HISTORY

Victim Assistance began as an outgrowth of the parent organization's extensive work with offenders.

Three community treatment centers were operated with between 50 and 70 residents. It was the experience of the Board and the Director that corrections lacked any mechanisms which either suggested or required offenders to come to grips with their responsibility for what they had done to another human being. The offenders' perspective focused almost exclusively upon what the "system" or "society" had done to them. Additionally it was our experience that the correctional system was neither interested in the welfare of the public and victims nor, really, that of the offender.

Victim Assistance Program, therefore, began to advocate for victims in early 1972 with the efforts of Capt. John Cunningham, Chairman of the Board; Stella Long, Supervisor, Adult Probation Department, Common Pleas Court, the late Richard Kinsinger, Chief Probation Officer, Common Pleas Court, and the Director, Robert Denton.

One very visible and effective event raising the issue of victim rights and problems was a Sunday Editor's Column in the Akron Beacon Journal. Capt. Cunningham, head of Community Relations Bureau for the Akron Police Department, was asked by Mr. Ben Maidenberg to be a guest writer for his weekly column. The content of that column publicly raised issues over correctional policies and victim rights. Formal Program Services began early 1974 when the above persons met for lunch. As they reviewed several brutal crimes in the Akron area committed by early-releasees from prison, someone said, "It's time to do something instead of just talking about it." On a table placemat, a program was outlined quickly.

It was noted that our community provided 35 free services for offenders and nothing for victims. Victim Assistance Program became not just the first program in the State but also one of the first in the U.S. As the Late Myron Tarbis noted in an address to the Welfare Forum in the mid 1976, Victim Assistance Program had blazed the trail for all victim services in the area.

The idea was presented to Dr. Arthur Blum, head of the doctoral program at the School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. His response indicated that in all the years of the school of social work nothing had ever been done like the proposal. His subsequent help enabled VAP to begin with a sound social science base of operation rather than just a well intentioned "grass-roots" attempt.

Another important element in the development of the program was the Director's doctoral program in Social Welfare. Victim policy and program issues became the focus of his Ph.D. Additionally, the head of the doctoral program at case Western Reserve University was enlisted as a consultant because the area of service was totally new and fascinating. Nationally, Victim Assistance is recognized as one of the "grandfather" programs. The Director was one of three co-founders of the National Organization of Victim Assistance in Washington, D.C. the advocacy and education arm of 4,000 victim service and policy persons. He has served on various national research committees and policy studies of victim issues.

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