Advocacy
Women’s Center advocates are cross trained to facilitate needs assessment and provide supportive advocacy services based on the individual needs of domestic and sexual violence survivors and their children. All advocacy services are provided free of charge at the Women's Center.
Services include providing survivors with the information they need to make informed decisions. Fundamental organization-wide services include, but are not limited to: --Crisis intervention/response; --Threat assessment and safety planning; --Assistance obtaining a Personal Protection Order (PPO); --Referrals and advocacy in these areas: medical, legal, financial, housing, education, and employment; --Child and adult individual and support-group counseling, --Transportation; --Educational information about domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence and stalking. Housing Advocacy Program and Services Housing advocacy services focus on supporting survivors to enhance the safety, self-sufficiency, housing stability and sustainability. Specialized housing-advocacy services help survivors navigate the housing-application process, overcoming housing barriers, learn coping skills/stress management, and develop employment, financial and budgeting skills. Housing program advocates work with landlords to maintain partnerships and prevent housing issues. At Harbor House, the Women’s Center employs an advocacy staff that specializes in providing survivors of domestic and sexual violence, dating violence and stalking with comprehensive supportive advocacy services relevant to their self-identified needs. Safety planning and lethality assessment is incorporated into everyday service provision efforts with survivors and their children.
Advocates answer crisis lines, participate in on-call rotation, provide on-site crisis intervention/response, coordinate domestic violence and sexual assault response call outs, and are cross trained to provide the organization-wide fundamental supportive advocacy services to shelter resident and non-resident survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Specialized staff positions and brief descriptions include: Court Advocate - Provides legal advocacy assisting survivors with navigating throughout investigative and judiciary processes, assistance with petitioning for Personal Protection Orders and legal resource information and referrals. Co-facilitator of domestic violence support group and Life Skills support group. Youth Advocate & Youth/Parent Advocate - Individual counseling for children impacted by domestic and sexual violence, co-facilitators of children’s support group, parenting resource information and referrals, coordinate and/or provide childcare for resident and non-resident clients, legal advocacy and coordinate school enrollment/support . Support Advocate – Individual domestic and sexual violence counseling to resident and non-resident clients, works closely with shelter advocates to coordinate internal and external service delivery, group co-facilitator and certified grief counselor Resource Advocate – Facilitates needs assessment, survivor centered goal setting and attainment, works closely with shelter advocates to coordinate internal and external service delivery, maintain effective collaborative partnerships with relevant service providers, maintain current resource information, provide survivors with written resources and referral information. Sexual Assault Advocate – Facilitates assessment of sexual violence within the context of domestic violence and provides domestic violence/sexual violence counseling to shelter residents. Provides legal advocacy throughout investigative and judiciary processes, assists with the co-facilitation of sexual assault support group . Resident Advocates- Provide direct advocacy and support services to resident clients, assure shelter safety management, perform safety and security checks, facilitate nightly resident meetings, coordinate general shelter maintenance and organizing donations. Outreach Advocate – Outreach program services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence, dating violence and stalking. Services include, but are not limited to; crisis intervention/response; lethality assessment and safety planning, medical referral/advocacy, legal referral/advocacy, assistance obtaining a Personal Protection Order (PPO), financial referral/advocacy, housing referral/advocacy, employment & educational referral/advocacy, adult individual counseling, transportation and educational information about domestic violence, dating violence, sexual violence and stalking. |
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