Need Input From Victims, Please!

The biggest question we get from victims today is, why can’t we get the help we actually need? So I have to ask what is the help your requesting and not getting? Most of the advocates I have worked with are great, they come up with housing/shelters for victims, they get the address confidentiality program working for victims, they find food and educational help when needed, so what else is there a need for? I am looking for input from stalking, sexual assault, cyber-stalking and domestic violence victims in the areas that they need the most help with and don’t get thru the advocate programs. If you’re a victim and have a story to tell or a list of things that were needed and no one could help with, then please let me know what they were, you can e-mail me the list of items at victimprotection@aol.com anytime. The more people we hear from whether here in Colorado where we operate or other areas in the U.S. will eventually help all the victims. With these lists we hope to be able to come up with a list of resources and possible training for advocates or organizations on how to access them to better help victims. This way we can help the victims get the resources they need, find out why they actually need these resources and how it helps everyone work better and have a safer outcome in the end for victims, advocates and organizations as a whole. Thank you for your participation in this endeavor.

Why Doesn’t Someone Want To Help Victims in Colorado?

I don’t know how many times I talk to people about what Victim Protection, Inc., a 501c3 tax deductible non-profit does, as to providing free of cost personal protection to victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assaults and have them all say it is great and very much needed. Then you ask them to help and the excuses pour in, not enough time, too much work, others need to help first, not my problem, maybe next year. It seems to be the same no matter who you talk to, women are the ones we help the most and the most often to not help at all, but it is the businesses, the media, the sports teams and even the celebrities that talk about how much they care and do for victims that won’t help a bit.

Makes you wonder if anything will ever get done for the protection of victims lives in Colorado, the politicians don’t care either, we have sent all of them a white paper on protecting victims lives in Colorado and had not one single response from any of them, makes you wonder doesn’t it? I don’t get the idea that women from around the state will go out and fund raise to send millions of dollars around the world to help people, but won’t spend a single dime on helping these same types of people right here in our state.

How many have to be killed before we get serious about providing protection to victims here in Colorado? Last year we lost 33 killed and how many injured, when will it stop, only when people get involved, I would think that women’s groups would get on board and be interested, but not here in Colorado, they just don’t seem to care enough to help out at all, wonder why?

Maybe because everyone seems to think and talk about how we have protection in place with the courts and protection orders, we have a Victims Rights Act, just nothing in any of it or from anyone of them saying anything about protecting the physical lives of victims and their families, strangely left out of a lot of things here in Colorado.

The police have neither the budget nor the manpower to physically protect victims or their families, there is no one else doing it either across the state or the country for that matter, which was the reason the non-profit Victim Protection, Inc. was established. We have provided services to 17 victims in the last 2 years with out any donations from anyone group in Colorado, just our staff and a few who cared enough to donate a few dollars each month, what does that say about our state and what we care about?

I guess it is up to those who bother to read this and care enough to actually do something about it, no one else seems to worry about it until they become a victim, then they demand to know why more isn’t being done, so ask yourself, why isn’t more being done? Why aren’t the women’s groups helping? Why aren’t the politicians doing something about it? Why don’t people want to donate and help keep people alive here in Colorado? At least pass the information on that it is out there and needs help to operate, talk to people, start a United Way campaign, anything helps just do something because if you don’t know one else will either!

Article by: Gary L. Cunningham, Executive Director – Victim Protection, Inc. www.victimprotection.org

Amazing Story in Colorado

Here is a link to a story that just happened and is in the News from Denver, it is copyrighted so have only a link at http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/21663525/detail.html check it out.

Who We Are

We are a non-profit 501c3 organization formed in Colorado in August 2007 for the benefit of victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assaults. We provide special protective measures for them that no one else is doing in Colorado or the country for that matter. We do home and vehicle checks, escorts to where ever they need to go, usually court and work. We provide specialized personal protection training for them and family members and all this at no cost to them. We depend solely on the funding from the general public thru donations on our web site at www.victimprotection.org. There are no grants that we qualify for as there is nothing in the grant system about protecting peoples lives, unfortunately. So any help we get from anyone in the world is greatly appreciated, please spread the word about us, thank you.

Why We Don’t Keep Stalking Stats?

It is unusual in Colorado to not be able to find statistics on something, if you look at all the sites available, you won’t see any stats on stalking other than the national ones. From what I have been told by a few different people, these stats are just lumped in with other domestic violence stats. How are we ever going to see how bad a problem stalking is in Colorado if we don’t separate the stats out to show stalking cases? So I guess the question is why isn’t this being done? Is it too intensive of a problem to report on, is it too time consuming to do? There should be some kind of reason other than it is just not done, ok why not? I think it would be nice to know how many stalking cases we have had in Colorado each year and not have to guess how big of a problem it is. So waht do you readers think about this question?

Victims Voices

VICTIM’S NEED TO SPEAK UP!

Victims of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assaults should be mad as hell that there is no physical protection in Colorado to keep them safe. Other than a piece of paper we all know doesn’t help at all, there is no available physical protection being offered! VPI has been providing protection for the last 2 years in the Denver metro area with no support from anyone. We are a 501c3 organization, and yet there is not a women’s organization anywhere that has helped us protect these victims that are predominately female. Why? The politicians don’t care. We sent them a white paper on protecting victims without one single response from them, same with the news media, and same with the sports teams and organizations responsible for helping victims. Why? We have no idea, other than it not important to them because victims are not requesting this help. The problem is, they are not requesting this help because they don’t know that it exists. No one is telling them it is out there, and no one seems to care about the victim’s lives. The Victim’s Rights Act gives victims all kinds of rights. The only one missing is the victim’s right to stay alive - that one was missed in the Act. We believe that all victims have a basic right to stay alive, but can’t figure out why no one else in Colorado thinks that this should be a right and why we can’t get anyone to be involved with this effort to protect lives. Maybe the victims should get mad and start yelling to get something done, or maybe they don’t care either. I guess it’s up to you who read this to make a decision and go from there or not, your choice.

 ”If you would like further information, please visit www.victimprotection.org, or you can go here to help us: http://www.firstgiving.com/garycunningham, thank you!

Hello world!

This is the new blog for Victim Protection, Inc. a 501c3 organization in Colorado. We provide special protective measures for victims of domestic violence, stalking and sexual assaults, no one else in the country does what we do free of cost for the victims using our services. Currently we operate in the Denver metro area, but with help from people on funding we will operate state-wide hopefully in the near future. Our web site is located at www.victimprotection.org, please check it out.