A victim impact panel is not a lecture. Two or three people stand up and tell a room of people convicted of impaired driving what happened to their son, their mother, their brother. There is no debate and no cross-examination. There is a story, and then silence.
Monroe County’s panels have run since 1992. Attendance is ordered by a judge, or required by probation or parole. Attorneys cannot schedule attendees, and rules protect victims, volunteers and defendants alike.
Panels are scheduled by Monroe County STOP-DWI. For dates, locations and requirements, call the panel line.
Monroe County STOP-DWI · 50 W. Main St., Suite 4111, Rochester, NY 14614
Independent guests, including teachers, counselors and journalists, may be able to attend a panel with advance approval. Call 585-753-3011 to ask.
If you would like a RAID speaker at your school, workplace, team or community event instead, we can arrange that directly.
Sue Merritt has spoken since 2006. Henry Rivera Sr. has spoken to students across the county for nearly twenty years, and once met a man who told him he’d been sober for ten years since hearing him at MCC. Sarah Palermo speaks at panels, schools and sobriety checkpoints. Every RAID speaker does this for one reason: so the next family doesn’t have to.
My words are not in vain. If I can get one person to do the right thing, it's worth it.
Schools, colleges, employers, driving schools, teams and faith communities: we will come to you.
Rochester-area families who lost someone to impaired driving, working so no other family has to.
In honor of all those we have lost to impaired driving, and the families who carry them forward.
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