The high rate of crime in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities and/or against AI/AN people reflected in numerous studies in the last three decades, demonstrates the need for victim assistance programs in Indian Country to help victims cope with and heal from violent crime (Wolk 1982; Allen 1985; Sacred Shawl Women’s Society, no date; McIntire 1988; DeBruyn, Lujan & May 1995; Norton & Manson 1995; Fairchild et. al 1998; Greenfield & Smith 1999; Alba, Zieseniss, et al 2003; Perry 2004). The U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) became aware of the lack of resources available to AI/AN crime victims living on Indian lands. OVC, acknowledging the intense and extensive need for culturally relevant resources on reservations, established the Victim Assistance in Indian Country (VAIC) Discretionary Program in 1988, which later became the Tribal Victim Assistance Program (TVA).
OVC initiated this program to establish “on-reservation” victim assistance programs that would provide permanent, accessible, and responsive victim assistance services on tribal lands.
Recognizing the need for evaluation of promising victim services programs operating in Indian
Country, OVC, in collaboration with the USDOJ National Institute of Justice (NIJ) supported an evaluation of two TVA programs—the Lummi Victims of Crime (LVOC) Program in Washington and the Passamaquoddy Tribal Victim Outreach Advocate (TVOA) Program in Maine. This report summarizes the results of the participatory evaluation conducted at these two sites
