order. >> this year, see spent silver it's 45 years of covering congress like no other -- c-span celebrants 45 years of covering congress. your primary source of capitol hill with balanced coverage, taking you to where the policies are debated and decided, all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. host: we have the vice president of the alliance for safety and justice, national director of the crime survivors for safety and justice. we want to talk about resources for survivors of crime. this is personal for you. tell us your story. guest: thank you for having me on. in 2009, i became the first man in my family to graduate from

college. i was also a college basketball player, on my way to playing professional overseas. unfortunately, i became a victim of gun violence, shot twice in my back, and those bullets ended my professional basketball career and nearly ended my life. i was released from the hospital back into the same community where the incident happened with no support, no services or resources to recover from. that incident changed my life, like crime doesn't do so many victims. host: what were you doing at the time of this? what were you doing in that community? guest: i was just at the corner store in my neighborhood where i became the victim of an armed robbery. as a result, i was shot twice in my back just a week before i was supposed to go overseas to play professional basketball. my doctors told me about the

physical challenges i would have but never mentioned the psychological effect of being a victim and dealing with the ptsd , the anxiety, the stress, the nightmares of that incident. like so many victims, law enforcement came to vic -- visit me several times during the recovery process. it was always about the case. they never asked how i was doing, never told me about any victim services for my family to get support. they never even told me about a victim advocate in their department that was supposed to work with victims like myself. so my family and i were left to deal with that incident on our own. that started me on this new journey of working with crime victims across the country. host: what resources were you looking for at the time? guest: access to things look mental health. i was shot just blocks away from where i lived. i would have loved to have

gotten housing relocation support, moving me away from that neighborhood, myself and my family. in addition, every state has a victim compensation program that pays for expenses like mental health counseling, to help with housing relocation support. but i was never made aware of none of those services, which is the experience of thousands of crime victims across the country of not getting support, even the person that shot me was also a victim of gun violence four years before i got shot. in the doctor that saved my life saved his life, as well. just like me, he was at that same hospital and then back into the same community with no support. i strongly feel like his unaddressed trauma played a huge role in my shooting years later. host: what evidence do you have that these resources are needed and on what scale? guest: i travel around the

country and meet with crime domes, families who have lost loved ones to violence, meeting with victims of sexual violence, sexual assault, meet with victims across the country, and i meet in communities that are most hard-hit by violence. those individuals are least supported the justice system, least supported by victims services. there isn't the infrastructure of counseling and so many communities. many organizations are doing incredible work helping navigate for victims, helping support, but so many organizations do not have the resources needed to help support crime victims. our organization works to organize and train those and to advocate and invest in more resources. host: why don't they have the resources? guest: looking at crime and violence in the country, especially communities of color that are most impacted, we have

been disrespected and disregarded for decades. the way crime policy was designed to this country, it does not protect the people most harmed by violence. in the resources