Provide victims with with specially trained advocates. These advocates receive at
least 40 hours of specialized training to learn how to assist victims in a safe and
confidential manner.
Advocates can help victims:
and can also:
- provide comfort and emotional support
- empower victims in becoming survivors
The Role of the Advocate:
- To provide immediate emotional and physical support to a victim in crisis
- To coordinate the services necessary to fulfill the many needs of a victim in crisis
- To help the victim:
* Identify her/his
problems
* Examine alternatives
* Set realistic goals
* Support her/him in
meeting them
- To help the victim take an active part in solving her/his own problem
- To help the victim re-establish the self confidence and self esteem lost due to the
abuse
- To work through resolving problems slowly, step by step at client’s pace.
- To help victim make problems more manageable (Label and identify different aspects of
problems.)
- To keep victim’s problem from being re-defined at every corner
- To see that victim is receiving adequate treatment from various agencies
- To make the appropriate referral when:
* victim needs services
advocate cannot provide
* if victim becomes too
dependant on advocate
- To reinforce victims positive coping skills (e.g., requesting help)
- To encourage the victim to grow and change through supportive non- judgmental attitudes
- To develop and maintain comfortable working relations with other groups and agencies.
An Advocate Does Not:
- Provide counseling
- Therapy
- Legal advice
- Medical advice
- Offer all the answers
- Make commitments to the victim that she/he can’t keep, don’t intend to keep,
or don’t want to keep
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