Serving LGBT Victims of Sexual Abuse/Assault, Domestic Violence and Hate Crimes

More information about the survey and project:

The U.S. Office for Victims of Crime (OVC)* has generously funded FORGE, Inc. to improve the delivery of services to underserved victims of crime in the greater Milwaukee area. For this project, FORGE is focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) people who are survivors of a hate crime, domestic violence, and/or sexual assault.

The first step of the project is to prepare a directory of services (both paper-based and online) that can guide LGBT crime victims to services that are both available [i.e. are open to people with their demographics (gender, age, income, etc.)] and culturally competent (i.e. that understand and address the unique needs of LGBT victims). In the second phase of the project, FORGE will provide free training to agencies to help them improve their LGBT cultural competency and/or address barriers to appropriately serving LGBT crime victims.

FORGE believes that knowledge is power – and we want to empower LGBT survivors of hate crimes, domestic violence, and/or sexual assault to make the most informed choices about the victim services they receive.

We would like to list your agency/service/practice in the Guide. We are therefore requesting that you fill out an online survey to ensure that we publish correct information about you and/or your agency. The survey should take approximately 20 minutes and is available at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1j425tACmyNmV5D5jjl5YA_3d_3d.

Please complete the survey by May 1, 2009 . If you have any questions or concerns (or if you would prefer a paper copy of the survey), please contact me by phone at 414-559-2123 or via email (mmunson@forge-forward.org). All participating agencies and providers will receive a free copy of the guide after it is published in early June 2009.

Michael Munson, Executive Director

* This project was supported by Grant No. 2005-VF-GX-K032 awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (Grant). Points of view in this documents are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the Maryland Crime Victims' Resource Center, Inc.

Past surveys