Crime Victim Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story - Episode 3: Unique Patterson

Crime Victim Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story

Episode 3: Unique Patterson

Released: October 4, 2022

Janelle Melohn:

Welcome to the OVC VOCA Center Podcast series, Crime Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story. This podcast provides a platform to those who've been impacted due to crime to tell their story. The stories spotlight the perspective of those who've experienced harm due to crime and connects their experience to issues affecting Victims of Crime Act or VOCA, victim assistance, and state compensation administrators, resulting in the sharing of promising practices and highlighting areas for improvement. This podcast is made possible through a grant from the Federal Office For Victims of Crime. Opinions and points of view expressed in this podcast are those of the presenters and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Department of Justice. Throughout today's conversation, we may discuss difficult issues such as trauma, violence and victimization, and their impact on all of us. Please don't hesitate to take a break from listening. Taking care of yourself is what's most important to us.

Thank you for tuning in today to Crime Survivors: The Power of the Personal Story. This bimonthly podcast is sponsored by the US Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime. The Center for VOCA Administrators or the OVC VOCA Center Podcast highlights the personal experiences and challenges of crime victims and survivors so that others might listen and learn from them. I'm Janelle Melohn, director of the OVC VOCA Center. Today, we invite you to join our podcast host Aurelia Sands Belle as she guides us through the personal story of Unique Patterson. Unique was justice involved from his teen through adult years and, upon emerging from incarceration in the midst of the pandemic, faced many challenges with his reentry. In 2020, he became the victim of a random shooting resulting in a severe spinal cord injury that changed the trajectory of his life.

Unique found a new and true family through the Patterson Healing Collective in New Jersey, a hospital based violence intervention program. Together with Dr. Liza Chowdhury, director of the Patterson Healing Collective, you'll learn from Unique and Lisa about the immense challenges faced by victims with life debilitating injuries, the barriers and opportunities they experience navigating victim or survivor services including crime victim compensation, and the help, hope, and healing that can occur when survivors of violent crime receive the wraparound services provided by organizations like the Patterson Healing Collective. Aurelia.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Thank you, Janelle. I'm Aurelia Sands Belle, Research instructor at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina. And I've been a crime victim advocate for a long time. Nearly 40 years. Today we're so honored because we have two very inspiring guests who are both activists for proactive and positive change to improve services and support for crime victims and survivors. First, Mr. Unique Patterson is a survivor of a random shooting where he endured multiple gunshot wounds that irrevocably changed his entire life. And Dr. Liza Chowdhury is Unique's victim advocate. She is also the project director of Reimagining Justice and the Patterson Healing Collective. So welcome to both of you. Unique.

Unique Patterson:

Thank you. Thank you.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Can you take us back, Unique, to that younger Unique and tell us a little bit about your life growing up in Patterson, New Jersey.

Unique Patterson:

Growing up, I'm from... Growing up where I'm from, you're either going to end up doing two things, really. Selling drugs or playing with guns and stuff like that. It's only really the two options we had. We didn't really have no other option but violence because that's all you see. And not even saying we didn't have our parents. Because me... My mother was in my life. She made sure she spoiled me because she didn't want me picking up those habits and being that type of person. But just from that being around you all your life, that's all you know and want to see. You want to be the older guys from your neighborhood that are selling drugs, fancy cars, chains, and people like that get feared where you from. Really only the two things.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

It sounds like those kinds of challenges and that community led you to get involved in the justice system. First in the juvenile justice system. Am I correct?

Unique Patterson:

Yes. Because I knew what I wanted to be when I was five years old and that was like the older people from my neighborhood.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

And then that led you to getting involved in the adult criminal justice system. Can you tell us about that?

Unique Patterson:

It started out with petty crimes. Stuff like that. Throwing rocks at people's cars, busting their windows out. Stealing out the cars. Stealing out of stores. Then, it went from stealing cars. Then, it went from violent crimes.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

You said it went to violent crime?

Unique Patterson:

Yeah.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

And that led you to being justice involved. Being involved in the adult system at that point.

Unique Patterson:

Yes.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

I understand it led you to spending some time within a facility, is that correct?

Unique Patterson:

Yes.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Okay. When you went into the facility, you did your time and it was time for you to come back out into the regular community. You came into the world when it had changed drastically. You returned to your community in the middle of the global pandemic. Now, that's a different world than you left. Now, you came back to a world that you had to adjust to and yet the community itself was learning to adjust to. Because you had been gone away for a couple years... For some years. Am I correct?

