About MVAA

The launching of the Massachusetts Victim Assistance Academy began with the support of the Federal Office for Victims of Crime which has been promoting the establishment Statewide Victim Assistance Academies (SVAA) across the country. In 2005, the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA) applied and was selected to join the ranks of 17 existing SVAA programs at that time.

The goal is for all 50 states to have academies by 2010. The SVAA in each state is a 40-hour, weeklong intensive training program for early career victim service providers. Each state designs their own curriculum to ensure that it best meets the needs of survivors and providers locally and the unique aspects of the various systems and resources.

Year 1 funding was for the planning phases of the Massachusetts Victim Assistance Academy (MVAA) and to form a Steering Committee. MOVA has convened a 13 member Steering Committee with representatives from across the Commonwealth, including crime victims and victim service providers. The MVAA curriculum and structure are guided by the efforts of a diverse group of providers and survivors representing the criminal justice system, academia, and community based organizations. Steering Committee members serve as volunteers, assisted by MOVA staff and the MVAA Project Director.

The goal of Year 2 was to operate the first-ever Massachusetts Victim Assistance Academy, which was held in the summer of 2007. Thirty-six participants, including criminal, civil and community victim advocates, mental health counselors, and law enforcement personnel, took part in the Academy. The weeklong residential training program took place on the campus of Endicott College in Beverly, MA. While typical trainings often take a ‘topic-centered’ approach, the MVAA takes a “victim-centered” approach in the weeklong training. The unique, victim-centered curriculum emphasizes how the crime victim’s experience changes over time and across the various systems with which they interact (e.g. criminal justice, medical, mental health, victim advocacy, media). The MVAA offers this type of curriculum in order to foster a better understanding of the victim’s experience across time and systems and to foster more successful collaborations among providers. In order to ensure state-of-the-art theories and approaches, the MVAA partners with faculty from several academic institutions to assure the broadest base of support and expertise, currently including Harvard Medical School, Simmons College, Bridgewater State College and Endicott College.

In Year 3, our final year of federal funding, the goal is to continue to provide the most up-to-date, innovative, and effective Academy experience possible.

MVAA 2008 will take place at Endicott College from July 27 through August 1. Another equally important goal for Year 3 is to develop a sustainability plan to ensure that the MVAA will thrive and grow into the future.