MCC Canada Victims’ Voice Program

Corporate body

MCC Canada Victims’ Voice Program

1998-2011

MCC Canada’s Victims’ Voice program began as an initiative of MCC Canada's Victim Offender Ministries program in 1998. Throughout the 1990s, Victim Offender Ministries had developed new and innovative ways of providing support to victims of crime; in 1996, it initiated a voluntary service assignment to create a network of victims committed to restorative justice principles, working together on issues of self-help and healing, advocacy, and social and legal change. In 1998, this new initiative became known as the Victims’ Voice Program. Its mandate was to give victim-centred, emotional support programming to victims of violence while building a national network of victims committed to advocacy and social change. The program was guided by restorative justice principles, and allowed people to work together on issues of self-help, healing and advocacy.

The Victims’ Voice program attracted significant attention from government officials, community organizations, and churches. Responding to invitations from legislators, justice and corrections officials, community organizations, and churches, the program coordinator traveled across Canada presenting a victim’s perspective on criminal and restorative justice. Victims’ Voice also worked with other MCC Canada Restorative Justice programs and MCC-related agencies including prison visitation ministries, victim offender reconciliation programs, and conflict resolution agencies across Canada. A significant activity undertaken by Victims’ Voice during its mandate was its publication of the newsletter, Pathways. The newsletter's target audience included family survivors of homicide and aimed to create and maintain a support network for them. The program also published a blog titled Lemonaide, which by 2010 reported heavy user interaction.

Ca. 2000, Victims’ Voice became an autonomous program within MCC Canada’s National Program Department, acting independently of the Restorative Justice Program. The program coordinated its own activities and initiatives during this time, which included the Victim’s Companion Program and the Safe Justice Encounters Program. The Victims' Voice program also served an advisory role for various victim advocacy and justice organizations.

The Victims’ Voice program ended in 2011 when the Program Coordinator position was vacated. Although the program ended, MCC Canada continued its activities of supporting victims within the Restorative Justice program with the intention that future support would be managed through grants and new initiatives within that program.

MCC Canada Winnipeg Office.

The Victims’ Voice program provided victim-centered, emotional support programming to victims of violence and built a national network of victims committed to advocacy and social change. The program was guided by restorative justice principles and allowed people to work together on issues of self-help, healing, and advocacy.

The Victims’ Voice program began under the umbrella of Victim Offender Ministries (later called the Restorative Justice Program) within MCC Canada’s National Program Department. Ca. 2000, Victims’ Voice became a national program independent of Restorative Justice and reported directly to the National Program Department until the program ended in 2011. Programs including the Victim’s Companion Program and the Safe Justice Encounters Program fell under the umbrella of the Victims’ Voice Program.

Final

Partial

Created by Jared Warkentin, March 24, 2020

Epp-Tiessen, Esther. Mennonite Central Committee in Canada: A History. Winnipeg: CMU Press, 2013.