Unique Patterson:

Yes, six years.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Ah, okay. That was a pretty big adjustment. Coming back into this pandemic atmosphere, from the system now back to the community, can you tell us more about how it was to try to make that adjustment? It was a whole new world, I would assume.

Unique Patterson:

Yes. The only thing that was there when I came home really was my same little neighborhood, so that's where I went back to. People where I'm from, they don't... Now, it's different because Liza and their organization, they're helping guys. Getting them jobs when they come home and stuff like that. When I first came home... got released from prison, they wasn't really... I think they just started around the time when I came home. A couple months after, I think. A month after. Those resources wasn't there for me when I first got released. Maybe it could have been different for me. I went right back to my neighborhood. Plus, I couldn't get really... I didn't want to work at Walmart or nothing like that.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Well, that sounds like there were challenges for you. You always have to have the skill base to make those kinds of transitions, so I can even imagine that was a challenge for you. But trying to make that transition... Let's go back a little bit of a step. Back to November 27th, 2020. It's my understanding that you were attending a party. You were going with there with your girlfriend. And that's when your world changed again. Can you share with us a little bit more about what happened on that day in your life?

Unique Patterson:

I came out the party. They shot the car at least 16 times, but I ended up only getting shot three times. Twice on my spine, breaking my spine, and one on my shoulder. One time on my shoulder. But it changed my life forever.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

I can only imagine. I understand that you were trying to protect... When you were aware that shooting was going on, you were trying to protect your girlfriend, is that right?

Unique Patterson:

Yeah, I shielded.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

With your body, you shielded her. So she didn't get injured. Wow. And you wound up with life altering injuries.

Unique Patterson:

Yeah, that's how the bullets had broke my spine because I was on top of... When I jumped on top of Shelly, they hit me in my spine.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Wow. Well, thank you for telling us about that. Just horrific. And so, as a result of that, what is your life like now? Can you tell us a little bit more about that? The physical injuries that were caused by the shooting?

Unique Patterson:

Oh, messed up. Being a paraplegic, it's a lot. It's really a lot. Just going from having your legs your whole life to not walking at all. It messes with your mind. Your mental health. Depression. But I learned how to channel all that in, though, to just trying to fight to get my legs back. But type of person being in jail and stuff like that, being a felon, certain researchers and stuff like that wasn't allowed to me because of my past history.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

And that's now where Dr. Chowdhury comes in. Dr. Chowdhury, you and Reimagining Justice have been with Unique every step of the journey that he's taken since his injury. Can you tell us more about some of the challenges that he's faced after becoming a victim of random shooting?

Dr. Liza Chowdhury:

Hi, everyone. Thank you for creating the space for us so we could get Unique's story more elevated. Some of the challenges were that we met Unique at the bedside. We have a hospital based violence intervention program entitled the Patterson Healing Collective with St. Joseph's University Medical Hospital in Patterson, New Jersey. We already knew about Unique because people from the community actually knew him and kind of referred him to our case. This is right when we first opened up. Unique was shot, I believe, around November. We just launched the program in October. So we were also getting acclimated with providing hospital based violence intervention work. So our HBVIP coordinator, Teddy Martinez, arrived at the bedside. The beauty about our program is because we have community based professionals that work for us, Teddy already knew Unique and Unique already knew Teddy. I just want you to think about somebody that's just been shot. How much distrust this person might have. Unique didn't really trust anybody. He didn't really know... Definitely, when Teddy walked into that room, it was a sigh of relief because he already knew Teddy because he knew him from the community. That's how we were able to connect with Unique and build a relationship with him.

So, now, going into the challenges, Unique didn't have medical insurance. He needed advocacy in regards to getting aftercare as far as physical therapy. His family was not willing to take him in their home, so he had nowhere to go, really, at that point. In addition to that, he had just come home from prison, so it's not like he had any income. We had to now think about his long term plan, right? Because this was a way of life that he has to now adapt to. Going from somebody that's walking and a young man that was vibrant. He liked to dance. If you ever look at social media, he was a good... He was known for... His nickname is Funny because he's a comedian and he likes to dance. And so just dealing with even that mental health piece of that, yes, Unique, this is a new journey for you, but you're still valuable and you're still as important and your life is still going to serve its purpose. All these different walks. Mental, physical, medical. We had to start with baby steps. Also, as a new growing organization, learning the system. We just assumed that there's probably all these services for somebody that's disabled and we learned quickly that there wasn't.

