Independent program extends deadline for abuse victims

The creator of the independent program implemented last September to assist clergy sexual abuse victims in the Albany Diocese has extended the deadline for victims to seek assistance.

Judge Howard A. Levine announced last week that IMAP, the Independent Mediation Assistance Program, will continue to be available, subject to periodic "review [of] the ongoing need for and scope of the program."

The program was originally slated to end on Feb. 20.

Independence

Judge Levine, a retired New York State Appeals Court Judge, was asked by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard to develop IMAP. Judge Levine stayed on to serve as administrator of the program.

IMAP, operated independently of the Diocese, is headquartered at the offices of the New York State Dispute Resolution Association in Troy. The program is funded by $5 million from the Diocese's self-insurance fund and a contribution of $225,000 from a New York law firm.

Judge Levine said that IMAP intake coordinators have received about 100 inquiries so far, resulting in 48 individuals participating in the program. Agreements have been reached in seven cases, eight are currently in mediation and 33 are just beginning the process.

Judge Levine said the IMAP process "provides a safe place for individuals to explore creative options for healing." Participants work through the process with a mediator and are provided an advocate for further assistance, if they so desire.

Assistance may include financial help for personal psychotherapy, family counseling, health care, job training, education or other services.

Success seen

"The program appears to be performing the independent investigative and mediation services and assistance to victims that it was established to provide," Judge Levine stated. "The Albany Diocese, attorneys representing victims and victims' advocacy organizations have asked IMAP to continue to provide these services."

Extending the program, he added, "provides additional opportunity for IMAP to assist those individuals who may have had personal difficulty in coming forward."

Reacting to the news of the extension of IMAP, the Albany Diocese released a statement that noted: "We are very pleased with the way the process has worked. We believe it has been carried out to the satisfaction of all parties involved."

The Diocese added that it was "grateful to Judge Levine and everyone else connected with IMAP. They have done an excellent job in creating and administering an effective and independent program designed to provide pastoral, spiritual and emotional care to those who were sexually abused as minors by clergy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany."

The Diocese noted that it and others had asked Judge Levine "to continue to provide independent mediation services to victims of clergy sexual abuse. We are pleased that IMAP has decided to do so. We encourage anyone who as a minor was sexually abused by clergy of the Albany Diocese to contact IMAP or the Diocese for information and assistance."

(Read more about the program by searching for "IMAP" at www.evangelist.org. Contact IMAP at 1-888-388-IMAP, or go to www.independentmediation.org.)

(3/3/05)