National Resource Center for Reaching Victims - NCALL - The National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life

In 2016, NCALL became the lead partner on older adults for the National Resource Center on Reaching Victims (NRC). The NRC is a one-stop shop where victim service providers, culturally specific organizations, criminal justice professionals, and policymakers may get information and expert guidance to enhance their capacity to identify, reach, and serve all victims, especially those from communities that too often have less access to healing services and avenues to justice.

The NRC is working to increase the number of victims who receive healing supports by:

understanding who is underrepresented and why some people access services while others don’t;
designing and implementing best practices for connecting people to the services they need; and
empowering and equipping organizations to provide the most useful and effective services possible to crime victims.

The NRC is a U.S. Department of Justice project that is funded by Funded by the federal Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), and led by the Vera Institute of Justice. It is a collaboration among Caminar Latino, Casa de Esperanza, Common Justice, FORGE, the National Children’s Advocacy Center, the National Center for Victims of Crime, the National Clearinghouse on Abuse Later in Life, Women of Color Network, Inc., and the Vera Institute of Justice.

In collaboration with its partners, the NRC delivers a comprehensive array of training and technical assistance to expand the capacity of victim service programs to identify and reach victims and to provide victim services are accessible, culturally appropriate and relevant, and trauma-informed, and that the overwhelming majority of victims’ access and benefit from these services.

For more information about the NRC, visit the NRC’s website at: https://reachingvictims.org/.

NCALL’s work with the National Resource Center is in partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice under award #2016-XV-GX-K015, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this forum are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Selected Resources

Increasing Access to Healing Services and Just Outcomes for Older African American Crime Survivors toolkit

Older African Americans experience crime and violence at the intersections of race, age, class, and other identities. Systemic and institutional challenges create barriers for older African American survivors seeking services and supports to heal from harm. This toolkit offers victim services providers and criminal justice systems stakeholders information and practical strategies to enhance their capacity to identify, reach, and serve older African American victims.

The toolkit includes a guide with five content modules. Within each module are video clips, including: an expert panel discussing the specific challenges faced by older African American victims, and/or, older survivors sharing their stories of victimization and the unique dynamics at play in their journey toward healing and recovery. Each module also contains a set of reflection questions designed to help readers synthesize the key points and explore how the strategies offered can be applied in their work. This toolkit also includes a workbook with the reflection questions for users to reflect on the topics explored in the modules. Use the links below to access the guide and its components.

COVID-19: Older Adult Survivors Impact Brief

The National Resource Center for Reaching Victims conducted a series of listening sessions to unearth the impact the COVID-19 health crisis is having on underserved victims of crime and better resource the crime victim services field to respond to those needs.

This brief, published in May 2020, summarizes the issues and strategies that emerged from
listening sessions on older adult survivors.