Since 1981, National Crime Victims’ Rights Week (NCVRW) has challenged communities to extend their vision of crime victims’ rights and services to reach every victim of crime. This year’s theme, Honoring Our Past. Creating Hope for the Future., celebrates the progress made by those before us as we look to a future of crime victim services that is even more inclusive, accessible, and trauma-informed. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has created a resource guide to help you commemorate NCVRW. Head over to https://ovc.ncjrs.gov/ncvrw2019/ to learn more.
The theme, Honoring Our Past. Creating Hope for the Future.,has strong ties to Lifting Up Voices, the 2019 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) theme. Created by NCALL and the National Center on Elder Abuse, Lifting Up Voices is a theme centered on unifying the parallel fields of Elder Justice and Violence Against Women by bringing to the forefront the lived experiences of older people around the globe.
Lifting Up Voices draws upon NCALL’s video project, Lifting Up the Voices of Older Survivors, funded by OVC. This collection of video clips shares the lived experiences and resiliency of a number of older survivors of domestic and sexual violence, stalking, and financial exploitation. Their stories reveal the unfortunate truth that crime victims exist across the lifespan and also cast a light on the work that is carried out by advocates and the justice system, throughout the country, to support older survivors and hold their offenders accountable for their crimes. Lifting Up the Voices of Older Survivors is due to be released later this year.
Lifting Up Voices also builds upon the momentum of NCEA’s existing theme, Building Strong Support for Elders, which was informed by the Reframing Elder Abuse initiative encouraging us to consciously think and thoughtfully approach conversations about elder abuse.
Find out more and download your WEAAD 2019 Action Guide filled with tips for working with older survivors who want to share their stories, sample social media posts, and shareable graphics by visiting https://nceausc.tk/WEAADLUV.