Victim Advocate

Ellen Pence, also known as the “mother of domestic violence intervention” and “rockstar of the battered women’s movement” was a social activist for battered women, helped build the foundation of batterer programming with the Duluth model (also known as the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (DAIP)), which assisted in connecting the concerns of criminal justice officials and advocates by developing a “Power and Control Wheel” (Gondolf, 2010, p. 992). She also created the Coordinated Community Response (CCR), which brings all community service providers to help victims of domestic violence, and created a shelter for battered women. In addition, Ellen is the founding director of Praxis International, a nonprofit corporation that aims to eliminate violence in the lives of women and their children.

In addition, all discussions boards agree that the media makes victims looks vulnerable, weak, defenseless, and in need of compassion and sympathy (Greer, p.22)

Domestic violence is a problem in our country with nearly 1 million women experiencing at least one incident of domestic abuse each year, (2009/10 British Crime Survey). Social-program funding is being scrutinized in the current economic climate with doubts as to whether American tax dollars should be used to help victims of domestic violence. Cutting funds for government programs that assist victims of domestic violence is not an option for many reasons. In this essay I will explore some of the many ways these programs help our fellow citizens in order to support the argument for continuing to fund said programs.

Working with victims of domestic violence can be an extremely rewarding and fulfilling endeavor. One of the most crucial aspects for a paralegal working with victim of domestic violence is adequately engaging in the task of educating oneself to understand the commonalities of such victims and the ordeals that they have been through. Such clients are drastically different from other individuals who have suffered other physical and violent crimes. Understanding the background of someone who has lived through domestic violence is absolutely central to being able to provide adequate and sensitive legal care. Most victims of domestic violence are women (95%) though domestic violence can have an impact on ever age, class, race, ethnic, cultural or religious group (purplerainfoundation, 2012). "In the United States, nearly one in three adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood (American Psychological Association, Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 1996 Report)" (purplerainfoundation, 2012). These women are often terrified of their partner's temper, apologize when they are abused and often in the most extremely controlling and isolated environment where the abusive partner will control who the partner sees and where the partner goes outside of the home, jealous of outside relationships (purplerainfoundation, 2012). In these abusive relationships the women are hit,

Attentively, I watched a television from a large wooden table, crammed into a small interview room. As the young child on the screen painfully disclosed years of horrific abuse and neglect to a forensic interviewer, I observed in silence. Surrounded by a multi-disciplinary team of police officers, Department of Child Services case managers, advocates and prosecutors, I knew my purpose. I wanted to be a voice for those who were unable to speak and advocate for themselves. My internship with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, Special Victims and Family Violence Unit, allowed me the opportunity to explore my interest in the legal system and helped kindle my passion for child welfare.

Although we lost Ellen Pence, a woman who changed how domestic violence is addressed, in 2012, there are many lives that are being saved to this day because of her work. Ellen Pence found her calling in 1977 when she began working for the Minneapolis Housing Authority that helped individuals relocate with housing complications (StarTribune, 2010). It was then that she immersed herself through domestic violence cases and set the standard for addressing these cases. Ellen Pence is especially known for establishing the Duluth Program, a program that address batterers in the court systems, and Praxis Training, which are training on addressing domestic violence for law enforcement, advocates, community agencies, and institutions. Pence’s 35 years of service change the way domestic violence cases were handled, educated key players in domestic violence cases, and showed the world what it was like to be a victim of domestic abuse. Without her efforts, many individuals in power addressing these cases would be lost and those to who are victims would not be understood as they are today.

The first guest speaker to present was Doreen Lesane, an Advocate against Domestic Violence. She gave a general power point presentation on what domestic violence is and how to properly assist a client in that predicament. She goes on to explain that domestic abuse and domestic violence are consider two different forms under the law. The law does not recognize domestic abuse as a criminal act and is categorize as nonphysical form of abuse. As a social worker our goals is not to get the client to flea an abuse relationship but to provided serveries to better Accommodate client by helping them create safety nets. Prof. Elaine Reid makes a startling claim, woman are more likely to be murder when they are trying to leave an abuse spouse, and this is also refer as separation violence. Nevertheless it is important not to judge these individual and to handle the case in a professional matter. As social workers it is essential that we safety guide our client with their approval, out of domestic situation by providing resource, support, understanding and professional services.

