Victim Impact Panel

DWI/DUI victim impact panels

A Victim Impact Panel is a group of two to four victims who speak briefly about an impaired driving crash in which they were injured, or in which a loved one was killed or injured, and how it impacted their lives. They do not blame or judge those who listen. They simply tell their stories, describing how their lives and the lives of their families and friends were affected by the crash.

The purpose of the panels is to individualize and humanize the consequences of impaired driving, to change attitudes and behaviors, and to deter impaired driving recidivism. Panels also give victims a healing opportunity to share their stories in a meaningful way.

Benefit to the Community and the Offender

If the victims' stories are told first-hand and from the heart, in neither a blaming nor accusatory tone, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and many criminal justice professionals believe they can:

• allow offenders, perhaps for the first time, to consider the pain and suffering impaired driving can cause other people;

• help offenders move beyond being ''stuck'' in focusing on their own ''bad luck;''

• serve as a first step in breaking the denial of alcoholics or those addicted to other drugs;

• imprint images of real people in offenders' minds that will replay when drinking and driving is considered at some future point; and

• change behavior and save lives.

Schedule

February 5, 2008
March 18, 2008
April 1, 2008 (Spanish)
May 6, 2008
June 3, 2008
August 5, 2008
October 7, 2008 (Spanish)
December 2, 2008

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Victim Impact Panel (DVVIP) is a community meeting where volunteers who have been victims, offenders, or witnesses give testimonies of experience they or loved ones have endured due to acts of domestic violence.   The panel’s focus is to help a defendant label behavior, understand the impact of domestic violence from a victim's perspective and to imprint on the mind of a defendant true stories told from the heart that might be recalled later when he or she is presented an opportunity to choose between violent or abusive versus non-violent or non-abusive behavior alternatives in social interactions.

Schedule

Every Six (6) months
Call to schedule