State’s Leading Survivor Organizations Call on Lawmakers to Invest in Stabilizing California’s Victim Compensation and Violence Intervention and Prevention Programs

OAKLAND, Calif. – A network of 10,000 California crime victims, largely made up of women and people of color, have announced a 10-point agenda outlining steps California should take to prioritize the needs of the state’s diverse crime victims. 

Released by the California chapter of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, the largest network of crime victims in the nation, the agenda calls on lawmakers across California to make immediate and significant investments in victim compensation, as well as violence intervention and violence prevention programs. It urges allocations from the state’s general fund of $115 million to both the California Violence Intervention Program for use by frontline service providers and $115 million to the California Victim Compensation Board to permanently stabilize victim compensation funding and end the over-reliance on fines and fees.

The agenda also calls for:

  • Expanding the rights of victims of crime by increasing legal protections for victims to prevent job and housing loss, expanding victims’ civil legal services to help all victims recover and ensuring dignity, respect and support for victims of unsolved crimes
  • Ending discrimination faced by many victims by expanding eligibility to victim services to all victims of crime and violence and eradicating racial disparities in access to compensation and services
  • Providing real help to victims by reaching more survivors in crises more quickly, covering the actual costs of recovery by increasing benefits and covering a diverse range of healing, treatment and support services, ensuring that trauma recovery services are available and investing in community-based victim services providers.

The agenda was released at a Town Hall led by Tinisch Hollins of Californians for Safety and Justice and Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice. Panelists included Asm. David Chiu (D-San Francisco), as well as leaders from the Chinese Progressive Association, Futures Without Violence, Peace Over Violence, the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, Black Women Revolt and Advocates for Survivors of Domestic Violence, and more. The state’s leading victims’ groups also sent a letter to leaders of the state legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom.