The National Census of Victim Service Providers: Data, Resources, and Implications for Practitioners

DARYL FOX: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, the “National Census of Victim Service Providers: Data, Resources, and Implications for Practitioners,” hosted by the Office for Victims of Crime and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce Dr. Ashley Russell, Performance Management Coordinator with the Office for Victims of Crime for some welcoming remarks and to begin the presentation. Dr. Russell?

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: Thank you so much. And thank you everyone for joining us today. We are so excited to talk about the National Census of Victim Service Providers. As mentioned, I’m Ashley Russell, and I'm the Performance Management Coordinator at OVC. And I am accompanied by my colleague, Rachel.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: Thanks, Ashley. Thanks, Daryl. I am Rachel Morgan, and I am a statistician in the Victimization Statistics Unit at BJS, and also the BJS Project Manager for the National Census of Victim Service Providers.

So we are going to go ahead and jump into the webinar agenda. So we are going to give a presentation that starts with the BJS and OVC partnership. We're going to talk about the goals and importance of BJS' Victim Services Statistical Research Program, the VSSRP. And then go into the National Census of Victim Service Providers, talking about the interactive maps and doing a demonstration of those, and then an update of the 2023 NCVSP. And then, implications and uses for victim service providers and practitioners, Ashley is going to talk about that. And then we'll get into questions and answers.

And it seems that the BJS Director, Alex Piquero, was going to give some opening remarks. And I see that he says he's here, but it's not allowing him to do video. So we'll see if we can get that solved real quick. And then--and then we'll transition back into the presentation.

There he is. Hey, Alex.

DR. ALEX PIQUERO: Here I am. So...

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: Yay, you made it.

DR. ALEX PIQUERO: Good afternoon. Thank you very much, Rachel. And thanks very much for giving me a few minutes here. Both Director Rose and I were at one meeting and I couldn't start my video. And--but now I'm alive. You don't want to hear about my drama.

So, I want to thank you all for spending some time with everybody here today. This is really an incredible piece of work that the two organizations linked together. When I started back last August, several weeks after that, Kris came up to me and had this idea about how do we partner together? And at the same time, Rachel and one of our digital fellows last summer put together a really fascinating report on victim service providers.

And then one thing led to another, and then we--with the magic of Tableau and a lot of people's patience, we put together a really nice PDF, but an even better interactive display that you can look at on our website, that actually lets you go down to the county level to see how many victims per certain population are there, and then how many victim service providers are there. So you can actually go to your home county, whatever home county that is, and see what that juxtaposition is. And so, for a lot of different stakeholders and constituents, that kind of information is extremely important. And I'm so proud of this work. And even better, I'm so happy that Kris brought the idea to us. So as BJS Director, the best part of my job is touting the work of the statisticians at BJS. So, it's--this is going to be great. I'm glad that you all are here.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: Thank you, Alex. All right. So we are going to move forward. If we see Kris join, we can turn it over to her for a few minutes. But we'll go ahead and get started.

And we're going to start with the BJS and OVC partnership.

So, first, a little bit about BJS and OVC. The Bureau of Justice Statistics is one of 13 principal statistical agencies housed in the U.S. Government. Each of these 13 agencies has statistical activities as their core mission. And BJS' mission is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of the justice systems at all levels of the government. BJS also provides financial and technical support to state, local, and Tribal governments to improve both their statistical capabilities, and then also, the quality and utility of their criminal history records.

So the crime funnel is a good visual to show how BJS statistical units are organized. So over on the left, in the blue, we have the crime or the victimization occurs. It may or may not be reported to law enforcement. And if so, it may likely move through prosecution and the judicial system. And then, sentencing and the offender may be sentenced to spend time in a correctional institution. And then finally, there is a possibility of recidivism or reentry back into the criminal justice system. So victimization, law enforcement, judicial, and corrections are some of the primary statistical units at BJS. And we also have a unit that focuses on reentry, recidivism, and special projects.

