Presentations are unique opportunities to inform your community about victims’ rights and services during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. Civic groups, schools, or businesses may ask you to speak to their members or other audiences about challenges faced by victims and what individuals in the community can do to help. 

Appeal to your audience by choosing issues that directly affect their communities or by focusing on special services that are available to crime victims in their area. 

Getting started on a presentation can be daunting. You may find it helpful to break down the project into smaller tasks, and dive in wherever you’re most motivated. Or start by speaking with your colleagues and researching nearby media outlets for local crime trends. 

You can also check the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program reports to see if your local area is included or refer to Statistical Analysis Center reports to review any state or local data that may have been published. The following Bureau of Justice Statistics’ reports also provide crime victim data that can inspire the focus of your presentation—

• Criminal Victimization, 2022,
   
• Services for Crime Victims, 2019, and
   
• Victim Service Providers in U.S. Counties, 2017.

The following presentation tips can help you clarify your goals, tailor your message to your audience, and choose the best approach. This section also includes a PowerPoint template featuring the 2024 NCVRW theme and artwork for you to customize. Before you know it, you’ll have crafted an inspiring presentation that will educate and motivate your audience. 

Preparing for Your Presentation

Audience

The success of your presentation depends on your ability to engage your audience. When you are invited to speak, find out:  

1. Why have you been asked to speak, and what is the goal of your presentation?
    
2. Who is your audience?
    
3. What do they want or need to know about crime and victimization? Which issues concern them the most?
    
4. How can you help them be more responsive and better support victims in their community?

Appeal to your audience by choosing issues that directly affect their community or by focusing on special services that are available to crime victims in their area. For a student audience, think about the different crimes that might affect their lives, such as dating violence, bullying, or gun violence. For health care providers, think of crime-related injuries or signs of domestic violence or elder abuse that patients may present with at their clinic or hospital. 

For the business community, think about crimes that can impact business operations, such as fraud, identity theft, human trafficking, or the intersection of workplace violence with intimate partner violence and stalking. For communities across the country, consider talking about the need to raise awareness of the rise of hate crimes in recent years. 

Consider the gaps in services and what your community can do to improve its response to victims. Demonstrate to your audience why crime victims’ rights should matter to them. 

Message

Determine the overall message of your presentation based on your audience and the topics you’ve been asked to address. What do you want your audience to take away from the presentation? Decide on your theme before you begin outlining, writing, or preparing. Think about how your theme relates to this year’s theme for NCVRW: 

How would you help?

Options, services, and hope for crime survivors. 

Choose a presentation title that captures your main idea, and refer to your theme in the beginning, body, and conclusion of your talk. 

Presentation Roadmap

Plan how you will organize the overall structure of the presentation. How will you start and end your remarks? Focus your message and weave these ideas into a narrative that is meaningful to your audience. 

Opening: Grab your audience’s attention. 

• Tell a short, compelling story about a crime in your community, emphasizing the victim’s experience.
   
  • Cite a surprising and impactful statistic. 
  • Ask your audience to guess the facts about a specific crime (e.g., the number of times a particular crime happens annually in the community). 
  • Relate your story or statistics back to your main message (e.g., some crime victim populations face additional barriers to reporting, or nontraditional partners are essential to the crime victims’ movement). 

Body: Build your presentation around three supporting ideas, placed in a logical pattern that leads to a clear conclusion. Your topic will determine your pattern. The following are some typical idea development structures:

• Chronological (past, present, future)
   
• Sequential (a step-by-step process, e.g., for project rollout)
   
• Climactic (least to most important)
   
• Problem/solution (problem, solution, and benefits)
   
• Compare/contrast (similarities and differences of specific factors)
   
• Cause and effect (causes and results of specific situations)
   
• Advantage/disadvantage (good or bad sides of an issue) 

Once you have decided how to structure your presentation, write down supporting ideas and evidence, illustrations, or stories to support your main message. 

Conclusion: Restate your theme and main points. Ask the audience to take specific action such as following your organization’s social media accounts, signing up for communications, or donating to a fundraising event or campaign for victims of a specific crime, such as a mass casualty event.

Method

Regardless of how you share your information (e.g., PowerPoint, poster, webinar, interactive activity), remember to engage your audience by periodically asking them to break into small discussion groups and allowing time for questions throughout the presentation or at the end. Practice your presentation until you feel comfortable. Know how long it takes to deliver and adjust your talking points to meet the time requirements of the presentation. Below are general best practices for presentations using PowerPoint or similar programs. 

• Design: Choose a simple, uncluttered design and solid colors. Use the same design on every slide. Use dark text on light backgrounds.
   
  • Bullet points: Limit yourself to six bullet points per slide, and no more than eight words per bullet point. 
  • Font: Use sans-serif fonts (e.g., Arial, Verdana) for readability. Avoid using all uppercase letters, except for titles, and use italics sparingly. 
  • Font size: Use at least 24-point type. 
  • Graphics, charts, and photos: Use simple graphics and photos that are visible to the audience. (The 2024 NCVRW theme artwork and the 2024 NCVRW PowerPoint template are available to use.)
     
• Animation: Limit the use of animation and sound effects.
   
• Video: Use video sparingly and only to support the theme. Embed your videos into PowerPoint rather than stream them from the Internet.
   
• Spelling and grammar: Use spell-check and proofread your slides several times.
   
• Preview: Preview the presentation in its entirety before delivering

Never read your slides verbatim. Instead, use them as a guide. As you rehearse, track how long it takes you to go through all the slides, and then edit them accordingly.

Communicating Effectively

Public speaking makes everyone a bit nervous. Practice lessening your anxieties by preparing carefully and concentrating on the audience when you speak. Your goal is to tell a story about a problem and let your audience know how they can help solve it. Remember, you are an expert in what you are presenting. The following suggestions will help your presentation go smoothly: 

• Speak in a positive, warm tone.
   
• Smile and make eye contact with the audience.
   
• Avoid repetitive or distracting physical mannerisms and gestures.
   
• Set expectations by telling the audience whether you would like them to ask questions throughout the presentation or at the end. Let them know if they may share details of the presentation on social media.
   
• Practice, practice, practice.

Prepare the Room

On the day of your presentation, arrive 30–45 minutes early to check in with the host, test the equipment, and arrange the room to suit your needs. It may be helpful to ask someone to help you test the volume of your voice. If possible, use a microphone to ensure everyone can hear. Always have two ways to access your presentation, such as an accessible email account, removable drive, or hard copy. 

Sample PowerPoint Template

This Resource Guide includes a sample PowerPoint template featuring the 2024 NCVRW theme and design. Use the template to prepare and customize your own NCVRW PowerPoint presentations. Download the PowerPoint file, along with a range of other theme artwork files.