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appendix thirteen

guidelines for speakers

The Goals of the Impact Panel Program are:

• to enhance the emotional healing of victims by offering them an outlet to speak of their experience and to believe that their participation may prevent others from experiencing a similar tragedy;

• to enable offenders to understand impaired driving from the victim's perspective; and

• to imprint in the minds of offenders true stories, told from the heart, which might be recalled later when a decision to drink and drive is an option.

How the Impact Panel works:

Panel members, along with the Panel Facilitator, are seated together, usually behind a table at the front of the room. Casual, comfortable clothing is suggested.

Most of the audience will consist of convicted impaired driving offenders ordered to attend the session. Others present may include judges, probation officers, law enforcement officials, and people in alcohol treatment programs.

The media may be present. If any panel member objects to the media's presence, they should inform the panel coordinator who will protect their right to privacy.

A panel facilitator will open the meeting and announce its close. The facilitator will briefly introduce each panelist, after which a panelist will speak for about 10 minutes and not more than 15 minutes. The facilitator will signal the speaker when he or she has three remaining minutes and then one minute remaining.

Panel speakers are not expected to interact with attendees unless they choose to do so informally after the presentation. In some settings with small audiences, a brief question and answer period may be appropriate if panel members agree beforehand. All participants should always answer every question courteously.

do . . .

• Tell what happened to you (what, when, how, who was killed or injured).

• Express how the death or injury affected you, your marriage, family, friends, career, and life in general. It is sometimes effective to describe a typical day before the crash and contrast it with a typical day after.

• Use visual aids if they enhance your story. Photos of you or your loved one before the crash, the death certificate, autopsy reports, medical aids or other mementos can significantly add to your story. If crash photos are used, do not show bodies of the victims. If the audience is large, arrange with the coordinator for photos to be projected on a large screen by slide or PowerPoint.

• Speak from the heart. Don't worry if you become emotional, although grieving deeply may be hard on you and make listeners uncomfortable. Moderate amounts of genuine emotion (never contrived) communicate very effectively. If you need to stop for a few seconds to regain your composure, simply do so. Organize some notes if that gives you more confidence but don't read from a prepared statement.

don't . . .

•  Quote statistics.

• Express your opinion about the criminal or civil justice systems.

• Use the phrase "drunk or impaired driver" unless the court convicted the offender of impaired driving. Otherwise, use "the offender whose blood alcohol content was ___" or some other verifiable fact. If the offender died in the crash, give the blood alcohol content on the autopsy report.

• Blame or accuse those in your audience.

• Evangelize the audience. It is appropriate to talk about how your faith has helped you but not what you think members of the audience should believe or do.

• Express significant anger or rage unless you are able to acknowledge the hurt and pain underneath. This distances you from the audience and will cause them to shut you out. Expressions of hurt and sadness are much more effective.

• Tell those in the audience what they "should" or "should not" do.

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