Network for Victim Recovery of DC (
NVRDC
) continued to explore creative ways to reach and support all survivors.
Continue reading to learn all about NVRDC's impact from April 1 to June 30, 2019.
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Impact Snapshot:
April through June 2019
NVRDC advocates responded to the hospital 117 times to provide services to sexual assault survivors
5% of new clients this quarter self-identified as cisgender non-white males.
In addition to supporting 117 existing clients, NVRDC added 132 new clients to our case management program.
NVRDC's Legal Services staff added 49 cases to their caseloads and served a total of 115 clients during the third quarter
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Marcela* met one of NVRDC's case managers almost one year ago, in October 2018, when the case manager was her advocate during Marcela's SANE exam at Washington Hospital Center. Since then, NVRDC's case manager has continued to support Marcela, periodically checking in with her and assessing her needs. A few months after they met, Marcela felt more comfortable pursuing legal action. Her case manager immediately connected her with attorney, who represented Marcela and her interests during a campus Title IX hearing. With the support of her advocate and attorney, Marcela's school banned the perpetrator from entering her campus for two years. This has helped Marcela feel safer at school and finish her studies in an environment that supports her.
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*Client's name has been changed to protect their privacy.
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Pro Bono News
Our Pro Bono program recorded more than
130 hours
this quarter in donated hours by our volunteer attorneys and received in-kind donations totaling
$85,616.36
! Attorneys at Williams and Connolly represented a NVRDC client and successfully obtained a Civil Protection Order for the victim. Separately, another Williams and Connolly attorney supported a client in a defamation defense matter. Attorneys with K&L Gates conducted a research project for NVRDC. In total, NVRDC placed 23 legal matters with pro bono firms, 8 of which involve representing a NVRDC client.
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Equal Justice Works
This spring, NVRDC’s Equal Justice Works Crime Victims Justice Corps Fellow engaged with many aspects of Title IX; from outreach to evidentiary hearings. First, American University hosted an event titled “Title IX and Tacos” where NVRDC's Equal Justice Works (EJW) fellow presented on how NVRDC can assist students with Title IX cases and also students' rights throughout the administrative process. Our EJW fellow also successfully represented two campus sexual assault survivors in their Title IX cases against their abusers. In both cases, the opposing party was found responsible for the assault and sanctioned by the university.
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VLNDC Expands Network and Services Offered
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In June, the Victim Legal Network of DC (VLNDC), welcomed
four new legal services providers
to the network:
First Shift Justice Project
,
Tahirih Justice Center
,
Advocates for Justice and Education
, and
the DC Affordable Law Firm
. To prepare them to work with the network, NVRDC conducted a training on June 27, explaining how the network works and the benefit it offers to survivors of crime. Now these four organizations are
accepting cases!
This brings the total number of providers in the network up to 23. During this quarter VLNDC continued to see the need VLNDC fills through the high demand that comes in. In this quarter alone VLNDC received 85 calls for service.
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NVRDC is proud to include, among our many events in April, the third annual Swap for Survivors in our event update for the quarter.
The Swap was a tremendous success. Participants brought gently worn items to the Swap and were able to take items that they did want home with them. We also had a silent auction of items donated by local businesses. These included a spa package, sports massage, and dinner reservations.
Not only did we raise enough money to support an
additional 82 survivors
but all the remaining clothes and accessories left after the Swap were donated back to the community through an organization called
Women Giving Back
.
We owe Erica Simpson and Tracy Montgomery two
big thank yous
for their work organizing and managing this event. We had more than 100 guests attend and together we raised nearly $20,000 to benefit NVRDC’s work supporting survivors of crime. Thank you to everyone who came to show your support for our work and thank you to the following businesses and donors for your contributions to our silent auction:
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Commonwealth Joe
Pax Apothecary
Kensington Bootcamp
Solano Spine & Sport
Salon Sage Hair
Jen Moore Bootcamp Personal Training
Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa
Cyndi Lee
Rooted Pilates
Gina McNeal personal training
Bespoke Aesthetics
Le Shop Nail Salon
3 Star Brewing Company
Cynthia Santana Hair
Roberts & Lamb Interior Decorating
Brian Andreas
Mind Over Mat Pilates
Dirty Habit DC Restaurant and Bar
Zaytinya
Fig & Olive
Nail Saloon
Northwest Fresh Chantilly Catering
Michael Thomas Custom Clothiers
Stephanie Oppenheimer
Haley Wasserman
Gloria Maier
Whitney Casstevens
Enu Mainigi
Heidi Hubbard
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Sexual Assault Awareness Month
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April was sexual assault awareness month and NVRDC focused on expanding access to all survivors. We partnered with DCFNE (DC Forensic Nurse Examiners) to discuss access to SANE exams in the District. We featured Dr. Shawn Flower’s research which found that a survivor’s distance to Washington Hospital Center was not a deterrent to their ability to access a SANE exam following an assault and that most survivors make it to the hospital within 1 day for a SANE exam. Instead, Dr. Flower's research found that it is a lack of knowledge that free and confidential services exist, that is a barrier to access.
