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Impact on the Organization

OVC has a variety of resources available to organizations interested in becoming vicarious trauma-informed. Organizations can request training and technical assistance (TTA) focused on the impact of vicarious trauma at an organizational level.

  • Customized Training and Technical Assistance—OVC delivers tailored TTA to meet your organization's needs on various victimizations and crime and victim assistance topics. For example:
    • Managing Vicarious Trauma in Corrections-Based Victim Services
    • Understanding Vicarious Trauma and Building Resiliency in Your Agency
  • Standardized Training—Select a training from our catalog of topics. OVC will provide instructors, an onsite coordinator, and a manual for each participant. See the list of vicarious trauma-related trainings available below.
  • Speaker Support—OVC provides speakers for short general presentations at your event, including plenaries, panels, or victim impact presentations.
  • TTA on the Vicarious Trauma Toolkit—Organizations can also request TTA focused specifically on the OVC Vicarious Trauma Toolkit, which is also available for the following allied professionals who regularly engage with people who are impacted by trauma and violence:
    • Emergency medical services, including independent agencies and those that are part of a fire service organization.
    • Fire services, including both paid and volunteer departments.
    • Law enforcement, including police, sheriffs, and tribal, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

    Go to the OVC Vicarious Trauma Toolkit page for more information about the OVC Vicarious Trauma Toolkit and related resources.

Request Training and Technical Assistance

Learn how to request training and technical assistance. Please call 1–866–682–8822 to speak with a TTA specialist prior to applying.

Resource Library

Search the Resource Library for materials on topics related to vicarious trauma.

Training

Gather a group of victim service and allied professionals in your area and arrange a meeting space. OVC will provide instructors, an onsite coordinator, and a manual for each participant.

Building Resiliency in Child Abuse Organizations

CEUs: 0.7 CEU Length: 1 Day

Summary:

The goal of this 1-day training is to identify the five individual elements of resiliency and explore how they can be implemented in an organization through policies, supervisory techniques, and training.
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Materials:

Compassion Fatigue/Vicarious Trauma

CEUs: 1.1 CEUs Length: 2 Days

Summary:

This training will explore self-care techniques as well as strategies managers can use to help ensure balance and self-care for those that they supervise. By participating in case studies, role-playing, and other interactive exercises, you will learn how to recognize the symptoms of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma, develop resilience and healthy coping skills, and create a professional and personal care plan to minimize the risk of compassion fatigue in your work.
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Materials:

Instructor Materials

Download materials to make an in-person training more effective and improve the capacity of the presenter.

Building Resiliency in Child Abuse Organizations Curriculum

Summary:

This training is intended for victim service providers who work in agencies interested in and willing to implement policies, supervisory techniques, and competency-based training that support resiliency.
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Materials:

  • Agenda
  • Webinar PowerPoint presentations
  • Onsite PowerPoint presentations
  • Instructor Manual
  • Participant Manual
  • Other resources
  • PowerPoints with videos
  • Participant feedback forms

National Victim Assistance Academy

OVC offers a series of comprehensive and practical trainings to build organizational capacity. Sign up to receive information about upcoming NVAA trainings.

Webinars

The following webinars provide information related to vicarious trauma. Learn about upcoming webinars.

Establishing Victim Services Vicarious Trauma Response Collaboratives

Date: March 29, 2022Length: 1.25 hours

Summary:

While vicarious trauma is both a normal and inevitable response to working with victims of crime, there is growing recognition of the need to build trauma-informed organizations and supportive partnerships to mitigate the negative impacts of secondary trauma and expand opportunities to enhance resiliency. This session provides an overview of OVC TTAC’s engagement with communities across the United States in developing and sustaining vicarious trauma peer-to-peer collaboratives.

Materials:

Now What? Moving Forward With Your Vicarious Trauma Action Plan

Date: December 6, 2019Length: 1 hour

Summary:

This webinar provides information on using your VT–ORG results to create a realistic action plan that identifies specific tasks, persons responsible for those tasks, timeframes for completion, and a process for monitoring progress. You will also learn to navigate and explore the VTT’s selection of resources to support your organizational efforts to address the needs of your staff.

Materials:

Using the VT-ORG Assessment

Date: November 8, 2019Length: 1 hour

Summary:

This webinar discusses the five pillars of a vicarious trauma-informed organization. The presenters walk you through how to use the Vicarious Trauma—Organizational Readiness Guide (VT–ORG) to conduct an evidence-informed assessment of your organization’s current capacity as a vicarious trauma-informed organization.

Materials:

Becoming a Vicarious Trauma-Informed Organization: Getting Started

Date: October 18, 2019Length: 1 hour

Summary:

This webinar will help you define vicarious trauma, discuss the spectrum of responses to vicarious trauma, describe the concept of being "vicarious trauma-informed," and more. 

Materials:

Organizational-Level Response and Planning for Staff Compassion Fatigue/Vicarious Trauma

Date: August 23, 2017Length: 1 hour

Summary:

This session focuses on how OVC’s Vicarious Trauma Toolkit (VTT) can help you to—

  • Conduct an assessment of your agency's current capacity as a vicarious trauma-informed organization.
  • Bring leadership and staff together to review your existing capacity, identify gaps, and prioritize needs.
  • Locate resources and tools in the VTT and Compendium of Resources to help meet your identified needs.
  • Develop a comprehensive plan to become a vicarious trauma-informed organization that addresses exposure to single incidents of crime or violence and acts of mass violence and terrorism.

Materials: