Contact: Ann Ferguson, Co-Chair, Victim Concerns Committee
Phone: 630.407.8438
E-mail: Ann.Ferguson@dupageco.org
Gary Balgemann, Victim Services Coordinator, Juvenile Division and Committee Co-Chair
630.407.8357
For 2004 NCVRW, the two county agencies collaborated and designated a conference room for NCVRW, and displayed letters of apology to crime victims that were written by offenders on the walls. Also displayed were victim advocacy posters, and paper footprints were hung throughout the office that had the theme, “Walk in a Victim’s Shoe,” printed on them.
Youth in the detention center helped out by decorating old donated shoes with found materials, and created posters and artworks to commemorate NCVRW. They mounted plaster masks on boards and filled the entire piece with their own messages about victimization. These were displayed in the conference room and, according to organizers, “it was both powerful and moving to see objects like an electrical cord for a girl who had been whipped as a child, and chains covering the mask from a boy who had been living with an alcoholic father. The therapist at the detention center said the project had been very therapeutic for the kids that did it.”
Everyone in the building was invited to see the displays throughout the week. The Committee also put together a book of victim resources and articles related to victim concerns and restorative justice for probation officers to access throughout the year.
In addition, adult and juvenile offenders created ribbons commemorating NCVRW through a community service project, which were distributed to staff throughout the courthouse.