The first thing that we helped out with was making sure that Unique got medical advocacy. While he was in the bedside at the hospital... St. Joe's provides the best care they can, but understand that he was shot during the pandemic. During the midst of the pandemic when all the beds were full in the hospital. So to try to get him services. He was getting bed sores. Getting him advocacy, pain medication. We made sure that we were able to advocate on his behalf. Also, his aftercare plan. Because he was so young and this shooting just happened, it was very important to get him into physical therapy right away, so we advocated for him to get into Kessler, which is a really well known rehab center in New Jersey.

After that, once he came out of Kessler, we had to figure out an aftercare plan because he didn't have family members that were willing to take him in his home. At the time, he ended up going to live with a ex-girlfriend of his and that wasn't the most healthy environment for him because... First, because he's a paraplegic, he had to be able to be carried up three flights of stairs because the building had no elevator. When he had to go to any medical follow up appointments, it was difficult to get him medical transportation services because they refused to carry him down the flights. So he would miss many medical appointments, miss many physical therapy appointments, which was really key for him because it was so new and because he's so young that aftercare was integral in how quickly he'll.... Not really recover fully, but how to get him the help he needs for his spine. Spinal injuries. He didn't have medical insurance so we had to quickly get him everything from a primary physician to insurance. And then, for his long term care, try to get him disability. We hired an attorney to help him get disability. But we referred an attorney for him to get disability so that he'll have income for the rest of his life. And then also home health aid care because he needed somebody to take care of him 24/7.

So we used VOVA VCCO. In New Jersey, it's called Victim Crime Compensation Office. That's who we would go to for any catastrophic injuries related to violence. So we reached out to VOCA. And I will say that our VCCO office tried to help us the best they can, but some of the necessities he needed right away like emergency funding, relocation... Things like bandages, right? Medication. He needed that money right away. And because he had no income, a lot of the way VCCO is is it's reimbursement based. That makes it a little difficult for clients like him who is in this new situation where he has a disability. And so we had to do a lot of legwork. And also, VOCA cannot pay us as an agency. Reimburse us. They'd have to reimburse the victim directly, so we couldn't even really be the conduit that fronted the money and got reimbursed. Some of the ways that we had to pay initially for some of his things were out of pocket, to be honest, because of the limitations and how we would get reimbursed and stuff and how would he get access to those funds.

After that, the situation where he was living at became unsafe for him. We literally had to carry him down three flights of stairs. He became homeless and we had to figure out what to do next. It was a very frustrating situation because, when we tried to utilize the local homelessness services like the county services and stuff, none of them had handicap accessible housing. Emergency housing for him. So now we were in a tight crunch where we had to figure out how are we going to place him somewhere that's handicapped accessible. Who was going to take care of him? How do we get home health aides? Because he has to be cleaned. He has to be fed. And so that's where we had to really think outside the box.

What we found out from Medicaid is that, since he was placed at a hotel, the problem with that is that home health aid agencies usually don't send home health dates to hotel rooms. We had to literally find somebody in our network that was contracted to come and provide care for him. Then, it became how do we pay her? And unfortunately, the way... Because VCCO, they pay on a monthly basis, they don't pay weekly, and she needed to get paid weekly because this is somebody that's going to give up their life to try to... or their schedule to try to help out Unique. That became frustrating too because, now, how do we make sure that this person gets compensated appropriately and quickly enough so that they can have the capacity to take care of him? The other issues that came up was everything from food to clothing to how do we make sure this young man is not in the streets?

The other frustrating part also came in that we tried to put him in assisted living places and they would constantly decline him. They would never put anything on paper, but they would basically tell us, "Well, we work with a different clientele. Clientele like him might have visitors that might cause problems." Basically, they had a certain type of viewpoint on Unique and his background. They wouldn't outright say it, but we understood what they were trying to say. We could never get anything writing in saying that, hey, yeah, we declined him because of this, but they would kind of say it in language on the phone. So that became very frustrating for us.

