Contact: Meg Garvin, Executive Director & Clinical Professor of Law | Danielle Cormier, Communications Coordinator

National Crime Victim Law Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School | 503.768.6819 ncvli@lclark.edu

For Immediate Release

October 13, 2022

NCVLI to partner on new grant to mobilize legal fellows to provide no-cost legal services to victims of crime in underserved communities

The National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI) is excited to announce a new collaboration with Equal Justice Works (EJW). Victimization impacts millions of Americans; an impact that disproportionately falls upon racial minority groups. To respond to this, EJW and NCVLI are launching the Crime Victims Advocacy Program (CVAP) with the support of a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime.  

The CVAP will place 21 attorney Fellows and 21 summer law student Fellows at legal services organizations across the country to help crime victims in underserved communities, specifically communities of color.  NCVLI will leverage its expertise in victims’ rights and victim law to support these Fellows by providing training and technical assistance (TTA) to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to best serve their victim clients. 

“It has long been recognized that victims face a complex, traumatizing legal maze and that legal services can reduce this trauma, yet the lack of victims’ rights attorneys continues,” said Meg Garvin, Executive Director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute.  “CVAP will help change this.  We are excited to grow the pool of attorneys ready to represent crime victims in partnership with Equal Justice Works and the Office for Victims of Crime.”

CVAP Fellows will represent crime victims as they seek enforcement of their rights during criminal investigation and prosecution.  The Fellows will also engage with the communities in which they work through outreach, community education, and partnership-building activities to increase underserved communities’ capacity to support victims effectively.

Equal Justice Works is the lead agency on the project and will open applications and begin the selection process for CVAP Fellows in the Winter of 2022/2023 and Fellows will begin work in the Summer of 2023.  For more information about the Crime Victims Advocacy Program, please contact https://www.equaljusticeworks.org/news/equal-justice-works-receives-a-grant-from-ovc/.  For more information about victims’ rights and the legal representation of crime victims generally, please contact ncvli@clark.edu. 

###

Founded in 2000, the National Crime Victim Law Institute is a national resource for crime victim lawyers and advocates to support the assertion and enforcement of victims’ rights in criminal and civil processes. NCVLI continues to be the only national organization whose mission is focused on enforcement of victims’ rights in the courts.