Weekly Snapshot: April 15, 2015

The Weekly Snapshot

Your source for the latest tips, information, and current campus safety resources from the NCCPS.

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National Crime Victims' Rights Week

April 19 -25, 2015 is National Crime Victims' Rights Week (NCVRW). This annual observance occurs every April and was started in 1981 as part of an expanding initiative to provide for victims of crimes. NCVRW is supported by the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and other private victim rights' organizations such as the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA).

This year, the theme for NCVRW is Engaging Communities. Empowering Victims. According to OVC, the overall goal of this year's theme is to involve and "emphasize the role of the entire community, individually and collectively, as we support victims of crime and empower them to direct their own recovery."

OVC has developed a resource guide for NCVRW with a variety of materials for communities and victims' rights providers who promote awareness of victims' crime issues. These materials include:

Information on how to develop your campaign by establishing partnerships, planning special events, and making presentations;
Information on how to communicate your message through traditional news outlets and social media; and
Educational content such as FAQs, historical overview of victims' rights, and current crime statistics including school and campus crime, mass casualty shootings, and hate and bias crimes.

OVC's NCVRW resource guide provides colleges and universities with an excellent opportunity and information on how to incorporate National Crime Victims' Rights Week into already existing plans for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Visit the National Crime Victims' Rights Week website for more information.

Download the 2015 National Seasonal Preparedness Content Messaging Calendar, which features monthly preparedness campaigns throughout the year.

Severe Weather and Emergency Preparedness

Even though spring is considered severe weather season in the U.S., severe weather can strike any time of the year. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Ready campaign was created to educate Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural disasters such as earthquakes, winter storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, and floods. Ready provides a variety of planning and educational resources including free downloadable publications

and severe weather preparedness toolkits for social media.

The 2015 Severe Weather Preparedness Toolkit is now available to download on Ready's National Preparedness Community website. The toolkit contains a variety of educational materials and graphics for you to share with your community on social media; emergency preparedness writing tips for social media; and information on organizing a virtual chat.

Ready also developed a Campus Ready webpage that provides training and resources specific to campus communities under the following three areas:

Planning - this section contains emergency planning information and resources that includes guidance for individuals with access and functional needs, communications plans, and fire safety.
Training - this section contains recommended emergency management courses as well as Campus Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training and resources.
Resources - this section contains information and resources on disaster response and recovery, student faculty and staff emergency plans, emergency shelters on campus, reporting emergency incidents, and more.

Ready's resources are available in several languages including Spanish and French.

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Make Your Opinion Count! Take the Survey.

Thanks to everyone that has already taken the Margolis Healy 2015 Campus Safety Survey. The good news is there's still time to take it and we need to hear from you!

We worked with Margolis Healy to develop questions that are important to the field of campus safety and security including emerging topics such as travel abroad safety and evolving issues such as social media monitoring.

Take the anonymous, online survey today. It only takes a few moments of your time and your feedback is so important. Please help us spread the word to other institutions by sharing this issue of the Weekly Snapshot by email or social media. We will be sharing the results with the public once fieldwork and analysis is complete.

Professional Development Opportunities

Title: Are you Storm Ready? Spring Severe Weather Planning

Host: The Center for Campus Fire Safety

Date: April 22, 2015, 11:00 AM EST

Location: Online Webinar

Fee: Free for members/Fee for non-members

Information and Registration

Title: Higher Education Building Resilient Communities

Host: American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and Sustainability, Education and Economic Development (SEED)

Date: April 23, 2015, 2 PM EST

Location: Online Webinar

Fee: Free

Information and Registration

Title: 41st National Organization for Victim Assistance Conference

Host: National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA)

Dates: August 16-19, 2015

Location: Dallas, TX

Fee: Registration Fee

Information and Registration

This project was supported by Grant No. 2013-MU-BX-K011 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office for Victims of Crime, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice.