Language and cultural barriers combined with limited outreach by the District agencies have resulted in Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) not taking advantage of the crime victim compensation program and other services available to them. The Asian Liaison Unit (ALU) of the Metropolitan Police Department estimates approximately 50 reported crimes a year involving APA victims. However, APA victims rarely apply for assistance from the D.C. Victim Compensation Office, only 35 out of 2,420 applicants between 10/1/96 to 9/15/00 are APAs, representing 1.4% of the applicant pool. Through targeted outreach by the Chinatown Service Center (CSC) and its partners in the Crime Victim Assistance Partnership (CVAP) under the Victims of Crime Act of 1984 (VOCA) grants in FY2001 through FY2004, these numbers have increased dramatically.

Since the commencement of the VOCA grant in March 2001, CSC and its partners have contacted over 200 APA victims of crime, screened approximately 100 cases and applied for and received compensation for over 40 victims.

The major factors which have made this project effective are: 1) trust between the victims and the CVAP service providers; 2) assistance made available in several languages (Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese); 3) CVAP monthly meetings between service providers and government agencies to discuss cases; 4) adherence to a systematic intake and monitoring process for each victim's case; and 5) active participation by CVAP government partners such as ALU of the MPD, the U.S. Attorney's Office of DC, D.C. Superior Court Victim Compensation Program and the Mayor's Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs (OPAIA).

CVAP partners include the D.C. Superior Court Crime Victim Compensation Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office of D.C., the Asian Liaison Unit of the Metropolitan Police Department, the Mayor's Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, Chinatown Service Center (lead agency under the project), the Korean American Coalition, the Boat People SOS, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center and the Asian and Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project.

March 2005