The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is one of just a handful of DA offices in the nation to participate in a project designed to enhance the quality of service provided to LGBT crime victims.
Late last month, more than two-dozen DA staffers took part in a training meeting that introduced them to the unique issues LGBT victims face, a session that marked the initial phase of what will be a three-year diversity effort.
Early this year, the office applied for and was accepted into the LGBTQ Crime Victim Services Project, a joint effort being staged by the federal Office for Victims of Crime and the Beyond Diversity Resource Center. Seven other victim-services agencies in the nation were selected for the initiative.
Researchers from Rutgers University are collaborating to analyze data collected from each agency and the results of the project.
Nellie Fitzpatrick, LGBT liaison for the DA’s Office, explained that the initiative will focus on the office’s Victims Services Unit.
Last month’s training was attended by all of the unit’s victim-witness coordinators, about 25 people in total.
“When someone is a victim of a crime, these are the people who are your first point of contact,” Fitzpatrick said. “The meeting was very baseline, basic 101, on the terms we’re working with and an introduction to the issues we’re going to be discussing in the next few years.”
Fitzpatrick said attendees got the chance to take part in a series of interactive activities that exposed them to the realities of living as an LGBT person.
“When you’re not a member of the community, it may be difficult for people to recognize and see what LGBTQ people go through on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “This was a good chance for them to walk in the shoes of someone else for a day.”
The meeting was led by Beyond Diversity Resource Center executive director Robin Parker and training director Pamela Smith Chambers.
As part of the project, the office formed a Change Team, which will be responsible for disseminating the tenets of the initiative throughout the office and for garnering input and suggestions from office members.
About a dozen staffers comprise the team — a representative from each of the office’s prosecution zones, as well as leaders from the law department, human resources and Public Nuisance Taskforce.
“We wanted to get all people involved, even those who typically wouldn’t interact with victims on a day-to-day basis,” Fitzpatrick said. “We want the way that LGBTQ victims are handled to be a complete office-wide change, so we wanted everyone who works here to be on the same page.”
According to the program guidelines, next month office staff will be asked to submit an internal assessment of its LGBT readiness, and the Change Team will take part in a webinar on organizational changes, before the office begins rolling out its goals in September.
Conference calls with office leaders and project organizers will take place every two months to monitor progress.
The second year of the program will include a number of webinars on topics such as LGBT outreach, collaboration with LGBT agencies and sustaining changes in organizational culture, as well as another on-site training. The final year will include a number of assessment tools and the development of a long-range diversity plan.
Fitzpatrick said she expects the office’s participation in the project to result in an eventual wide-ranging shift in understanding of and approach to LGBT victims.
“My immediate goal is that the entire office will have a good knowledge of what is happening in the LGBT community,” she said. “We need people to understand the differences between gender and sexuality, how to talk to someone who is trans without offending them. We want everyone on the same plane so that if a victim is talking to any member of the DA’s Office, they can expect to be treated in a capacity that is consistent, appropriate and respectful. And from there, we want to be even more active and aggressive in curbing crime against LGBTQ people.”
