Background

In 1995, the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) established the Mentor Program to assist Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) State administrators with grant management issues affecting the delivery of services to crime victims. Through the Mentor Program, OVC is helping to develop the skills, knowledge, and abilities of all VOCA administrators and their staffs. Participation is open to administrators and staff of both crime victim compensation and assistance programs.

Purpose

The purpose of the Mentor Program is to facilitate peer consultation whereby an administrator from one State can offer technical assistance and skills training to an administrator in another State. The range of assistance available is as diverse as the work experience of VOCA administrators. Administrators have sought assistance in the following areas:

• Establishing program standards.
• Developing financial and program manuals.
• Planning and organizing statewide training.
• Implementing and/or upgrading advanced technologies.
• Utilizing administrative dollars.
• Streamlining applications for compensation benefits and subgrant awards.

Mentoring Examples

The following examples illustrate how the VOCA Victim Compensation and Assistance Mentor Program has proven to be a valuable and effective resource.

• Staff from the Idaho Crime Victim Compensation program visited the State of Washington's Crime Victim Compensation Program to receive technical assistance and training in program management. They returned to Idaho prepared to implement systems designed to enhance restitution and subrogation recovery, expedite application and claims processing, and reduce the turnaround time for producing law enforcement reports and prosecutors' co-operation statements. The Idaho staff also visited a local sexual assault center to learn about research on evaluating the efficacy of mental health treatment for victims of sexual assault, the cost of such care, the longevity of treatment, cost-splitting for multi-State victims, and repressed memory treatment issues.

• Staff of the Georgia Victims Compensation Program visited the Texas Crime Victims Compensation Program to observe and gain firsthand knowledge of how Texas has effectively eliminated case backlog, expedited claims processing, and implemented an efficient claims processing automation system.

• Staff from California's Crime Victims Compensation program visited the Crime Victims Program in Hawaii to help improve its restitution fine/order structure and generally to enhance services to victims of crime. The staff from California's program proposed statutory and administrative changes to streamline Hawaii's restitution collection process including automating some office functions. During their mentoring visit, the California staff provided training on restitution assessments and collections to Hawaii's compensation program staff, probation, parole, and corrections department staff, and members of Hawaii's State legislature and judiciary.

• Staff from Iowa's Crime Victim's Compensation Program visited Utah's Crime Victim Compensation Program and recommended procedures and policies for expediting the processing of new claims and supplemental payment requests. Recommendations were also offered in other areas including developing performance standards for program staff, establishing processes for claim and provider verification, implementing an efficient supplemental billing process, calculating accurate victim benefits, assisting "secondary victims," processing sexual assault examination payments, increasing public outreach, and collecting and using claim statistics.

The Mentor Program can help all VOCA administrators, but especially new State directors, to serve victims of crime more effectively and efficiently.

Eligibility

The mentors selected by OVC are State administrators who have achieved a proven level of expertise in specialized areas. Assistance is customized to meet the special needs of individual compensation and assistance programs. State administrators who want to participate as mentors should contact OVC as soon as possible so that they can be included in the mentor pool according to their specialty.

There is no registration deadline, and mentor assistance is available to VOCA administrators throughout the year as needed.

Expenses

OVC staff, in consultation with its Training and Technical Assistance Center, manage the logistical arrangements and financial administration of the Mentor Program, including matching the mentors with administrators who request assistance.

There is no cost to the trainers, those receiving assistance, or their agencies. OVC compensates trainers, reimburses travel expenses associated with on-site assistance or staff consultations, and covers the cost of any materials needed for the technical assistance visit.

For Further Information

Contact the OVC Resource Center for a list of recent awards, announcements of grants, and information about the application process or send an e-mail to askncjrs@ncjrs.org.

More information about the Office for Victims of Crime is available through the following sources:

OVC............................................ 202-307-5983

OVC Web Site....................http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/

OVC Resource Center............................ 800-627-6872

OVC Resource Center Web Site............http://www.ncjrs.org