Vital Subjects: Building a Framework for Healthy Victim Services Organizations
February 25, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. ET
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Please join us on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, from 2:00–3:30 p.m. eastern time, for the Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center webinar "Building a Framework for Healthy Victim Services Organizations,” hosted by Arlene Vassell and Elizabeth Vermilyea, Ph.D.
As a sequel to the recent Expert Q&A on promoting positive workplaces, this webinar introduces a practical framework for building and sustaining a healthy victim services organization—one that is survivor centered, trauma informed, and resilient. Grounded in principles of collective care and shared accountability, the session explores how organizational well-being is strengthened by individual leadership and by the health, connection, and stability of the teams that carry the work forward.
This webinar will translate research and field insights into practical approaches that support workforces, strengthen policies, and enhance partnerships. Participants will explore common challenges (e.g., vicarious trauma, turnover, role clarity) and learn simple tools to bolster organizational and team health without adding any extra burden. Emphasis will be placed on nurturing supportive team dynamics and cultivating workplaces where care and accountability are shared across roles and levels.
The "Building a Framework for Healthy Victim Services Organizations” webinar is part of the Vital Subjects series. This series will address topics that are critical to the victim services field across the country.
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Arlene Vassell
Arlene Vassell is a nationally recognized speaker, trainer, facilitator, and thought leader. She currently serves as the Founding Director of the TooREL Institute for Social Change and as Executive Director of the Association for VAWA Administrators.
Before establishing the TooREL Institute for Social Change, Arlene held leadership roles at the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, the Florida Coalition to End Domestic Violence, and the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance. She has also served as an expert advisor and consultant for several national organizations, including Futures Without Violence and Ujima, the National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community, with a focus on issues impacting children, youth, and families affected by domestic violence as well as the development of services for communities facing complex barriers to safety, access, and support.
Arlene has extensive nonprofit management experience, including developing and managing federally funded projects, creating survivor-centered messaging campaigns, and designing trauma-informed programs that strengthen services for all victims of crime. She brings significant experience providing comprehensive training and technical assistance for a wide range of audiences, including foundations, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, faith-based institutions, sexual assault and domestic violence programs, state coalitions, community-based organizations, social service organizations, and the general public.
Arlene is also the author of People First, Purpose Always: A Practical Guide for Building Healthy and Thriving Teams, a resource shaped by decades of movement leadership that reflects her commitment to people-centered leadership, shared accountability, and healthy team and organizational culture.
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Elizabeth Vermilyea, Ph.D.
Elizabeth Vermilyea, Ph.D., has been working exclusively with survivors of trauma and the people who advocate for them since 1991. She is the Deputy Director of the Child Parent Institute and an independent consultant specializing in traumatic stress consultation, training, and program development.
Dr. Vermilyea creates and delivers customized traumatic stress education programs and consultation to a broad range of professional, paraprofessional, and public audiences. These include caregivers and frontline service providers in child and adult mental health services, public and private school systems, and sexual assault and domestic violence settings, and providers working with people who are homeless, in corrections, or in developmental disabilities agencies, crime victim assistance agencies, and substance abuse programs across the United States. She provides substantive, interactive workshops on symptom management, compassion fatigue/vicarious traumatization, trauma-informed care, trauma-informed leadership, ethics, self-injury, trauma and addiction, and addressing trauma in medical settings. Dr. Vermilyea also authored Growing Beyond Survival: A Self-Help Toolkit for Addressing Symptoms of Traumatic Stress.
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OVC's Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC) provides training to support professional development, enhance services to the community, and expand outreach to victims of crime.
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