National Crime Victims’ Rights Week observed in Yuma
Lauren Duffel
YUMA, (ARIZ)- National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is this week. Tonight a gathering was held to highlight the focus of honoring survivors and protecting victims’ rights and services.
Today’s event recognized victims and honored the work of victim advocates.
NCVRW, created in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan from the 1970s victims’ rights movement, highlights and advances legal protections and support for crime victims who had long been overlooked by the justice system.
Mark Martinez, chairman for the Victim Rights Committee, said, “It’s a way to share the awareness of the advocacy that’s available to them if they become a victim. It’s also a way to celebrate our survivors, to bring them together and remind them that you are still being supported. We just want to provide a dinner or meal for them so we can all fellowship together and enjoy our time together.”
The gathering honors all victims of crimes to show them that they are not alone or forgotten.
Amberly’s Place Executive Director Tori Bourguignon spoke at the event and emphasized the importance of recommitment to victim support.
“It’s National Crime Victims’ Rights Week — a time to honor survivors, those we’ve lost, and recommit ourselves to the work we do,” Bourguignon said. “The healing has to come from support, from using the resources that are available, from digging deep to finding that courage and resilience on days when you don’t think that you’ve got it. On the darkest days, reaching out so that you can continue to realize that you’re never alone and that there will always be one of us in this room to stand beside you. That’s the work of advocacy every day when the rest of the world isn’t looking. This profession gives us an opportunity to leave people better than when we found them, and that is what draws me back in the door day after day, year after year.”
Advocacy work is essential to the fabric of the community, providing critical support and a light at the end of the tunnel.
If you, or someone you may know, is in need of support or would like to volunteer, please visit the Amberly’s Place website for more information.