And then I'm going to turn it over to Ashley to talk about OVC.

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: All right. Thank you. So we have the Victims of Crime Act, also known as VOCA. And that was created by Congress in 1984, to provide federal support to state and local programs that assist victims of crime. Now, the VOCA Act has established two very important things. First, was creating the Crime Victims Fund. And this is a special fund within the Treasury consisting of nontax revenue. So this comes from fines, penalties, bond forfeitures from convicted federal criminals. If you would like more information on how that money is capped, obligated, and then allocated throughout, you can check out our website to learn more information on the Crime Victims Fund. The second most important thing is--stemming from the VOCA Act was the creation of the Office for Victims of Crime. And so, we are charged with administering the Crime Victims Fund.

Rachel, next slide.

And so, after a number of statutory set asides that go out first, OVC manages a number of programs with the remaining funding from the Crime Victims Fund. So, some of our largest programs are the State Formula Grants to victim assistance and compensation programs, as well as our competitive discretionary grant programs that provide direct services, training, and technical assistance, as well as implementing national-scope demonstration projects. OVC also manages the largest anti-trafficking portfolio across the Federal Government. And we have a dedicated Tribal Set-Aside funding stream to enhance victim services for American Indian and Alaskan Native communities. In addition to those grant programs, we also have a number of interagency agreements and partnerships with federal agencies to support their crime victim service efforts, as well as training and technical assistance to build the capacity of the victim service provider field. And with all of these different programs, OVC also collects quarterly performance measures to identify and understand better all of the activities that are going on with this grant funding.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: All right. And back over to BJS and OVC partnership goals. The first goal is to establish and strengthen data collections on victim service providers. So this would include conducting the National Census of Victim Service Providers and its follow-up National Survey of Victim Service Providers on a more routine basis. And I'm going to talk about these data collections in more detail. Second, BJS added victim service provider questions to other BJS data collections, including the Census of Medical Examiners’ and Coroners’ Offices, and the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies, which helps to expand knowledge of victim service providers across the criminal justice field. And then third, to collect data on victimization and the use of victim service providers through the National Crime Victimization Survey. So the National Crime Victimization Survey is an annual household survey that collects data on non-fatal violent and property crimes, experienced by persons ages 12 or older in the United States, from a nationally representative sample of households in the country. So BJS continues to collect information on victimization and the use of VSPs by crime victims through the NCVS. So the NCVS is currently undergoing a redesign in which we're going to review or we have reviewed, and revised questions on the survey. And we tested an--a new and improved questions on victim service providers, that we're going to include in this redesigned survey. All right.

Turn it over. All right. And then moving on to the overarching goals and importance of BJS’ Victim Services Statistical Research Program, the VSSRP. There are a lot of acronyms in this presentation.

So the VSSRP was initiated to build knowledge about victim service provisions across the criminal justice system. And it's an effort to better understand help-seeking and access to services among victims of crime and abuse. And to date, the VSSRP includes two data collections specifically focused on gathering information directly from victim service providers. So the 2017 National Census of Victim Service Providers and then the 2019 National Survey of Victim Service Providers. And as I previously mentioned, the VSSRP also works to enhance other BJS data collection in relevant areas of importance to the victim service field.

So before the 2017 Census and 2019 Survey, most of the research on victim services has been conducted from the perspectives of victims. And to some extent, this makes sense, because victims are best positioned to tell us if they needed, accessed, or received services, and whether those services actually helped them in their recovery from crime or abuse. But on the other hand, it's equally as important to know about the experiences of victim service providers and the organizations that serve victims. VSPs can provide information about who they serve, who they weren't able to serve, and whether VSPs are sufficiently staffed, funded, and trained, and resourced to meet victims' needs. The Census and Survey of VSPs provide the first ever national data on the victim service provider field.