This has been going on since April of last year, where Unique has been in this situation where he's had housing insecurity. That we've been trying to deal with the state and the county and local, whatever resources we could, to try to get him into permanent housing. Just recently... And I do want to say. With our HBVIP grant... That is funded through VOCA. Luckily, we had that grant. Initially, the grant was $2 million, so we were able to utilize that grant to pay for the housing and the care for him initially. That was from April to October. But that funding went down substantially after October, where it went from two million to now one million. We had to pay payroll. We had to pay staff. So that limited the amount of money we could give Unique for housing. And so what we started doing was fundraising. We partnered with other organizations. We had a small grant from Everytown for Gun Safety USA and that was non-discretionary funds, so we were able to use some of that. We were very innovative in how we were going to do this because it cost $7000 to house him at the hotel.

It was a huge financial burden on a new organization, but we knew that, for us, Unique was our son. We were never going to let him stay on the streets. We would never do that. None of us. And everybody in my organization, I will say, has had a hand in making sure that we were supportive of this young man because we know that he deserves better. And, now, I'm happy to say, even despite those barriers, we were able to finally place him in permanent housing, which you see in the background. You see in the camera. He has a nice subsidized apartment. That was after over a year worth's of advocacy where he has lifetime subsidized rent. He has to come out of pocket on a very small amount versus what the rent costs. And he's in a very nice neighborhood. We were able to get him into a safe neighborhood, too, knowing that he's a victim of violence. So yeah. That kind of outlines all the obstacles and some of the things that we had to go through.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

What a story. You're doing just a high level summary of all of the things that Unique has had to face. I don't know if we always think about all of those unique aspects of what happens when there's a catastrophic injury and when there's no one there to help if they don't have a support system already in place. And so I can only imagine how grateful he is for having your organization there to help him. It's just been so many different things. You raised the issue of crime victim compensation. Victim compensation programs are available in every state and they're there to help crime survivors recover from the financial losses that they incur as a result of their victimization. Now, I'd like to ask both of you about... Again, you talked about some of those challenges, but there were challenges that Unique faced with even with crime victim compensation. So maybe Dr. Chowdury, if you could kind of kick us off a little bit with that. You did name some of those, but could you just maybe talk about a couple other aspects of the limitations of victim compensation?

Dr. Liza Chowdhury:

One of the things is also accessibility. For a young man like him who is disabled, even filling out the paperwork can be frustrating. I don't think that... I think VCCO is pretty... It's not hard, but there has to be a lot of advocacy. What I've learned in the organization now is that, yes, we get... Because we now have an account with VCCO, so we apply for the application that lists us as the intermediary agency to follow through. But when a person has gone through that much trauma, it's hard to follow up constantly with VCCO to get that money. So we now do that part for a lot of our clients. That's one thing. I just think about, if Unique didn't have us, would he have the capacity with all that he was going through to constantly follow up. Hey, are you guys going to reimburse me for my medical expenses? Are you guys going to reimburse me for my mental health expenses? For my catastrophic expenses?

I'll give you guys an example. They have worked with us very well because I think this was new for them too. Partnering with the agency. For example, he needed, for his new apartment, a bed. A bed that was handicap accessible. That can meet his needs. And they did get... Because of the catastrophic incident, they did mail us a check upfront so that we... Well, they mailed him a check up front so that we could purchase it. Now, the problem with VCCO. I think that now that a lot of HBVIPs are coming into place throughout the country... This is something... A new movement. I think that some of the ways that can be helpful for us as organizations doing this is that, when we are the intermediary conduit, sometimes they want to mail the check directly to the victim. But in Unique's case, he can't go to the bank and cash that check. We have to literally do everything for him.

So to be able to trust an organization like ours. To mail the check to us and then we will carry out the funds, if that makes sense. Right now, I guess maybe the legal policies or whatever it is, they can't give us the check directly. They have to give it to the victim. That doesn't need to happen every case, but in Unique's circumstances, because of the limitations he has physically, we kind of needed that money to come directly to us so that we could help him. You know what I mean? It makes it kind of hard to track receipts and stuff like that, if it's reimbursement, if it's going through him and then... That's one of the things that we had challenges with.

Also, kind of educating our local VCCO office about his case. This is not your normal victim of violence. This is somebody that has emergent needs and they can't wait a month for a home health aide to get paid. They need to get paid ASPA. So what we've been doing now is... Yeah, so what we've been doing now is doing all the invoices and stuff for the home health aide to assist her to get paid. Because even her capacity. All the paperwork that's involved. We are the agency that does everything to make sure that she gets paid timely and follows it through.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

There are so many things that we just don't know about or think about. Unique, did you have anything you wanted to add to that?

