 My name is Carol Ann Ellis. Like many of you, I work with crime victims. And I am intimately aware of the ongoing challenges that we encounter every day. As a field, we have made great strides in creating services for victims that help them overcome the trauma of violence, the trauma of crime. Yet there are still many victims who remain underserved and even ignored. Geographical isolation, language barriers, cultural differences, physical and or mental disabilities, or fear and lack of knowledge of the criminal justice system are just a few of the challenges they face. By reaching out to underserved communities and learning how to better accommodate them, we can ensure that all crime victims are given access to the services they're entitled to, the services they deserve, and certainly the services they need. I myself am a rape survivor. I had no interpreters at all for my interviews. I had to write in order to communicate with the people involved. And the mentality back then was, well, what did you do to cause it? You made it happen. And I remember I was just terrified and pissed off and very angry and embarrassed. Trying to get through the legal system on your own is, it's almost like being a victim all over again. In the past, deaf women would go into hearing agencies and they would focus so much on her deafness and how to communicate with her that her experience or the violence that she's experienced was completely ignored. What about training people? We're more than just people without hearing. We have a language that's ours. And it's equivalent to English. We have cultural rules that are different from our hearing counterparts. When I founded ADWAS there was nothing in the country at the time. We basically provide the same services as the general hearing agencies provide, except that we are focused on deaf women. Creating new community-specific services may be necessary to help underserved victims in a more meaningful way. The Abuse Deaf Women's Advocacy Services was created to help deaf women safely come forward to report abuse. It has served as a model for 15 other cities which now have services focusing specifically on abused deaf women. It makes a difference when we understand which services are available in our communities which meet the critical needs of the wide spectrum of cultures that exist. Equipped with this knowledge, we can make appropriate referrals to services that address a victim's individual needs. July 16th is the day my family would never be the same. Stanley's Secretary Navajo individual had gone on the shooting rampage on July 16th, 1998 and had killed four members of his family. We see it on TV, but never imagine it would happen in our community. It was devastating to the community and not only to the community but to the whole Navajo tribe. I was basically the main person that was there talking with a family explaining to them in Navajo. And so the attorney really depended on my services because they were Navajo and I'm Navajo and I can relate to the Navajo people. When you deal with Indian reservations, you're dealing with very limited resources out in the community. A lot of times when you do find counseling services in the community, the people who are seeking counseling services aren't very trustful of the people who provide the services. You have to actually go outside the community and find resources. We end up bringing families from the reservation into Albuquerque and then taking them back home again. So that's a real challenge. Sometimes culturally appropriate services are not available to crime victims. Therefore, in geographically remote areas, we may have to be the bridge between an isolated group and a network of services pulled from the surrounding area. Creating a more diverse victim services staff that understands the culture and can speak the language goes a long way in connecting these groups with the services they need. When our team is not necessarily representative of various cultures or communities, we may want to create a level of diversity by encouraging team members to become more informed and educated about cultural nuances. We may have to create opportunities to give them exposure to various communities. And finally, we may want to look for partners in the local community who do have expertise in various cultures to help us respond to the needs of victims. Jason was 13 years old when he came into the emergency room and he was shot in front of his home. And I started to blank out and then the paramedics came. I just told him, like, man, if I die, just tell him I'm my lover. He was afraid. He said he was afraid to even go to sleep thinking that if he, you know, fell asleep, he wouldn't wake up. So it was very traumatic for him. Kids in the city, when violence occurs in their lives, they frequently don't get a chance to talk to a psychologist or a psychiatrist or a therapist and work it out. So it comes out in ugly ways. It comes out in terms of abusive behavior, dropping out of school, fighting, killing, dying, suicide, etc. Ujima is a Kiswahili word that means working together to make things right. Project Ujima was actually started by a trauma nurse and a community person. They kept seeing that kids were coming into the emergency room and were treated for their wounds and actually not treated for the disease of violence that was prominent in their lives and in their neighborhoods. We are paged and called into the emergency room and we meet the child and we start working right from the emergency room. So why don't you all tell me what happened? My sister had to a party. It was like a normal party and then we heard gunshots. They taught to me a lot to let me express myself and let people understand how I feel. That way I can be more open and try to hide everything from everybody. We, as working with these kids, see that the recidivism has dropped. Some of these kids are not coming back into the emergency room. To do something to help other kids steer clear of trouble and violence. I've seen a lot of the kids being in the community, helping other kids to stay out of trouble and telling kids their story. Victim service providers are sometimes viewed as outsiders, associated with the system. Many crime victims may have a mistrust of the system and of institutions outside of their own communities. By tapping into social and community groups, religious institutions, healthcare agencies, and educational systems in the victims' community, we can provide services in a familiar environment where they naturally turn for help in a time of crisis. Pharmacal women are women like anybody else. It takes a lot of guts for someone to call upon someone who's been abusing her or just to mention out that she's being abused. One of the best things that has worked in our community is drama. You start a skit presenting the problem, the dynamics of the family or the partner who would be the abuser. After the skit was finished, it was much easier for the participants. They would come out and say, you know, these are problems that are happening in our community. I have a friend or I myself am going through this. I thought this was normal. This is the first time that pharmac women through our organization, that women get together to support each other, to do anything. There's no words for their courage. There are certain crimes that are surrounded by enormous shame and taboo. Victims of these crimes may need support in disclosing to anyone, even in their own communities, for that matter, even in their own families. Sometimes victims may not even be aware that certain behaviors and events are crimes, differing value systems, stigma and fear of retaliation within their own communities, and misunderstanding of the criminal justice system may prevent victims from speaking out. Creative solutions may be needed to help these victims find their voices. So it is important that we remain open to the victim's input and their ability to express themselves in ways that might be unfamiliar to us, but are comfortable for them. I was in a coma for a couple of days. When I woke up I couldn't move. I was just angry, mad, upset the day you walk in the next day, you in the chair. I think that sometimes people try to have the same approach to all people, or think that they know what is best for someone, and that often works as disastrously for people with disabilities. It changed my whole life. I did for him like I would have done for a baby. Good morning, Keith. Good morning, Mr. Kelly. How you doing? If I haven't met Kelly, some of the things that I need now since I got hurt, maybe I would not have been able to get. You know, because he helped me a lot with him and service people to find that part, you know, giving my lip and my chair. People often think that you need special courses and consultants and trainers and specialists like me to come in and be the magic solution. What I'm doing is no different from what they're doing in their own situations and getting to know the victim and that person's needs very closely. You having with that? I think I might be able to. Yeah, we have some compensation specialists. And creating a solution in a way that makes them feeling confident and comfortable about what happened and toward closure in their life. Victim service professionals should be aware of available resources in their communities for people with disabilities, especially for those newly disabled by crime. Each crime victim is different, and we must tailor our services to the individual needs of every crime victim. This perhaps is our most challenging responsibility as victim service providers. But in this field, our greatest asset is that we are flexible, responsive, open and creative. By opening our doors and expanding our services by joining hands with other agencies, we can ensure that every victim is included in our circle of care.