VPI Blog

Victim Protection, Inc. Closing

vpione1 — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:28:05 +0000

As the organization is broke with no help coming from any one to pay any bills or provide services, we are closing offically on March 15th, 2010. We tried, but it didn’t work, oh well, good luck to all the victims out there!

Cyber Stalking Does Happen in Colorado

vpione1 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:07:05 +0000

Police: Man Planted Listening Devices, Spyware In Ex-Girlfriend’s Home
Boulder Man Accused of Cyber-Stalking Ex-Girlfriend, Breaking Into Her Apartment
Alan Gathright, 7NEWS Content Producer

POSTED: 10:54 am MST February 1, 2010
UPDATED: 11:12 am MST February 1, 2010

BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder police have arrested a 37-year-old man for allegedly cyber-stalking his ex-girlfriend by breaking into her apartment, installing listening devices and placing spyware on her computer, police said Monday.

The suspect, whose name was not immediately available, is also accused of sending the woman threatening e-mails, police said.

The man was arrested Friday and booked on charges of domestic-violence related stalking, second-degree burglary, computer crimes and repeated harassment, police said

Help Us Stay Open?

vpione1 — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:34:25 +0000

We are asking eveyone to help us keep VPI open and continue to save lives, all we are asking for is a simple $1.00 donation from each of you and everyone you know, that’s it one dollar. We are the only organization in the country that provides physical protection to victims that are being threatened, the only ones left too. We need everyone’s help to keep saving lives, will you help us or just let us go down the tubes and put lives at risk again? This is our last chance, you can make a difference, will you help? It’s simple go to www.victimprotection.org and hit the donate button on any of the pages, give a dollar and have your friends and family do the same, it could be a work project or church project, get people involved and each donate a dollar, we can save lives if you help us do it. Thank you.

VPI Shelved starting today

vpione1 — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:36:45 +0000

A hard decision was reached by me today, I have decided to shelve Victim Protection, Inc. until there is some type of funding found to operate each month and there are a number of women volunteers that will help run the organization. I will finish up the work with our last victim to get her thru the stalking trail process and then we will no longer take any clients at all.

I have fought hard for almost 3 years to keep this going with less than $3,000.00 being donated in that time, most of our money came from those of us that are part of the organization, nothing came from grants or outside organizations no matter how hard we tried to get them to help us. We have not had enough women support the work either so that has been a problem, we needed board members, advocates and such, none were there, so we have to close until something can be done.

We wish all the organizations and people we worked with over the last 3 yrs. on this, the best of luck int their endeavors and futures, to those that worked with us, thank you for all you’ve done. So we say goodbye until something changes or we just fade into the dark.

New Services to Help Victims!

vpione1 — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:16:30 +0000

Well, with any luck we can start doing forensic readings on devices that use the memory cards, this will be to gather evidence for victims and turn it over to the cops or the DA so charges can be filed on cases. There will be a donation request from victims using this service and a charge from departments or agencies using this service so we can pay some of the bills for a change and maybe keep VPI running, it will still be very cost effective for anyone using this thru VPI (Agencies and Victims). Anyone else needing this service will be billed the same as the regular customers of my consulting business pay:)

Interesting Findings This Month!

vpione1 — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:13:02 +0000

I have been discussing a few items with various people in advocacy, human services, law enforcement and victim services the last couple weeks. Although I have not been able to come up with any statistics for this information and no one wanted to be named on record so to speak:)

I found it interesting that almost everyone I talked to about victim protection issues in Colorado came to the same point. That it is not a real problem here, most see one or two people a year that might need some type of protection. When this is encountered, it is mostly handled by law enforcement using drive-bys of the home and work place to take care of it. Also the issues of victims knowing there is anything out there for them usually never comes up unless they specifically ask about it and that almost never happens, probably because they don’t know about it to begin with:)

Protecting the lives of victims and their family members is not a concern or priority in Colorado according to those who work in the victims services. The basic needs are advocacy, education, housing, food, shelters and protection orders/legal issues. While all well and good, very much-needed at the same time, I think that most victims and their family members would add protecting their lives when they are hunted like animals most of the time, threatened almost always and pretty much terrified thorough out the entire legal system encounters, but then no one has bother to ask the victims or their family members about this type of service as far as we can determine, there are no statistics for this or answers from anyone we talked to about it.

This is true on the funding side as well, it has been stated many times that there just is not a great need for victim protection services, that it is not a priority and that stalking is not that bad here in Colorado! After all we have been told, it would be on the minds of all the other organizations and politicians in Colorado if it were a really needed thing, this has come from almost all we talked to.

So I guess there is not a need for an organization that protects peoples lives so they can get to court, the shelters, to work or other needed places, there is no need to fund this type of organization as there is no one that would use it, there is no need to publicize the issues that victims need because they don’t need the serves or they don;t need to know about them as they never ask for them! I find it hard to ask for a service if you don’t know it’s available!

I am not blaming anyone for this unfortunate issue of not getting funding or getting publicity, I have been accused of that before and whining about the outcome of the groups helping victims that I supposedly said were not helping victims, it was not the case and people read into it what was not said, that is a fact!

I just don’t get why someone has to ask for a specific item of help to get it and it is not volunteered to them as a resource. Course I don’t get why people, other than the victims I have dealt with, don’t think there is a need for victim protection services in Colorado. I understand that the politicians don’t want to see it as a problem, it may cost them some money to fund things like this if the victims start rasing a big fuss about it and demanding that the government actually provide them with life saving services! The news media doesn’t seem to care as they would not have gory stories to sell if there was actual protection available and no one died each year.

But of course I don’t know much I have only been doing this type of work for a few years, the experts have been doing it for 15 or 20 years and tell me I don’t get it and they know what is needed so not to worry, everyone is safe in Colorado, ok then have a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year everyone, things are well in hand and all the DV and Stalking victims out there are well protected! remember, your safety is your responsibility, not anyone elses, so good luck.

ED Position Open on VPI

vpione1 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:09:21 +0000

Victim Protection is looking for a new Executive Director, prefer a female to take over the lead on VPI, if your interested or have a candidate for this volunteer position in CO, please send a letter of interest to victimprotection@aol.com with your qualifications for the board to look at, thank you.

Need Input From Victims, Please!

vpione1 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:59:35 +0000

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?

vpione1 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:38:42 +0000

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

vpione1 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:36:49 +0000

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.