This report summarizes the Urban Institute's evaluation of training and technical assistance provided by the National Center for Victims of Crime (NCVC) for the Multidisciplinary Responses to Families and Communities in Complex Homicide Cases (Complex Homicide project), whose goal was to improve multidisciplinary responses to homicides by ensuring they are victim-centered, trauma-informed, and effective in addressing the needs of families and communities after "complex homicide" cases.
"Complex homicide" cases include gang-related homicides, intra-familial homicides, homicides that involve child witnesses, and deaths that involve impaired driving, and driving under the influence. From 2016 to 2020, the project focused on building the capacity of seven demonstration sites to serve homicide survivors in their communities. The U.S. Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime selected NCVC to provide direct training and technical assistance (TTA) to the grantee sites from 2016 to 2020. This was done in partnership with the National Sheriffs' Association. NCVC's primary TTA goals were to provide grantees access to various subject-matter experts who would help them implement their projects, provide support as needed for each site's program evaluation, and compile a report that would summarize promising practices for responding to complex homicide cases. In 2019, NCVC contracted with the Urban Institute to conduct a post hoc evaluation of its TTA efforts for the Complex Homicide project. This involved a review of TTA project documentation and interviews with leaders and staff from each of the seven grantee sites regarding their TTA experience. The sites were unanimous in reporting that the most valuable component of the TTA meetings involved the opportunity to speak and collaborate across grantee sites. Recommended improvements were minimal, mainly involving subjective concerns. Evaluation materials are appended.
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