National Victim Assistance Academy (NVAA)

The Academy NVAA is a week-long, university-based training course on victimology, victims' rights, and victim services for practitioners employed in victim services and allied areas. Since 1995, about 1,800 victim service professionals in the United States and several foreign countries have attended the Academy.

The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) is in the process of revising the Academy to better serve those working in the victim services field. To help determine the next steps for the Academy, OVC has conducted an evaluation of the NVAA (sponsored by the National Institute of Justice) and has gathered suggestions from a symposium of Academy participants in 2003.

Both the evaluation and input from symposium participants suggest the need to restructure the Academy and enhance the training materials to better meet the needs of the field. OVC is committed to providing quality training opportunities for the field. By enhancing the Academy's programming and increasing its educational value for participants, OVC is working to meet the developing training needs of all who serve victims of crime.

OVC will offer the new, revised Academy in December 2007. In the meantime, OVC plans to continue funding training efforts at the state and local level via a variety of activities, including the State Victim Assistance Academy initiative, the OVC TTAC Training Calendar, the VOCA victim assistance formula grant program, and professional development and victim scholarship programs.

Similar training, modeled after NVAA, is available at the state level from State Victim Assistance Academies (SVAAs). For more information, contact OVC TTAC at ttac@ovcttac.gov or 1-866-682-8822 (TTY 1-866-682-8880).

For more information, visit the following pages:

• Frequent Questions—Offers basic information from OVC's Training and Technical Assistance Center about victim assistance training opportunities, including online training.
• Training Options from OVC—Describes the training options offered by OVC though its Training and Technical Assistance Center. The fact sheet also covers upcoming options for online training the NVAA.
• Academy textbooks and videos—Lists the textbooks, workbooks, and brochures available online at no charge to you. Also lists instructional videos. Includes an Instructor's Manual, the Ultimate Educator and Leadership in Victim Services.
• State Victim Assistance Academies (SVAAs)—Describes how SVAAs provide state-specific training in victim assistance issues and outlines help available to individuals who would like to establish a SVAA.
• The 2003 Academy—Shows information and resources available for the 2003 Academy.
• More About the 2002 Academy—Provides details on the curriculum, workshops, satellite broadcast, host sites, academy faculty, and NVAA press releases.