So the VSSRP is situated within the Victimization Statistics Unit at BJS. We have data collections within the VSSRP that are from the victims' perspective and then also from the VSP perspective. But because this presentation is focused more on the VSP side, I'm just going to mention, as I already said, that the primary data collection on the victim side is the National Crime Victimization Survey and its supplemental surveys. If you're interested in more information on the NCVS, you can go to bjs.gov, and get a lot of information about the NCVS. So the VSP perspective focuses on the National Census of VSPs and the National Survey. And then it also focuses on particular types of VSP organizations. So as I mentioned earlier, with the OVC and BJS partnership goals, we've worked to add VSP questions to other BJS surveys including the 2018 Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies and the 2018 Census of Medical Examiners' and Coroners' Offices, and there are a couple of other BJS surveys included on this list. And all information about all of these can be found on the BJS website. So it's important to collect data from both of these perspectives in order to get a more complete picture of the VSP field and services being provided to victims of crime and abuse.

So, the 2017 National Census of Victim Service Providers.

This is the first data collection to collect information from VSPs. And basically, what we did, is we started by developing a roster or a list of all victim service providers across the country. And then we conducted a pilot test, which is just a test with a small number of victim service providers to determine the quality of the roster or the list and test the survey instrument and the questions that we were asking to VSPs. From October 2016 to July 2017, we conducted the Census of the filed to examine the basic characteristics of VSPs. And then following that Census, we were able to clean the roster by deleting duplicate organizations, organizations that maybe we thought were providing services but ended up not providing services, and then other organizations that were missing data on key items in the survey instrument. So, our final product was a comprehensive, up-to-date, and descriptive roster of victim service providers that could serve as a sampling frame or a starting point to select VSPs for future surveys on victim service providers.

So, in 2019, BJS published Victim Service Providers in the United States, 2017, which was the first released of data from this Census. And it concluded the number of VSPs by type of organization, a map of VSPs by location, and maps of VSPs per 100,000 residents. So this report is available on the BJS website for anyone to download and read. And then also, we archived the data file, so the actual data and the code book through the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, which is where BJS releases all of our data products, which is housed at the University of Michigan. And so, you would just go to this website, in the search bar, type in “37518,” and the data file and codebook come up, and you can download them, and conduct your own statistical analysis.

So just a few findings from how the VS--or the NCVSP data can be used, before I get into the demo of the interactive maps. So first, this is supposed to say, nearly a quarter of VSPs were in the largest four states, which are California, Texas, Florida, and New York. And this map is included in that report that I was just mentioning that's available on the BJS website.

Another thing we can do is offer new perspectives on services for hard-to-reach victim populations with these data. So this example shows Tribal VSPs in green, mapped with federally recognized tribes in orange at the county level. And as we would imagine, they're clustering out west and in Alaska.

And then finally, this example shows VSPs that reported they served at least one victim of sex and labor trafficking in blue, labor only trafficking in red, and sex only trafficking in green.

All right. So now I'm going to do a demonstration of the maps. And Tammy is going to put the link in the chat, if you guys want to follow along with me. I am going to open my internet browser here.

This is also easy to navigate, if you go to the BJS website as well. So if you go to bjs.gov, scroll down in the “New Releases,” and the last one is “Victim Service Providers in U.S. Counties 2017,” and you'll get a little synopsis of the report. And then if you click “Web Version” within the paragraph or “View Web Document” over here on the right-hand side, it will open up.

So I'm going to walk through the key findings and then the maps as well.

So the first bullet is talking--it comes from that report that I mentioned a little while ago, the first release of data. So in 2017, approximately 12,200 victim service providers operated in the United States. VSPs were defined as organizations that served victims of crime or abuse as their primary function. Or…

So this first map is the rate of victim service providers per 100,000 county residents. And the county level data are coming from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which provides population estimates. And these are their five-year population estimates from 2013 to 2017. And Ashley, if you want to hover over, since we're both from Florida, some county in Florida.