Unique Patterson:

Oh, even the nurse that I got. She's a nice lady, Miss Mara, but it was hard. They didn't pay her for two months. Two, three months. But she didn't never once said, "Oh, I'm going to just stop coming." Because you got some people that's like that. She gained a bond with me so she kept coming. It's times I even told her that, if they're not paying you, don't come because I don't want you to come if you're not getting paid because that's not right. But she would never do it. She would say, "No, I can't leave you like that," and she would keep coming.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

So the timeliness in the reimbursements are also... Those are problematic and I'm hoping that some of that can change. We're hearing how important it is to make certain that we're able to address the needs of people in a very timely way. This has been so enlightening and so helpful for us to think about the needs of victims. Again, particularly the needs of victims with catastrophic injuries. Having to wait for reimbursements, having their own lack of funds up front to be able to respond. There was a limit, I understand, on the amount of compensation that Unique could receive. Is that correct, Dr. Chowdhury?

Dr. Liza Chowdhury:

Yes. For catastrophic injuries in New Jersey, it's $25000. The cap. And as far as relocation... So that housing piece was important, right? $3500. It's not like we could even use VCCO services past two months because $3500 is their cap for housing. And I don't think that... For a case like Unique's, I just think that there should be a little bit more... It should be more discretionary because his situation was so different. That cap makes it difficult for a young man like him, where his needs were very different and he needed emergency housing.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

Now within your program, in 2020, Reimagining Justice, you launched your county's first hospital based violence intervention program. Nationally known as a HBVIP. It was done in partnership with St. Joseph University Medical Center. Can you tell us a little bit more about your program and about the Patterson Healing Collective?

Dr. Liza Chowdhury:

So our program... Like I said, we launched the hospital based violence intervention and victim services program in 2020 with a partnership with St. Joe's. They are our fiscal sponsor. They're really the ones who receive the VOCA grant through the state attorney general's office and we're the sub recipients, the community partner that carries out the services. As I said before, what we do is we arrive at the bedside once the emergency room department gets a victim of violence. Specifically for community violence. And what we try to do is utilize our community relationships to engage that victim and also have conversations about retaliation. I think Unique could speak about the importance of that because, like he said, some of the people in his neighborhood might have retaliated on behalf of Unique, but having Unique in our program and having those conversations, even if he was angry, kind of like saying, "Hey, let's regroup. Right now, you have these immediate needs. How can we help you and what do you need? Can we talk about making sure that this doesn't continue for the next person and the next person?" Unique is a part of some of our peace conversations and our mediations because of just who he is in his neighborhood. People care about him. People love him. And them seeing how much we've come through for Unique has helped them buy into our program.

And then the other piece of it is that we provide case management, which is probably one of the most critical pieces. A case like uniques, we have a case manager assigned that's going to follow up and make sure they get linked to resources. Along with that violence intervention piece, we also make sure that these young people or these victims are not just one and done. We make sure that we're walking them through that healing process. In this work, what we did was we went to the areas that were most impacted by violence in Patterson... It happens to be the first and fourth wards. And what we did was community walks. The way we bought in was we would just bring food to the block and build with these young people and ask them their needs. If anybody needed IDs or if anybody needed a jo., whoever was ready to make a change in their life, they'd come into the office and work with us and then we try to set up a plan for them.

But everybody on that block has been impacted by violence, to be honest. That eight year old that heard that gunshot, that mother that lost her son. From that knowledge, what we decided was, you know what? We can't just wait until they get shot. We need to start creating spaces for them before they get shot. So we hired a mental health practitioner. We have men's groups for young men of color in the neighborhood so that they can unpack some of their frustrations. We do yoga in the community. And we do more preventative stuff now through the assistance of the Attorney General and Governor's Office. They recently provided grant funding to help us do more preventative work. So now we do what's called Healing Spaces in Unique's Neighborhood, in the neighborhoods that he has conflicts with, so that we could engage everybody in that community and have these difficult conversations about mediation and restoration and community. Tomorrow, we're going to have this huge event. Three locations. We're going to do a huge back to school event. Engage the community, provide our resources, and give them healing mechanisms of how to deal with some of the trauma that they're facing.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

How does it feel now, Unique, to be really a community leader and to really impact and be a part of a change in your community? To be able to help other young people because you get it from that perspective.

