Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety is working to increase the number of victims who receive the support they need to help them heal by convening the National Resource Center for Reaching Victims. The Resource Center’s vision is that victim services will be accessible, culturally relevant, and trauma informed—and that the overwhelming majorit...
Thanks to the dedicated work of advocates around the country, the public has increasingly begun to recognize the prevalence of violence against people with disabilities over the last 15 years, yet little opportunity exists to coalesce into a full-fledged movement. Through the support of the NoVo Foundation, Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety...
Most research on violence against people with disabilities and Deaf people has focused on the needs and experiences of women. However, emerging research suggests that men with disabilities also experience high rates of violence. In partnership with the Department of Justice, Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety will explore the unique needs of...
There is a centuries-old divide stopping the voices, ideas, and opinions of people with disabilities from informing the services and policies designed to support and protect them. Unfortunately, this gap also exists in the anti-violence field, and places people in a marginalized position within the movement. This project seeks to lift up the voices...
People with disabilities experience violence at much higher rates than people without disabilities. In 2013 alone, 1.3 million violent crimes were committed against people with disabilities. Yet, people with disabilities face significant barriers to reporting their victimization—their accounts are often dismissed or not taken seriously—as well as u...
Violence against people with disabilities is a significant public health and human rights issue. Although people with disabilities face disproportionately high rates of victimization, the empirical research on why or how this occurs, as well as prevention and intervention efforts, is limited. Vera’s Center on Victimization and Safety is working to ...
A Guide for Programs Addressing Sexual and Domestic Violence
In recent years, public and private funders have developed a keen sense of the importance of measuring the value of the programs they support. At the same time, many social service providers have started to recognize the benefit of evaluating their programs. Among grantors and grant recipients alike, economic belt-tightening and the resulting need ...
The Supervised Visitation Initiative (SVI) works with supervised visitation programs funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women to enhance their capacity to effectively and safely serve families who have experienced domestic violence. The initiative provides these programs with training, tailored consultation, and a...
Existing efforts to address sexual abuse of children often fail to sufficiently account for children with disabilities, who are at higher risk for abuse than children without disabilities. In fact, the sexual abuse of children with disabilities has not garnered the attention of policymakers, practitioners, advocates, or community members, and these...