In addition to presenting this work, NVRDC, in partnership with DCFNE, held a community forum that reviewed Shawn Flower's research and discussed how to continue to expand access to survivors. Flower's research findings and the points raised at the community forum were also tweeted on NVRDC's Twitter profile in order to share these findings with and engage a larger audience.
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The image above depicts Dr. Shawn Flower's findings: while MedStar Washington Hospital Center is in ward 5, we see that clients from all wards are able to access a SANE exam at the hospital.
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NVRDC leadership, Matthew Ornstein and Kristin Eliason conducted a training during Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) titled "Survivors' Privacy: The Role of Mental Health Records." This free training was the first in a series of discussions regarding the troubling trends in requests for crime victims' mental health records in DC. The training focused on a general introduction to legal requests for victims' records and a round-table discussion where attendees had an opportunity to share their own experiences with record requests.
The information from the round-table will be used to adapt future training sessions to ensure that the resources produced will be most helpful and tailored to participating providers. By the end of the training series, NVRDC hopes to provide organizations with an overview of the evolution of this issue, assist organizations in distinguishing between different types of legal requests, and offer clarity as to a provider's obligations to respond and produce records under DC law. Thank you to
Sidley Austin LLP
for providing the space for this event and supporting NVRDC's effort to protect crime victims' right to privacy.
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NVRDC Executive Director, Bridgette Stumpf and Director of Advocacy, LIndsey Silverberg, trained DC's Metropolitan Police Department in trauma informed response strategies.
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National Crime Victims' Rights Week
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Every year, National Crime Victims’s Rights Week promotes the rights afforded to victims of crime and honors the advocates who support those victims. This year’s theme, Honoring our Past, Creating Hope for the Future, commemorated where the Crime Victims' Rights movement has been while also looking forward at the movement’s trajectory.
NVRDC was again granted an award to put on events throughout the week celebrating National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW). In recognition of this theme, we hosted an interactive timeline installation event which featured major milestones during the Crime Victims’ Rights movement on our timeline and also gave attendees an option to add their hopes for the future of the movement to the timeline. Community partners like the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Office of Victims Services Justice Grants (OVSJG) , The Safe Sister's Circle, Whitman Walker, and other organizations came to our event to table and add milestones to our timeline. We even got a visit from Pepper, MPD's dog.
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We also used NCVRW as an opportunity to tell the community about our work and the work of our partners. During our Metro Day of Action we passed out NVRDC bags with our and our partners' materials inside to help spread the word about the services available to crime victims in the District. A big thank you to
Legal Council for the Elderly
and to
Ayuda
for your support reaching more community members and informing them of our services.
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Finally, NVRDC partnered with Collaborative Solutions for Communities to sponsor their youth soccer tournament. We provided water bottles and crime victims’ rights materials to the young athletes hoping that they will serve as ambassadors of our mission and let their communities know about the resources available to them should they ever experience a crime.
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Responding to Older Survivors
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The District's Collaborative Training and Response for Older Victims (DC TROV's) partners continued to offer trainings and outreach in the community to raise awareness of services available to older survivors.
In June, NVRDC and its partners from the Metropolitan Police Department and DC Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking presented at the Mayor's Senior Town Talk, which was filmed for television and social media in front of a live audience at the Bernice Fonteneau Wellness Center. The theme of the talk was, “Protecting Yourself and Your Pocket.” Panelists talked about recognizing the signs of senior neglect, and financial exploitation.
Also in June, NVRDC’s Elder Justice Coordinator was featured in a story on WAMU 88.5 on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day, where she encouraged seniors to visit their local senior center to receive free outreach bags. For the past several years, DC TROV members have assembled thousands of outreach materials for older survivors, and worked with DC's Administration on Community Living (DACL) to hand them out in every Ward.
Also in June, NVRDC’s Elder Justice Coordinator presented on elder financial exploitation and fraud at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference & Exhibition in DC. NVRDC presented on a panel along with the Federal Trade Commission, and the Office of Victims of Crimes (OVC), moderated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Librarians are often on the front lines of financial crime, assisting patrons on a daily basis with preventing or recovering from scams and exploitation. If you are a professional who interacts with seniors, please contact
[email protected]
if interested in joining or learning more.
