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Support the Crisis Response: NOVA's Hurricane Responses: 9/25/2005 Press Release: Crisis Response Team Work: Hard, Essential and Rewarding 9/23/2005 Press Release: Reports from Crisis Responders Resources for CRT Teams If you're in NovaOne as a CRT Team Coordinator, visit this area of our site for coordinator resources. A Note To Victim Advocates Who Want to Help 9/9/2005 Press Relase: NOVA Coordinating Katrina Assistance Nationwide 9/2/2005 DNN Interview: NOVA's Deputy Director Tyiska Interviewed about NOVA's Hurricane Response 9/1/2005 Press Release: NOVA Crisis Responders Mobilizing to Aid Hurricane Katrina Survivors

A Note to Victim Advocates Wanting to Help After Hurricane Katrina

If you are a victim advocate and are wondering what you can do to help the many victims of Hurricane Katrina, please turn to your own areas where those most affected by Hurricane Katrina may be being evacuated from the hardest hit states.

As you may have seen in the media reports that followed the plight of the hundreds of thousands of evacuees in the days after Katrina hit land, many of the victims of the storm were again victimized by the criminal acts perpetrated on them by thoughtless and angry individuals. There were a multitude of crimes reported by the media; looting, robbery, carjacking, assault, rape, as well as homicide. Many of these crimes were not reported to the police, who were unavailable for their day-to-day responsibilities as they struggled to maintain order in the chaos that resulted from the hurricane and its after effects.

Those who were first victims of what seemed a relentless hurricane and then of brazen and violent crime, were eventually evacuated by bus or plane to unfamiliar locations. They may have lost their homes, their loved ones, their possessions--everything dear to them--only to find themselves also carrying the unwanted burden of criminal victimization.

Now they are in what may be a city strange to them without the local resources available from their own communities. You can help by reaching out to those staffing the shelters where the evacuees are located, particularly if they are in the community you serve. Provide them with support to help them cope with the criminal victimization, as well as the resources necessary to take the next step if they choose to report and seek help from either local or national resources.

Provide a list of local and state resources that might assist them in connecting with the agencies or organizations in their respective states who can give them the information they will need. Although the victims of these senseless crimes may not easily identified or self report in the shelters, providing the information in either a flyer or pamphlet form and distributing it to local evacuee shelters may be very helpful.

Help us help those that have been displaced and may now find themselves in YOUR community. Don't think of it as "not my job, not my jurisdiction, so I can't help," but rather, consider yourself the link to the resources necessary to guide these unfortunate victims of crime to the help they need and say, "How can I help?"

Coping With Hurricane Katrina & Rita:
For those who have an immediate involvement with people who have been killed or injured, the following may be useful:

NOVA's Hurricane Katrina & Rita Response & Information: