State Victim Assistance Academies

State Victim Assistance Academies (SVAAs) provide comprehensive, academically based, foundation-level education for victim assistance providers, victim advocates, and allied professionals. SVAAs use the National Victim Assistance Academy (NVAA) model for developing training programs in partnership with academic institutions, and the SVAA curriculum is based on the NVAA course curriculum and text. OVC launched the SVAA initiative in 1999 with the award of competitive discretionary grants to Colorado, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. Each site received supplemental OVC awards in Fiscal Year (FY) 2002 for the third and final year of funding. Also in FY 2002, OVC awarded funds to five additional states to establish SVAAs: Arizona, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, and Oregon. Georgia, Illinois, and New York received funding in FY 2003. Each SVAA site develops a planning committee,establishes a partnership with an academic host university, formulates the student selection criteria, assesses the specific needs of the respective state, and develops, implements, and evaluates the training program. OVC strongly encourages the development of similar initiatives in other states, with the goal of creating a national network of SVAA academies. For more information, visit the SVAA page on the OVC Web site.

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