Community Action Partnership and the Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities received a start-up grant from the North Dakota Department of Transportation to implement a Victim Impact Panel Program in Dickinson.

A Victim Impact Panel is one or two or more victims speaking briefly about an impaired driving crash in which they are injured, or in which a loved one was killed or injured, and how it impacted their lives. They do not blame or judge those who listen. They simply tell their stories, describing how their lives and the lives of their families and friends were affected by the crash.

The purpose of the panels is to individualize and humanize the consequences of impaired driving, to change attitudes and behaviors, and to deter impaired driving recidivism. Panels also give victims a healing opportunity to share their stories in a meaningful way.

The victims stories' are told first-hand and from the heart, in neither a blaming nor accusatory tone. The stories' can benefit both the victim and the offender by:

• Allow offenders, perhaps for the first time, to consider the pain and suffering impaired driving can cause other people;
• Help offenders move beyond being "stuck" in focusing on their own "bad luck;"
• Serve as a first step in breaking the denial of alcoholics or those addicted to other drugs;
• Imprint images of real people in offenders' minds that will replay when drinking and driving is considered at some future point; and
• Change behavior and save lives.

The support of the judiciary and/or probation department is crucial to the implementation of the Victim Impact Panel program. Ideally, several judges in a community will be concerned enough about drinking and driving to consider implementing Victim Impact Panels. The program also enlists community support from local law enforcement, coalition members and families of the victims.

Two panels have been held thus far with twenty offenders attending. Each offender is asked to fill out an evaluation at the end of the program. Several positive comments and statements have been made about the program and the offenders concern for their drinking problem.

For more information on this program, you may contact Becky at 701-227-0131.