Victim Impact (VI) Grant

Victim Impact (VI) Grant is sponsored by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). This grant is for eligible nonprofit organizations to deliver victim impact programs at one or more CDCR institutions. Victim Impact programs are victim-focused, restorative justice programs designed to promote understanding and sensitivity to the impact of crime on victim/survivors.

This project will provide $1 million in grants per year for two terms ($2 million total) to eligible nonprofit organizations to fund victim impact programs in one or more California State Institutions. The grant period begins on July 1, 2024 and ends on June 30, 2026. Victim Impact programs are victim-focused restorative justice programs provided by volunteers/community-based organizations.

These programs must employ restorative justice principles, have an emphasis on accountability, and provide opportunities for incarcerated individuals to understand the impact of the harm caused by crime. The T. R.

U. T. H program focuses on providing participants with an opportunity for introspection, empathy development, and accountability.

Participants with sexual assault convictions acknowledge the harm they’ve caused and demonstrate commitment to personal growth and rehabilitation by participating in evidence-based practices and cognitive-behavioral techniques. Through guided reflections and discussions, participants will take ownership of their past behaviors, acknowledge the harm caused, and explore strategies for making amends and positive change.

By engaging in victim-centered dialogue and restorative practices, participants can contribute to healing and reconciliation processes, both for themselves and affected parties. Participants will develop a deeper understanding of the impact of their actions on victims, their families, and the broader community, fostering empathy and perspective-taking.

Program Name: Creative Redemption Pathways The Creative Redemption Pathways program aims to promote restorative justice principles and a framework of encountering, repairing, and transforming. The curriculum includes poetry and art, while navigating participants through subjects of accountability, confession, and forgiveness.

The program emphasizing the ripple effect of crime through real-life victim tales, and through story telling both in writing and video which speaks to a process of crime and conflict leading to restitution. The arts, shared stories, and journal entries will be made available to the community to help build a bridge of recovery and restore peace both inside and outside of correctional facilities.

The program encourages personal growth, accountability, and empathy among participants so they can better comprehend how crime affects victims, communities, and families.

Program Name: Council for Insight, Compassion & Resilience (CICR)-VI The Council for Insight, Compassion & Resilience (CICR)-VI program builds on a proven methodology for training participants, enhancing insight into past behaviors, reinforcing accountability for their actions and the impact on those harmed, and developing skills supporting healthy and pro-social perspectives and behaviors critical to effective and sustainable rehabilitation.

Program pedagogy is based on restorative justice principles and taking responsibility for past behavior and harm caused to victims, as well as others impacted (friends, family, and community). CICR-VI tracks building blocks leading from self-awareness and empathy to insight into impact.

Participants develop empathy for victims of their crimes and those impacted by their actions; when coupled with improved self-regulation and greater insight, this process activates compassion and the resolve to work to repair harms. The program focuses on understanding cause-and-effect and perspectives of those impacted by harmful actions.

The sequencing of exercises, activities and prompts creates opportunities to develop emotional intelligence, emotional literacy, and reflect on accountability. The Enneagram is a dynamic tool that maps out nine (9) fundamental personality types of human nature and their complex interrelationships. This tool helps to identify the unconscious cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies that underlie everything that we do.

EPP certified guides use the Enneagram to inspire personal transformation for participants to become aware of themselves, manage their emotions, build emotional intelligence, engage in healthy interactions and relationships with others, and find their way back to their innate inner goodness and light.

Participants benefit from these classes through increased self-awareness and self-compassion that yield reducing recidivism, and reducing violence against others.

Program Name: Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG) The Victim Offender Education Group (VOEG) bridges the gap between punishment and parole through transformation, allowing systems-impacted people to break the cycle of incarceration, and gives crime survivors a voice in this process. It supports healthy levels of compassion, impulsivity, empathy, and aggression.

Participants meet in groups where they engage in creative, psychological, and emotional work exploring the impact their criminal behavior has had on their victim(s), their families, themselves, and society. The program is divided into three areas: 1) participant education and accountability, 2) understanding how their own trauma impacts their actions and 3) relapse prevention and dialogue with survivors. Program Name: F.

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E. S. The F.

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E. S restorative justice program aims to expand upon our successful model by implementing it in multiple California state institutions. Building on the principles of accountability, healing, and community engagement, the program will provide participants with opportunities for personal growth, reconciliation, and reintegration into society.

The program provides a rehabilitative approach that prioritizes holistic healing and personal development, fosters accountability, empathy, and conflict resolutions skills, and allows participants to understand the consequences of their actions and engage in meaningful dialogue with victims or their representatives.

Program Name: The GRIP Program The GRIP program is a trauma-informed model that integrates cutting-edge neuroscience research. Participants engage in a yearlong, in-depth journey to comprehend the origins of their violence and develop skills to track and manage strong impulses rather than acting out in harmful ways.

They transform destructive beliefs and behaviors into an attitude of emotional intelligence that prevents re-victimization and cultivates authentic empathy for their victims/survivors. In each course, the program serves both participants and a network of people who have survived extreme violence and have volunteered to engage with participants as “surrogate survivors.

” The program participants learn to stop violent actions, cultivate mindfulness, develop emotional intelligence, and understand victim/survivor impact. Program Name: Self-Control The Self-Control Program is designed to cultivate participants mastery over their impulses and emotional responses while fostering a sense of responsibility for their actions.

This program is designed to foster personal accountability, self-awareness, and encourages participants to engage in introspective dialogue and compose impactive self-control essays. Delivered through weekly interactive sessions, the course requires participants to complete two written assignments per week that probe deeply into self-reflection and victim empathy.

Each session prompts discussions around the session’s thematic word and includes the completion of Victim Insight Inquiries. These inquiries are archived in the participants’ files or, with the consent of the affected individuals, sent to victims with the intention of eliciting a Victim Impact Statement.