OUR HISTORY
The Crime Victims Alliance (CVA) began as the Doris Tate Crime Victims Bureau (DTCVB), formed in 1992 and based in Sacramento, CA. The organization was named in honor of Doris Tate, the mother of Sharon Tate, who was one of the founding mothers of the crime victims’ movement. It was Doris’ wish to unify crime victims organizations under one umbrella group to give victims a stronger legislative voice.
The CVA was created to be a voice for victims in the capitol.
In 1995, CVA created a Foundation to provide education and assistance to those who were impacted by violent crime. For many years the Foundation hosted statewide conferences in San Diego, Los Angeles and Sacramento providing speakers such as J. Reid Melloy, John Gillis, the Honorable Kerry Wells, the Honorable Pete Wilson, the Honorable Dan Lungren, the Honorable Ted Poe, the Honorable Patricia Benke, Rhonda Saunders, and many others. The conferences drew not only survivors, but students, prosecutors, law enforcement, elected official and anyone wanting to advance their knowledge in issues related to victims of crime.
The Foundation was also host to the Judicial Review Committee. This statewide committee monitored judges behavior towards victims in their courtrooms and honored one judge each year for outstanding service to victims of crime.
In 2000, the CVA moved to San Diego. The organization stayed there under the direction of the Executive Director, Susan Fisher until 2004 when Ms. Fisher was appointed to the Board of Parole Hearings; one of our first Executive Directors, Steve Baker, was also appointed to the Parole Board from his position at CVA. In 2004, the CVA began to move back to Sacramento and Christine Ward was asked to lead the agency as Executive Director.
In 2006, the CVA completed its move to Sacramento with a new board of directors in tow. In late 2006, early 2007, the CVA went through a re-organization and decided to also change their name to better reflect the work that the organization does and Crime Victims Alliance was established. During that same time the Foundation went through a reorganization and became the Crime Victims Assistance Network I-CAN.
The Crime Victims Alliance (CVA) has been an active participant in the legislative process; supporting bills that would benefit crime victims and opposing those that would hurt victims of crime. CVA is also very active in monitoring the activity of the Board of Parole Hearings and participating in the Commissioner confirmation process.
CVA works with government victim assistance programs, as well as non-profit victim support and policy agencies throughout the state of California and across the nation, to help support and promote victims’ rights and to advocate for increased services for victims of violent crime.