MiVAN is guided by a vision of social justice—creating a world in which all individuals, families, and communities share equitably in society’s knowledge and resources, and can achieve their full potential for healing and growth. When victim advocates work with survivors, victims, and their families, MiVAN strives to support their practices of remaining strength-based, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive. MiVAN achieves this by continuing to assess the support needs of crime victim advocates across Michigan, particularly needs pertaining to organizational, staffing, and training protocol. In order to enhance the support, information shared, and networking done across the state of Michigan, MiVAN has built a professional learning community of crime victim advocates. Within this professional community, MiVAN provides state-of-the-art trainings and technical assistance designed to ensure that Michigan’s advocates have the most up-to-date information and skills. With such a vast network of professional connections, MiVAN is able to systematically evaluate the activities conducted by advocates and their organizations to inform and improve any future efforts.

One of the training series developed by MiVAN, Breaking Barriers, was created to help Michigan crime victim advocates better serve all Michiganders. Breaking Barriers focuses particularly on individuals in groups identified as unserved, underserved, or marginalized. So far, MiVAN’s Breaking Barriers series has discussed how advocates can best serve both Latina/x/e communities, as well as individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Throughout the training series, advocates learn about the barriers faced by members of these groups and strategies for addressing these barriers.