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: Okay.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: And we can look and see what we find. Miami-Dade. Perfect. So this shows for Miami-Dade County, Florida, which houses the city of Miami, that there were about 2.7 million persons living in the county at that time. There are 55 victim service providers according to the 2017 NCVSP data. And then that equates to a rate of about 2 service providers per 100,000 in the population.

And then Ashley, if you want to click on the legend, just select one of those categories. You can see how it--based on your selection, you can see the different categories that are--or the different counties that are included in that category. And then if you click on that category again, it should bring the whole map back up. Perfect.

So this is really cool and you can--you can hover over, you can see all the different counties in the country, which is--which is great. So--and then, there are a couple findings or at least one finding at the top of the page the--for the second bullet, the existence of VSPs in U.S. counties range from a rate of zero, so we know that some counties don't have any victim service providers, to 177. For example, Harris County, Texas, which includes the city of Houston, had a rate of 1.3 VSPs per 100,000 county residents; while Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix, had a rate of 2.3. So just a couple examples to show how to interpret the findings on this map.

All right. If you want to scroll down, we can look at number two. All right. So this is the rate of victims served by victim service providers per 1,000 county residents. And this comes from a question on the NCVSP that states, “Excluding hotline, helpline, or crisis line calls, how many unique victims received direct services from your organization during the past calendar or fiscal year?” So this rate is generated by--where is it? It is explained below the map. So the rate per 1,000 residents is calculated as the number of victims served, divided by the county population again, and then multiplied by 1,000.

You will see here that there are six rates that are higher than 1,000 and this is because these VSPs are located in a state capital or provided services statewide. So that means that there were victims coming from other counties that were not included in that total population to receive services from these VSPs. So it is not an error, it is correct, and it's explained below the map.

So let's hover over Miami-Dade again. We can look at the details there. So again, that 2.7 million population--the map's a little finicky sometimes. That is funny. Okay. So, 2.7 million total population of persons. Again, we have 55 victim service providers. And then that would be a rate of about 704 victims served per 1,000 persons in the population. So you can zoom in up at the top left of the map, you can zoom into certain areas. Once you zoom in, I think you can press the home key and it'll bring you right back out to the full map. But it's a really cool way to see the distribution of VSPs and victims served across the United States.

So I think--and then, Ashley, if you want to scroll up to the top of that page for me real quick. There's also a way to download the PDF, which is a static map, but it includes the bullet points and you can see that the different categories within the map if you're interested in that. So, all right. I think that was all I wanted to say about that. So I'll go ahead and get back to the slides.

And again, all of this is available on the BJS website for anyone to play around with and utilize. Okay. Back to the slides.

All right. So we're going to talk for a few minutes about the 2023 NCVSP.

So in February of 2022, BJS kicked off a new project, an update of the NCVSP, with a project team consisting of the Justice Research and Statistics Association, Westat, and then the National Association for Victim Assistance or NOVA, which many of you may be familiar with.

And the goals for this project are first to refresh and build upon the 2017 NCVSP frame. So we know that there have been significant changes in VSP operations between 2017 and 2023. Many VSPs have closed, a lot have opened. And so we want to account for those changes and understanding what's going on in the victim service field right now. We're going to build upon the strong foundation that we created with the first administration in 2017. Second, we're going to improve what did not work as intended while maintaining comparability between the 2017 to 2023 Census. So we can say, you know, were there more providers in 2023 compared to 2017, did it decrease, etc. So we're going to focus on revising survey items with low quality data and poor item performance. So this means survey items that maybe had a lot of missing responses, folks weren't quite sure how to answer the questions, or the questions needed revised to be clear. So we're working on that right now. But we know that many questions did work well and so we don't want to revise those questions. And then finally, produce a high quality and accurate frame that can be used to sample VSPs in the next National Survey of Victim Service Providers, which I didn't talk a lot about. But basically what we did with the 2017 NCVSP is we were able to select a number of victim service organizations that were nationally representative of the country and survey them with more detailed questions about the types of services they were providing, about the types of victims that they served. And really get some more detailed information from them than we got on the Census. So in order to do that, we have to make sure that the Census is up-to-date and representative of all of the VSPs in the country.

So, the project timeline. In September of 2022, we were reviewing the 2017 instrument and determining which questions weren't working and where there were potential recommendations and revisions were needed. And in January and February of this year, we worked on cognitive testing with our project team. So basically they talked to a select group of VSPs across the country and asked them the revised questions, asked them what they thought, if the questions were easy to understand, if we were getting the information that we were trying to get from these folks. And then we're going to finalize the list of victim service organizations in March with the hopes of going into the field with data collection this summer or fall of 2023. And then later next year, 2024, BJS will release a statistical report with the first findings from the 2023 NCVSP and other supplemental materials at that time.

So for more information, there's plenty of information on the BJS website. The first is the VSSRP Program page. You can also subscribe to JustStats, which is BJS listserv to get information on when publications and products were released. And then, as I mentioned earlier, the 2017 data are available for anyone in the public to download. You do have to sign up for an account through NACJD, but it's free and available for anyone to download. And my final plug would say I've shown you that so much can be done with these data. Ashley is going to talk about it even more. But we really encourage your organization to complete the 2023 NCVSP when you're contacted by our project team later this year. So the only way that we can have a strong up-to-date and representative list of what's going on in the country is if we get a high response rate and we get as many VSPs as possible to complete the survey later this summer. So I will turn it back over to Ashley to talk about implications and uses for data.

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: Thank you, Rachel. Okay. So, there are kind of three big points I want to make in terms of implications for the field and what this means for you and your organization. First, we think the Census is so cool. I mean, the interactive maps, like what a cool way to be able to visualize what's going on in your local area, or your state as a whole, or across the country. So we really see this as a fantastic tool for you as an organization to use. So, there's a couple things you can do with this data. And as Rachel mentioned, this data is publicly available and so you're able to download that and kind of crawl through it yourself. And if you have questions on how to do that or just follow-up questions on the Census in general, there's again, a lot of information on the website, but you can also contact us with some follow-up questions.

So, you know, how do we use this as a tool? What are some examples? So first, you can look at where service providers are located and the gaps in service providers within the state by type of service provider. So are there areas in the state that lack victim service providers in general or are they lacking certain specific types of providers? It's a great way to kind of take an assessment especially for our State Administering Agencies for our VOCA Victim Assistance Program, kind of looking at your state as a whole and what does that look like in terms of where providers are located and who is being funded under VOCA. And I did see a question earlier and I'll get to this a little bit on my third point, but the maps and the Census that Rachel was showcasing is all the victim service providers that are responding to the Census. So, it is not just VOCA specific-funded victim service providers, it's all victim service providers that are responding. But I'll get to that point in a minute.

So some other things we can do with this data is look at the distribution of victims seeking services and general information on the types of victims being served. So you can use this information and kind of ask how does this align with other crime statistics in your area, victimization rates in your area, and, kind of, what does that mean going forward for future programming, whether that be like with your program or other providers in the area.

And then another thing you can look at is the distribution of services in your local area, because I think this is a great opportunity to identify new partnerships, especially if you provide particular services and you're serving victims and identifying other services that they might need. You could find, you know, potentially other victim service providers in your area that provide those services, have a partnership established and be able to refer victims out so that we can meet the needs of all victims for all types of victimization, you know, in your local area. And so we won't be, kind of, limited to what's going on just within your organization. So these are just a couple of examples of how you can use the data.

And kind of going into my next point, we really want to support you all in making data- driven decisions. So in addition to, you know, how this information can be used, you know, at a programmatic level in terms of partnerships or other service providers in your area or how does this match up with the crime rates and the victimization rates that you're seeing in your area? BJS also has a number of publications and resources using Census data and using other data that can help support your organization for both these programmatic decisions that you have to make as well as when you're seeking funding at the local, state, and federal level. Having this information can really support the need for funding and, kind of, what areas in particular there might be gaps in that you would like to use that funding for. So, we really encourage you to be able to, you know, look at this data, align it to what your needs are, and then use it to support your request for funding.

