WHEREAS, surviving a crime can have myriad lasting effects on victims, including physical, psychological, social, and financial issues; and

WHEREAS, it is necessary to create safe environments for survivors of crime, providing not only support but also access to critical services and, above all, hope; and

WHEREAS, victim service providers, community members, businesses, places of worship, colleagues, neighbors, and family members are capable of providing victim-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive support; and

WHEREAS, we must listen to survivors and be willing to create new options for support to ensure that all victims of crime can receive help and seek justice; and

WHEREAS, we must do everything we can to show survivors that hope — the belief that the future will be better — is not just tangible but within their reach; and

WHEREAS, National Crime Victims’ Rights Week encourages all people to ask themselves the question, “How would you help a victim of crime?”; and

WHEREAS, the State of Maine is hereby dedicated to raising awareness of options, services, and hope for crime survivors;

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim the week of April 21–27, 2024 as

Crime Victims’ Rights Week

reaffirming this State’s commitment to creating a victim service and criminal justice response that assists all victims of crime during Crime Victims’ Rights Week and throughout the year; and expressing our sincere gratitude and appreciation for those community members, victim service providers, and criminal justice professionals who are committed to improving our response to all victims of crime so that they may find relevant assistance, support, justice, and peace.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed GIVEN under my hand at Augusta this third day of April Two Thousand Twenty-Four