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Public Awareness and Outreach
The OVS attempts to reach out to all victims of crime and increase awareness of the agency through a variety of mechanisms, including our public website, funded victim assistance programs, trainings for victim service providers, National Crime Victims Rights’ Week events, victim notification cards, the posting of OVS posters, collaborations with other public protection agencies and victim advocacy.
The OVS and its Executive Staff are active participants in the National Association of Crime Victims Compensation Boards (NACVCB) and the National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators (NAVAA). Regional and national meetings, along with e-mail communications between the states and the NACVCB and the NAVAA allow us to learn of the other states’ practices, the problems they face and the possible solutions and new issues/developments in the field.
The fulfillment of our responsibility to provide awareness of the benefits available under the statute is considered to be an extremely important and ongoing duty of the OVS. One way the OVS achieves this is by utilizing our website to provide the public with information about such things as compensation, victim assistance programs, events/trainings and our forms/publications. During fiscal year 2011-2012, nearly 74,000 people visited the OVS website, which is an increase of approximately 30,000 visitors from the previous fiscal year. Over 251,000 pages on the site were viewed during these visits.
In addition, the OVS continues to intensify its efforts to make the public more aware of its compensation program by attending or providing a speaker at many events throughout the State. The following highlight some of the public awareness activities undertaken by the OVS and its staff:
1. National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) was April 10- 16, 2011 and the theme was, “Reshaping the Future-
Honoring the Past” This message recognized the hard work that has been done and the continued work which we
must do for crime victims.
2. OVS hosted a blood drive at the Empire State Plaza in Albany in partnership with the Red Cross in
commemoration of NCVRW.
3. In fiscal year 2011- 2012, OVS once again featured a statewide calendar of community-based National Crime
Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) events on its agency’s website to help promote awareness of this observance.
There were 45 events in 24 different counties scheduled throughout the week of April 10 - 16, 2011 in
commemoration of NCVRW and were posted in a week-long calendar for each county in New York State.
4. The Governor issued a proclamation declaring April 10-16, 2011 Crime Victims Week in New York state.
5. Our public website continues to highlight current news items on its home page under the “What’s New” section and
lists all pertinent events and training on the home page as well.
6. The OVS legal staff continued to make available education and training on compensation, the FRE program and
restitution to organizations across the State. The presentation “Crime Victim’s Compensation and the Issue of
Restitution” is accredited by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board. Any attorney who attends the
presentation is able to receive 1.5 Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits.
7. The Annual Report for fiscal year 2010-2011 was distributed by December 1, 2011 as required by statute.