And that brings me to my third point, OVC grant funding distribution. As I previously mentioned, the maps that we were showcasing are all the victim service providers responding to the Census. And so for us at OVC, it's great to be able to understand and overlay our subgrantee data and our grantee data with the Census data to get a really good understanding of who is accessing funding out in the field and where gaps might be. So there could be areas where there are a number of victim service providers, but they're not VOCA-funded. So we can, you know, work with the state, provide that information. And just, you know, we would like to get more funding out there, whether that be identifying those who are in need of funding or just getting outreach so that people are aware that funding is available at the federal level. So these are just a couple of examples of ways to use this tool, both at your organizational level and at the OVC level to, you know, just be more informed when we're making both programmatic and funding decisions. And so, next slide please, Rachel?

So another big plug, as Rachel said, please participate in the 2023 Census. The Census is only as good as the information we're able to collect from the field. So, you know, the last Census was done in 2017 and a lot has changed since then. And so we want to make sure that we have the most up-to-date information, most up-to-date locations, the number of victims being served, and the types of services being provided, because you can overlay that information with your own organizational data and be able to do so much with that information going forward.

Another plug I want to make for the Census and I realized I didn't put the link here, but I will drop it in the chat right now, is when you receive your notification for the Census, there is an option to opt-in to the OVC Directory, and if you haven't already opted into the OVC Directory and want to get your information out there, the Directory helps users locate victim services in the U.S. and other countries. But what's important about that is with the public-facing data from the Census, it won't go into the level of detail of the specific organization and their contact information. It'll just give you more high level, here's, you know, how many victim service providers are in the area and the types of services they're providing.

So the cool thing about the Directory is that does provide all of that additional information. And so if you want your organization to be a part of that or if you want to be able to reach out to other organizations in your local area or across your state, this is a great resource to be able to connect with other organizations. And again, kind of, going back to what I was saying with partnerships, or referrals, or understanding how victims are being served in your area or the types of victimizations they're experiencing, being able to connect through the information on the OVC Directory is really useful as well. So we are so excited about the upcoming 2023 Census and we hope that when you receive your notifications that you fill it out to the best of your knowledge, so that we can get the most accurate information and be able to use this data to support you all out in the field even more.

So I think that wraps up our presentation for this portion. We are so thankful for you all joining us today.

Here is our contact information. If you would like to reach out to us with further questions and I think we'll move on to a question and answer session since we have a few moments.

And like it says on the screen, if you could drop them into the specific Q&A section, we'll be able to, kind of, read through what's going on. Let me look at that.

So, Sandy, I think I spoke a little bit to your question. Again, our number of VSPs, “how many actually exist or how many are funded by VOCA?” There are more than 50 in Miami, victim numbers are all who are counted through OVC VOCA-funded agencies. Again, so the map that we were showcasing in the Census is across all victim service providers and again, that Census was done in 2017, so some things might be outdated compared to what's going on in 2023, all things considered over the last couple of years. So that's another great, you know, reason that we would want to update all of our Census data and get a better understanding of what's more current out in the field.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: Okay. I'm seeing this first question. Carolyn “[INDISTINCT] data source to identify victims.”

I believe you're talking about the National Crime Victimization Survey that I briefly discussed.

“Environmental crime victims are not currently in the NCVS.”

No, the NCVS collects data on non-fatal property crimes, so we are surveying victims. So rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault; and then personal larceny, which is pocket-picking and purse snatching; and then household property crimes, which includes burglary, trespassing, motor vehicle theft; and then other types of household theft. And for that data collection, we're simply asking, once we find out that someone is a victim based on the questions that--or the responses they provided to the questions, we ask them if they received some kind of victim service from a public or private victim service agency. So it's very limited right now, which is why in the redesigned NCVS, we're getting a lot more detail about the types of services that victims are receiving and if there are barriers to services that they tried to receive but could not receive.

