks of life have recovery support,” said Aswad Thomas, chief of organizing for Alliance for Safety and Justice and national director of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice.
“The National Crime Victims Agenda offers policymakers a clear plan to address the needs of all crime survivors and finally end the cycle of crime. Lawmakers should read this plan carefully, and finally listen to the survivors who’ve been historically left out of the public safety conversation,” he said.
Thomas and Attorneys General Kwame Raoul and Gurbir S. Grewal spoke about the benefits of centering victims more after the crimes happen and eliminating red tape that can pop up for them.
“We’ve heard about children who are unable to receive needed counseling services because similarly a parent was said to have contributed to their own death,” Grewal said.
Neither does Sheila Nared, the Chapter Coordinator for the Cincinnati Chapter of CSSJ.
“Our voices need to be heard. Victims and survivors need to share their stories and make a difference and make change in different communities and states worldwide,” she said.
Her story inspires her work now to give others a voice.
“When I was victimized, I wasn’t heard. No one asked me what was bothering me. What was wrong. It was ‘what happened’ the legal system didn’t support me in a way that made me feel like they cared about what happened to me.”
In Ohio, she says she and her colleagues hope to pass Senate Bill 36 to get crime victims the financial and emotional support they need to address trauma as a result of a crime.
“We need people that are passionate and have experienced these things to be on the forefront,” she said. “We need our stories to be heard.”
The crime survivors for safety and justice plan on mobilizing their chapters in each state to urge their lawmakers to change legislation.
You can find out more about their work nationwide here.