From setting up a successful victim assistance program to specific ideas on ways to make your victims more comfortable in the courtroom, TDCAA’s Victim Assistance Manual covers all the bases for anyone who works in victim assistance or advocacy. Written using materials from longtime victim-assistance coordinators in prosecutor offices, the manual includes forms, charts, and a CD-ROM with sample contact letters and brochures. The chapters include:

1. Setting up an effective program
2. First contact with victims
3. Grants
4. Crime victim compensation & restitution
5. Statements
6. Victims with special needs
7. Specific crimes (including domestic violence and identity theft)
8. Innovative programs
9. Other nationwide & statewide resources
10. The week of trial
11. VINE (notification) program
12. Victim-offender mediation
13. Post-trial proceedings