The Notification for Victims of Assault (NoVA): A Guide for Communities with Untested Sexual Assault Kits is the first-ever community guide for communities and practitioners tasked with developing a coordinated and multidisciplinary community response to re-engage victims after testing unrequested or untested SAKs. Using trauma-informed, victim-centered protocols, NoVA distills best practices and current science into an empirically based five-step process called the NoVA Change Process, which includes thirteen tools to support the execution of each step. It provides a framework for confronting unique challenges and opportunities in a manner tailored to local realities and needs. These include:
- Assessment strategies and tools to help determine readiness for change
- Lessons learned from communities in Houston, Memphis, and Detroit
- Tools to acknowledge and strategize practical concerns such as budget constraints
The guide walks the reader through the change process, based on the theory of organizational readiness for change. Houston, Detroit, Memphis, Cuyahoga County, and other communities serve as a community example to help illustrate and bring the change process to life for readers. The NoVA guide will help practitioners understand the critical components for victim-centered, trauma-informed victim notification and how to apply them in your community and will provide evidence from research and practice that can inform the notification protocol development process.
Reports
Research Team
- Noël Busch-Armendariz
- Caitlin Sulley
- Sharon Hoefer
- Bethany Backes
- Mariel Dempster
- Jennifer Thompson
- Margaret Bassett
- Ainslee Fessenden
- Melanie Susswein