Victim Assistance Advisory Council
(VAAC)

The Mayor's Victim Assistance Advisory Council (VAAC) coordinates and encourages cooperative efforts among social service, criminal justice, mental health and other agencies to provide assistance to crime victims and their families.

The Council is composed of a chair and 26 members appointed by the mayor and confimed by the City Council. Members serve terms of three years each. The 27 members represent a cross-section of representatives of community mental health, social services, criminal justice, education, the medical profession, crime victims and their advocates, and members of the general public. 

• To coordinate and encourage cooperative efforts among social services, criminal justice, mental health and other agencies and persons (public and private) whose purpose is to provide assistance to crime victims, their families and/or their significant others.
• To be a forum for discussing, studying, reviewing and considering from time to time, the community's needs; to make recommendations for improvements to existing city and/or other community services for crime victims, or for the establishment of essential, necessary and comprehensive services or service linkages where none yet exists.
• To plan, sponsor and conduct conferences, seminars, and other special events concerning victim rights, crime prevention, child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, survivors of homicide, and the victimization of others, including the elderly and minorities.