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NVRDC's staff provided emotional support to participants at the Monument Quilt in May. The project featured thousands of quilts that spelled out the words "You are not alone" in English and in Spanish across the National Mall. The quilts raise awareness of sexual assault and highlight major themes for sexual assault survivors such as blame, the importance of being believed, and the intersections of other systems of oppression's influence on the experience of marginalized survivors.
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In May, NVRDC celebrated our 7th anniversary. Since our founding, NVRDC has been committed to survivor defined justice. We know that survivors are the experts of their experience and that they know what they need. Our job is to help meet those needs. When they reach out, we help them rise up. Since our founding we have assisted over 3,589 clients and expanded from just 3 staff to over 25 staff members! We are proud of all we have accomplished and look forward to our continued growth and ability to assist more survivors in DC.
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In May, NVRDC became one of the first organizations in the nation to receive funding from the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Victims of Crime (OVC) Rights In Systems Enforced Project (RISE), which will increase DC crime victims’ access to no-cost legal services and support. The award will provide $1,000,000 in funding over the next few years, and include the hiring of two new victims' rights attorneys, a case manager, and a project coordinator. RISE will allow NVRDC to close the gap between ourselves and members of the community impacted by homicide, hate crimes, and intentional violence. NVRDC is one of six sites around the country to receive this award, which includes (1) Arizona Voice for Crime Victims; (2) Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation; (3) Legal Aid of Broward County; (4) Michigan Coalition to End Domestic & Sexual Violence; (5) Network for Victim Recovery of DC; and (6) Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center. Learn more at the project's
website
.
Also in May, NVRDC was awarded $50,000 in funding from Holy Trinity Catholic Church, under its Social Justice Program. Holy Trinity has been serving the DC community since 1787 and includes a mission to be in solidarity with persons who are living on the margins of society, empowering them to change unjust social structures. The Social Justice Program seeks to connect parishioners to acts of direct service and advocacy. The funding provided will allow NVRDC to restart its Survivor Support Group, among other initiatives. Stay tuned in coming months!
In June, NVRDC received a $5,000 award from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors through the Listen4Good (L4G) project. L4G Online is an interactive website that offers nonprofits a rich array of supports to guide organizations through a proven five-step process for designing and implementing high-quality feedback loops. Participation in L4G has helped many nonprofits gain new insights, make positive changes to programs and operations, and foster cultures that are more responsive and attentive to clients. NVRDC looks forward to the support of L4G in the coming year to accomplish these goals.
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NVRDC Board Member Wins Good Citizenship Award
We are proud to share that our Board of Directors member, Blair Decker, received the Good Citizenship Award from her firm at Hogan Lovells.
Blair Decker is the Pro Bono Attorney at Hogan Lovells US LLP, where she manages the onboarding of over 500 new Pro Bono matters per year. She also represents survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in D.C. Superior Court. Blair is on the Board of Directors at NVRDC and is on the DCVLP Junior Board.
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NVRDC Staff
Staff
Kristin Eliason
Heba Estafanous
Julia Fuld
Colleen Gallopin
Leise Gergely
Naida Henao
Kris Klassen
Audrey Meshulam
Emily Morazán
Merry O'Brien
Matt Ornstein
Ruth Perrin
Maggie Schmidt
Alex Scott
Saron Shiferaw
Lindsey Silverberg
Alexandra Smith
Sarah Taylor
Karin Tovar
Natalie Trujillo
Danielle Turner
Executive Director
Bridgette Stumpf
Board
of
Directors
Ryan Guilds,
Chair
Christopher Ekimoff,
Secretary
Marc Filer,
Treasurer
Blair Decker
Amit Juneja
Jane Lee
Monica McHugh
Liam Montgomery
Miranda Petersen
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Help us make a difference!
We could not do the work we do without the support of our donors and we would love to add you to the list of generous people who are lifting up survivors and making our services possible. Click below to make a gift today.
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You can also support survivors directly by purchasing items from our
Amazon Wish list
, which includes items we often provide to survivors whose clothes are collected as evidence or to survivors who are homeless and without access to basic toiletries.
You can also support us by shopping on Amazon Smile. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to NVRDC if you select us
here
.
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NVRDC's staff and board thank all of those who contribute
time, financial support, energy,
and
love
to empowering victims and survivors of crime in DC.
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6856 Eastern Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20012
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