Victim Relief Ministries
expands outreach with volunteers
___By Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___DALLAS--Victim Relief Ministries is creating a new chaplaincy program, expanding its efforts to mobilize volunteers from the faith community and establishing an emergency aid fund to help crime victims.
___Gene Grounds, director of Victim Relief Ministries, announced the expanding scope of the organization's ministry at a news conference held in conjunction with a Crime Victims'

GENE GROUNDS (center), director of Victim Relief Ministries, and Jim Furgerson (left), executive director of Texas Baptist Men, visit with Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton at a Crime Victims' Services Expo in south Dallas. (Photo by Ken Camp)

Services Expo in Dallas April 23.
___The event at the Inspiring Body of Christ Church in southwest Dallas involved a wide variety of governmental, private and faith-based victim-services providers. Key participants included Texas Baptist Men, the Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventists Community Services and the American Red Cross.
___Grounds said Victim Relief Ministries is working with local police departments to begin a new category of chaplains who will respond exclusively to the needs of crime victims.
___Victim chaplains will work through local police departments, carrying the same credentials and having the same quality of training and qualifications as police chaplains, Grounds said.
___"This is the first program of its kind in the state and, to our knowledge, in the nation," he added.
___Victim Relief Ministries--an interdenominational, non-profit organization sponsored in part by Texas Baptist Men--will begin recruiting potential victim chaplains immediately, primarily focusing on clergy and trained mental health providers, he said.
___The first training event for victim chaplains will be in June, using a curriculum developed for Victim Relief Ministries by Michael Haynes of Temple. After prospective chaplains receive the specialized training from Victim Relief Ministries, they will enroll in training programs offered by local police departments.
___Victim Relief Ministries' goal is to "mobilize the faith community to partner with victim service organizations and law enforcement to assist in delivering appropriate physical, emotional and spiritual support to any victim of crime," Grounds said.
___To reach that goal, the organization is inviting every church in the Dallas area to participate by appointing one volunteer as a congregational representative.
___"The designated volunteer will be approved by the pastor and will become the Victim Relief Ministries church coordinator. He or she will represent the resources of the church that can be offered in an appropriate manner to respond to the needs of victims," Grounds said.
___"We will train that person, who in turn becomes an extension of the church's ministry. With 2,400 churches in Dallas County, if we had just one volunteer from every church, we would have an army ministering to crime victims."
___Glenn Majors, treasurer of Victim Relief Ministries and director of Cooperative Program services with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, announced the establishment of an emergency financial aid fund for crime victims.
___"When a person is victimized, there are always needs to be met. ... Finances are needed to provide rent, transportation, medical attention, utilities, repairs and food. Police departments or victim services agencies do not have funds to meet these critical needs. The victims are then victimized by financial trauma in addition to physical pain and loss," Majors said.
___The emergency aid fund set up by Victim Relief Ministries will be used for victims referred by police departments or victim services agencies. It will be directed to meet emergency financial needs that are not met by any other source.
___Tax-deductible gifts to the fund may be directed to Victim Relief Emergency Aid Fund, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798.
___Dallas County Criminal District Attorney Bill Hill and Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton participated in the April 23 news conference to announce a "formal working relationship" between Victim Relief Ministries and Dallas law enforcement.
___Bolton said he hopes to see Victim Relief Ministries, begun last year as a pilot program in one quadrant of Dallas, expand throughout the city.
___Grounds echoed that hope, saying he wants the ministry to move into other cities across Texas as volunteers and chaplains are trained.
___Operating through referrals and "word of mouth" recommendations, Victim Relief Ministries already has served about 300 individuals and families, providing services ranging from home repairs for victims of burglary and vandalism to emergency transportation for victims of family violence.
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The Baptist Standard