Unique Patterson:

It feels great knowing that now in my life that I'm doing something. Not always negative. A person won't always have a negative output. What type of energy that I'm giving now. It's positive and that I'm doing certain things and just being around certain people. I even met the senator of New Jersey. Just being around Liza and the organization and meeting powerful people. It feel good to say... I could tell one of my boys or my aunt or my uncle or something like, "Oh, I met such this person and this person." It feels good just to be around people in that type of power and stuff.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

That's absolutely wonderful. The two of you are just wonderful in terms of seeing where and how lives can change and how critical the appropriate engagement is and what a difference it can make. You both have a highly personal lens into what is needed to improve services and support victims of violent crime and particularly those of catastrophic injuries. And the two of you together have become very outspoken advocates for change. I want to ask both of you, from your lens, about suggestions that you might have that would help improve victim and survivor services. And then, Dr. Chowdhury, I'm going to ask you from your perspective. Unique, what type of suggestions would you have to help improve services to victims?

Unique Patterson:

To start with, funding, to tell the truth. Because even all the stuff that... The Healing Collective... that they do. That stuff is not cheap. Doing events and stuff like that. You need money to do stuff like that. Where I come from, it's not really stuff that the younger generations and stuff like that... It ain't too many after school programs or nothing like that. And now, the kids around where I'm from, they're coming off the porch younger than from when I came off. Because that's all it is. When I came up, we had some after school programs and stuff like that, but now, there's none. The only good thing that we got going on in my neighborhood is Patterson Healing Collective. And it's sad, but that's just what it is.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

So Dr. Chowdhury, I'm really wanting to hear a little bit more from you about the hospital based intervention programs and how programs like yours help victims and particularly crime victims. Why is your program so important and communities across the nation need to know about it?

Dr. Liza Chowdhury:

For us, like we mentioned, we started in 2020. A big part of why it was so important for us to be a community based program is that, most of the time, victims of violence have to get access to victim compensation services through the prosecutor's office. And if you know a lot about Black, Brown, and immigrant communities, there's a level of distrust or understanding or just the apprehension of going to the prosecutor's office for these services. With our program, because we're culturally competent, because we're hiring people from the community that have a relationship with... It's coming to your family member or your cousin or your uncle or somebody that you trust. You're sharing some of the deepest, darkest secrets. One of the most horrific times in your life. So you want to have empathetic individuals.

For us, I was surprised how easy it was for us to get buy-in from the community. I was like, how are we going to get them to come to us for victim compensation? And it happened from day one. The minute that they found out our program was launched, they came to us right from the hospital. It was not hard for us at all. Since then, we've helped about 150 gunshot victims. This includes mothers who have lost their children and didn't know how to follow through with the funeral arrangements. Our program does so much that... As soon as somebody unfortunately loses their child, we make sure that we're right there with them through that whole process. Go to the funeral home, help them fill out the victim compensation application, go to the repast. Then, connect them to mental health resources because we know that they're going to need support. No parent, no child, nobody, should ever have to go through this type of tragedy.

But unfortunately, in our communities, especially communities like ours that are under resourced and marginalized often because of systemic racism, we're dealing with this. It's important for the federal government, through the victim compensation office, to understand the unique needs of victims that we are dealing with due to street violence. It's not that these young people are bad or gang members and all that kind of stuff. They're living in dire circumstances. Unique just told you his story. He woke up, he would come out the house, and all he saw was despair. So if we're going to really turn the turnstile on that, then we need to put more resources in that community. And that's what we're trying to do because we understand those needs.

So for us, the needs have to be more funding for HBVIP programs like ours. I think I told you that we started off with two million, then it got dwindled down to one million. And then, this year, we found out that the state of New Jersey didn't even have VOCA funding to fund us anymore. We had to rally, literally a month ago, with 200 advocates like myself around the state to rally for the government to keep our doors open. Luckily, the governor came through and used ARP funding, but that's going to be through RFP process, which is an open process, so there's no guarantee that this money's going to continue our programming. I think that, as we continue to have these conversations about VOCA funding and victims of violence, specifically in Black and Brown communities that are disproportionately feeling the effects of gun violence, we need to be a little bit more understanding that the funding needs to be a little bit more flexible and that there needs to be more money poured into supporting the infrastructure and build out of victim services in these communities.