Because I am not certain what career path I intend to pursue, it was difficult to determine an appropriate person for my informational interview. However, following the advice at Quintessential Careers, I focused on my possible career choices (Quintessential Careers, Unk.). What I found was that I was likely to be involved in some type of work involving domestic violence, though I am still uncertain of the nature of that work. As a result, I decide to interview Sarah Buel. Sarah Buel is a noted attorney in the field of domestic violence. Currently a Clinical Professor and Founding Director of the Diane Halle Center for Family Justice at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Buel was one of the names that came up most frequently as I was looking into the field of domestic violence (Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, 2012).

Domestic violence and sexual assault is the social issue of focus for Advocates, however, it is a major social issue that needs to be addressed. This is a social issue that social workers are involved in, therefore, it is very applicable to social work. Not only are social workers involved, but others in the community are involved as well. Advocates involves the community by allowing for volunteer opportunities. Those who are not interested in social work, but want to make a difference for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault can do just

The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV, n.d.) provides training for advocates of domestic violence (DV) survivors and their families. This paper reflects my experiences as I worked through the first three sections of training: the history of the DV movement; the key requirements of DV advocacy; and safety planning. The primary thread throughout the training sections is the importance of providing advocacy based on survivor-empowerment and meeting clients where they are. In this paper, I also explore my role as a mental health counselor in an interdisciplinary response team working with survivors of domestic violence.

Throughout every state and county across the United States there are various means for offering assistance to victims of crime. Each municipality has its own victim advocacy program. For smaller areas such as rural counties they use the next organizational level up as their victim advocates. For the purpose of this paper I sat down with Ms. Mari Dennis of the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). Ms. Dennis is employed as the Victim Advocacy Unit Coordinator and is embedded within the Investigations division of the department. CSPD employs four staff victim advocates and around 35 volunteer advocates.

My desire to help young adolescents who are remanded to the foster system regardless of their circumstances has pushed me in pursuing a Criminal Justice degree and has furthered my desire to become a Victim Advocate. Understanding how the criminal justice system works will only make me a better Victim Advocate. The ability to provide information and consolation on what victimization is, can help anyone who is going through a traumatizing experience. It can even lessen the intensity of trauma when there is someone present who understands and can empathize with the victim. A Victim Advocate is also essential in explaining the legal and protections of a victim, providing information on the criminal justice process, providing emotional

As the KSU OVS has grown, the number of clients we serve and the victimization type we respond to has grown. In 2016, our client base grew by 30%, with our staff concentrated on providing services to victims of the violent crimes of sexual assault, domestic and interpersonal violence, and stalking. In 2017, we were awarded VOCA funding which enabled KSU OVS to provide direct services and advocacy to all types of victimization in which we were understaffed to offer adequate assistance prior to the VOCA funding, namely victims of larceny, fraud, identity theft crimes, and other forms of property related crimes. These additional services expanded our client list by 137%, with most of these clients experiencing some form

Domestic violence used to be considered a private family matter and was not considered a societal problem until feminists in the 70's started pushing the matter. Beginning in the 1970’s, social policy toward female victims of domestic assaults focused on improving legal response and

The Human Services Organization I analyzed is New Beginnings. New Beginnings is an agency that provides sexual assault support services in Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Ohio, Union, and Webster counties. The clients of this organization have all been affected by sexual assault or child sexual abuse. Issues within clients are best described as acute trauma responses or chronic trauma, such as sexual difficulties or loss of trust. In order to analyze this agency as efficiently as possible, I interviewed Terri Crowe, the Advocacy Coordinator, from New Beginnings. Terri was able to provide very useful information regarding this organization and how it ticks. Although New Beginnings provides services to seven different counties, there are