“On the maps, is there a better way to make the state lines more prominent?”

I will tell you, building these maps was a labor of love in Tableau. And I think that's something we can take for the future. We learned a lot working with our IT folks on this. And this was the best we could come up with at the time, but we will take that as we--as we think about maps for the future. We would definitely want to do these maps again for the 2023 Census, once we have those data.

“How do you decide...”

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: And...

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: ...who to--oh, go ahead.

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: No, no, go for it, Rachel.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: Okay. “How do you decide who to contact for the VSP survey? My program has been in service since 2011 and has never been invited to participate.”

So what we did was we started with the list of organizations included on the 2017 NCVSP and then also the list of organizations included on the 2019 survey. And because we have the actual organization names within BJS and can figure out those are not--the organization names are not provided on the public files, but we have them. So we--that's our first starting point. And then, Ashley gave us the list of all the subgrantees that OVC is funding. So we have those organizations included. And then we have some other federal grantee lists from Health and Human Services. So the trafficking subgrantees and some--a bunch of other various, like, types of federal grantee lists. We have state lists that NOVA has pulled together. And a lot of other different types of lists. So I would say, I think we're going to have about 30,000 organizations that we're going to have to determine by administering the survey who actually is a victim service provider. So we are--Our reach was bigger this time around. So I would expect your agency to be on that list. If you want to reach out to me, send me an email. I can--and we can get your information and then make sure you are on that list. That might be the best way to do it, just to confirm. So, Camden, if you want to send me an email, I can put up the emails again and we can make sure you're included on the list.

All right. Sand…

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: I saw a quick question that I'll speak to in terms of the OVC Directory. So the link that I dropped into the chat is a link to our Directory site. And at the time, as you said, it says, “at this time, OVC is not accepting new submissions into the Directory as we work on upgrading our platform.” So at this time, you can use it to search for other organizations. You can, kind of, search through what the Directory looks like and the information it provides. But when the Census information comes out, you'll have an opportunity to opt-in to the Directory at that time and you can provide your information. I'm not sure the timeline in terms of the website for accepting new submissions on the website directly. But I do know with the Census coming out that you'll be able to opt-in through there. So if you want to follow up via email, feel free to send me an email about it and I can follow up on that.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: The slides, so we are going to post this on the--this webinar, so the recording and then the slides will be posted to the BJS and OVC websites in the--I would say within the next couple of months and then a transcript as well. So I would-- you can sign up for--where do I have it here?

BJS JustStats and then you'll get an alert when it's posted on the website.

“What steps are you taking to ensure inclusion of law enforcement-based, prosecution- based, and corrections-based providers?”

Great question. We worked with our colleagues at BJS that manage data collections in all of those areas and they provided their Census data files, so the Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies and then the corrections-based. I'm blanking on the name. It's like State and Federal Correctional Facilities. I'm sorry, I can't remember the acronym there. But we have included all of those in our frame, all of those organizations in our frame as well, so that we have a good starting point of those universes of types of VSPs.

“Can we please provide the links to the maps again?”

If you would just go to bjs.gov, .gov and scroll down on the new releases, it's that last new release on the main page. It's the easiest way probably to get to it. But Tammy probably put it in the chat as well.

“If a VSP got an OVC grant in 2019, but the award ended in 2022, would they still be on the map funded?” Ashley, what was the reference period of the last PMT list you pulled?

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: I was just thinking that. I--you know, that's a great question. We'll look back into it and maybe we can go back even a little further and add, if we haven't already gone back that far. Because I believe we did, who was active in '21 and '22 for our VOCA-funded grants. But we can definitely look back for 20--well, you would have been counted in that, because if it ended in 2022, you would have been counted as an active award during that time period that we looked at. So you will be on the list that is being used for the 2023 Census. So anyone who had an award, even if your award started in 2018 and you received an extension and you were active between fiscal year 2021 or 2022, then you'll be on the list. If your award ended before '21, fiscal year '21, that is, we might have had a cutoff at that point. But we can always go back and see if there's any other organizations that may--we might want to cross-reference with that list.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: There’s a question about “partnerships and grants offered as incentives for VSPs to complete the survey.”

