This brief is the first of seven toolkit resources resulting from the Urban Institute’s formative evaluation of the VictimConnect Resource Center, a nationwide victims’ helpline operated by the National Center for Victims of Crime. The evaluation was conducted from 2019 to 2020 with funding from the National Institute of Justice. In this brief, we describe the foundational theory and literature relevant to VictimConnect’s operations and explain why and how the field of victim services could benefit from a nationwide, technology-based resource center supporting crime victims of all types.