Victim Impact Panel (VIP) – a panel that consists of victims/survivors of crime, especially alcohol-related (or DUI) victimizations,  who are willing to share their victimization with others.  Although alcohol-related VIPs have nationally been in existence for over 20 years, many rural areas have been having difficulty putting them together.  One community in South Dakota has succeeded in coordinating a VIP, with amazing results.

Shannon White, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Injury Prevention Specialist,  and the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate  Injury Prevention team designed a monthly VIP (based on MADD’s VIPs) on the Lake Traverse Reservation in northeastern South Dakota.  This VIP has succeeded in gaining referrals from both tribal and non-tribal judges.  A local rehabilitation facility, Dakotah Pride Treatment Center, also brings clients to the VIP, and the  sessions have scored very high on the center’s discharge surveys as something that really helped put alcohol and drinking and driving into perspective. 

“Buy-in is crucial,” states White.  The Tribal judge on the reservation and the judge’s association were committed to the process.  Law enforcement officers were also important because they were, for the most part, the first contact in the judicial process as arresting officers.  They were needed to offer their perspective from an enforcement point of view.  Some officers in the area were reluctant to participate at first, but found that it was helpful to express their feelings and frustrations with investigating alcohol related crashes.  A mini-grant was written to help get the VIPs started, and  Dacotah Pride Treatment Center became a partner before the start of the VIPs.  Three months before the official start date, White and the team “tested” the VIPs with clients from the center.  This helped immensely because by the first official month, the VIP was running smoothly.  The Judge’s association sent a “secret” person to watch the VIPs and report back.  The observer was so impressed that he recommended that the other local judges start sending their DUI offenders as well.

The VIP is started by thanking the referred participants for attending and stressing that no-one is there to judge them.  White and her assistant talk about choices and consequences.  They point out that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes, but each participant has an opportunity to start fresh and make a better choice.  The VIP generally hosts two or three speakers; two Native Americans and one offender, who is non-Native.  The non-Native speaker is typically the same person at each VIP.  His daughter was killed in a crash caused by his drinking and driving.  He volunteered to speak and continues to do so every month.  If speakers are not available, stories from videos are shown.  Generally, the last speaker of the evening is either a State trooper or a Tribal police officer, who comes to offer the law enforcement perspective.  The local police, especially the Tribal police, are very supportive of injury prevention efforts.

Because of the relatively small tribe of 5,000 people living on the reservation, it became difficult to find families who would share their stories, so White wrote a mini-grant to help fund a video, much like MADD’s Path of Hope.  The video contains stories of losses from local families.  Although White felt that Path of Hope and Cry the Eagle (IHS and NHTSA) were good videos, she wanted a video that detailed crashes that directly affected this small community.  The video is just over an hour long and is called Gone Too Soon: Stories of Drinking and Driving on the Lake Traverse Reservation.  White interviewed twelve different people over the course of a year, including interviews with the law enforcement officers who had investigated some of those crashes.  Because of the small community, it is rare that a person from the audience hasn’t heard of at least one of the stories. 

The cost for attending the Lake Traverse VIP is $20.  The referred attendees receive a “Proof of Attendance” that can be taken to the judge.  All participants are asked to sign in and provide what entity (Tribe, County, etc.) sentenced them to attend.  An evaluation is filled out by each participant at the end.  Refreshments are provided and gas money is provided to the speakers, all paid for from panel fees.

White states that it can be easy to become frustrated, “You keep working so hard in the community, trying to educate people about the dangers of drinking and driving, but the offenders never stop coming in the door.”  She notes that, at one point, she felt like she wasn’t making a difference;  then an offender let her know that coming to the VIP had really made him think about his behavior.  He no longer drives after drinking and doesn’t allow his friends to do so either.  Stories like these keep her going; “You sometimes don’t know how they feel when they leave [the VIP], but you just have to keep trying.”

For more information on the VIP on the Lake Traverse Reservation, Shannon White can be reached at 605-742-3647 or Shannon.white@swst.us .