One thing we think is an incentive is opting into the OVC Directory, I would say, and then being able to have access to all the VSPs included there. So I would say that's a great incentive as a starting point.

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: And I think that, kind of, goes along with one of the questions that I saw pop up in the chat. “What would be the best way to compare this data with our PMT data?”

And that's a great question because I love hearing when people are using their PMT data for programmatic decisions or funding decisions. For your specific question or maybe for your specific organization or state, I would highly encourage you to reach out via email to me and I can follow up and we can chat about that further with our team.

But I think there is a number of things that you can look at. So for those who aren’t VOCA-funded at the--at this moment and don't know the particular performance measures we're talking about, oftentimes we collect information on the number of victims being served, the types of victimizations they're experiencing, and the types of services that are being provided by each funded program. So some of that information, kind of, overlays with the information that is collected in the Census.

And so when you're looking at--one quick example would say that I gave earlier, if you have a particular set of services that you provide and you're recognizing that the victims that you're serving need additional services that just aren't in your wheelhouse, you could look, you know, to the Census and say, you know, are there other victim service providers in my area that might be providing particular services that we're seeing a need for, but we don't use or we don't supply? And so then it could be a question of, well, let's go to the Directory. And so you see how it's all connected. You go to the OVC Directory, see who is in your area. If you do see that there is someone on the Census map in your area that provides that service and then you could reach out and say, "Hey, you know, here's what's going on. We'd love to partner with you, provide referrals and set up that kind of opportunity." So that's just one very high level example of how you can, kind of, overlay what you're seeing with the PMT data with the Census information.

You could also look to see the types of victimizations that are going on in your area and compare it with the types of victimizations that are being reported in the Census. Again, some of this is very tailored to the type of program you have. If you have a more general program, you might be offering a lot of different services and see a lot of different victimization types, compared to a program that is more specific to a particular type of victimization. So those are just some examples. But if you'd like to chat about it more, feel free to send me an email and I'd love to talk about it.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: One more question I think we can get to about human--what do we have? “How granular will the 2023 survey get into VSPs that serve trafficking survivors?”

So we have a couple questions about crime types for which your organization provided services. So trafficking, human trafficking-labor and human trafficking-sex would both be included and then also if your organization provides services to just those kinds of victims. So you will be able to get some good information on trafficking survivors. We realized after 2017, this is an area that we didn't capture as well as we wanted to. And so, which is also why we've reached out to Health and Human Services, Office of Trafficking in Persons, OTIP, to get their grantee data so we can be sure, like, that we were really capturing and being comprehensive in the providers that we were reaching out to for the Census.

“If a program is available in a county on the map, but it shows there are no victims served in the population. What does that indicate?”

No services provided. Yeah. No services provided because they did--they did reply to the survey. They could be a victim service organization that just operates a hotline or a helpline. And so those--that number of victims would not be--is not included. So, yeah. Okay. We have one minute left.

Thank you all so much for joining today. Sorry for the technical difficulties. Again, this information, the PowerPoint, the transcript, the slides will be posted on the BJS and OVC websites in the next couple of months, I would say. Hopefully, in the next month. Feel free to reach out to Ashley and I if you have any questions.

Ashley, any final thoughts?

DR. ASHLEY RUSSELL: No. Just thank you all so much for joining us and we look forward to receiving your responses to the 2023 Census. I'm going to plug it until you end this webinar.

DR. RACHEL MORGAN: Thank you all. Have a great day.

DARYL FOX: Wonderful. So, on behalf of the Office for Victims of Crime and the Bureau of Justice Statistics, thank you for joining today's webinar. This will end today's presentation.