During federal fiscal year 2007, VOCA funding enabled the Minnesota program to provide critical financial assistance to over 1500 victims of violent crime.  A majority of the claims received resulted from assaults, homicides, child abuse, sexual assault, robbery or drunk driving.  Many victims received funding for expenses such as medical care, counseling and lost wages.  Families of deceased victims were assisted with funeral costs and loss of support.  The assistance provided by our program was critical to the process of recovery and healing for many victims.  VOCA grant funding is essential to our program, and allows us to maintain coverage that meets the needs of crime victims. 

The Minnesota program measures effectiveness by using a customer survey that is sent to recipients.  During federal fiscal year 2007, 97 percent of those who responded to the survey reported that staff was polite, professional and understood their concerns.  Eighty-four percent were satisfied with the benefits received.  To measure the efficiency and speed of claim processing, the program uses an average processing time. This time period is calculated by an automated computer system which provides an average of all completed claims.  The average processing time for claims during federal fiscal year 2007 was 111 days.  This does not include emergency claims which were processed much faster.

The VOCA administrative funds have allowed our program to retain the necessary support staff to handle claim processing, payments and customer service.  This has enabled our program to provide high quality services to meet the needs of victims of violent crime.  Without VOCA administrative funds, payments to victims would take considerably longer and customer service would suffer.