Another thing I want to say is that a lot of the money goes into frontline workers and not enough money is usable for indirect services. For a program like ours, not only am I working doing case management, but I'm also managing a program writing grants so that we can keep our doors open. That's really hard for a new program to do. Also, money has to be put into mental health for my staff because my staff is seeing tragedy. They live in the communities that people are getting killed in. One of my staff members that I just hired from the VOCA grant, he had 13 people get shot in the last two months. 13 of his close friends. I can't even imagine what he's going through. And he was a gunshot victim last year. All these things that they're going through.

I think that when we start thinking about how can we evolve victim services and make sure that they're getting to the people that need them, how can that funding be a little bit more flexible to meet the needs of certain communities? And also how can we make sure it's more culturally competent and there's more funding being placed into programs like ours that are really doing the work. We're not just talking about it. As you can see, this is our family. He's not a client to us. We love him and we would never let him... It makes me sad to even think about what would've happened if we didn't exist. That really bothers me.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

We love the passion and the energy and the commitment. Thank you so much. And you both said some wonderful things. One, the issue of cultural competency. Addressing that and not looking at things through a traditional lens, which the HAVI program does not. Looking at things in the broader sense of how we can help and not hurt. And mental health counseling and support for your staff. I like that. That is unique. You can't look at violence every day and not be impacted by it. And then I like the fact that you talked about flexible spending and having some degree of flexibility in that. Now, I understand that there are some limits and that's where we probably need to have some more conversation. But I thank you so much. I'm so grateful for you guys spending time with us. Talking with us about... Unique, you talked to us about your experience. Where you have come from, the things you've been through. And yet now I'm hearing hope. I'm hearing that you have a purpose that you are working towards. I'm so happy for you. It just does my heart good to hear how you are taking that pain and growing through it.

Unique Patterson:

Thank you.

Aurelia Sands Belle:

We're going to have to end now. I think we could talk to you guys even longer, but our time is up. I wanted just to thank both of you, Unique and Dr. Chowdhury, for sharing not only the journey that you've taken together to seek support and to seek the kind of wraparound services that you Unique needs, but also other victims who need those kinds of services. Your commitment to affect positive change in our community and in your community and through this podcast as it goes out across the nation. We hope others will be inspired by your energy, Dr. Chowdhury. Thank you so much.

We've learned that there are too many significant barriers to victim's rights. Their right to be treated with dignity and respect involving cases of violent crime and their right to receive compensation. And we've learned that access to quality victim services like you guys are talking about through Imagining Justice requires ongoing collaboration and true dedication from hospitals and healthcare centers, from victim service and survivors programs, and from all community based organizations. We've learned that we have a long way to go to ensure equity for all crime survivors regardless of their lived experiences, regardless of their location, and regardless of the unique circumstances of their criminal victimization. So I'm grateful for the opportunity to promote rights access and equity for all victims and survivors of crime through this podcast and grateful to the US Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime for recognizing the importance and the value of the power of the personal stories of crime victims and survivors. Thank you very much for tuning in.

Janelle Melohn:

Hospital based violence intervention programs are multidisciplinary programs that combine the efforts of medical staff with trusted community based partners to provide safety planning, services, and trauma informed care to violently injured people while in a hospital based setting and follow-up services out in the community. The Health Alliance for Violence Intervention or HAVI builds and connects violence intervention Programs and promotes equity for victims of violence globally. To learn more about HAVI and hospital based violence intervention programs, please visit their website at thehavi.org. That's T-H-E-H-A-V-I dot org.

As a long-time state VOCA administrator, I appreciate Unique's personal observation about the cost of providing services to crime victims and survivors. That stuff ain't cheap. We often hear about the cost of crime. Today, we've heard firsthand about the direct costs of crime incurred by a survivor who has since committed his life to violence prevention and victim assistance. While victim or survivor assistance isn't cheap, it is a necessary expense that requires a collective commitment to helping those who are harmed by crime. While there were some barriers to obtaining compensation, it was wonderful to hear how the New Jersey Compensation Program found a way to creatively adapt to be able to get Unique the accessible equipment he needed. And the medical services weren't cheap, right? Even though there was a benefit limit, Unique was able to access at least $25000 to help with his medical expenses. The services provided to Unique by the Patterson Healing Collective following his victimization were truly life changing for him and likely many others from his community. I'm so grateful to both Unique and Dr. Liza for sharing the power of their personal stories. Thank you again for tuning in.