What Is A Victim Advocate?
Victim advocates are professionals trained to support victims of crime and families affected by crime. Advocates offer information, emotional support, and help finding resources and filling out paperwork. Advocates often receive significant additional training on the specific knowledge and skills they need on the job.
How Advocates Work with Victims
Advocates do not tell victims what to do. Advocates are committed to maintaining the highest possible levels of confidentiality in their communications with victims. All advocates must report certain types of information to the authorities. For example, they have to report any type of threat to a person (such as clients threatening to hurt themselves or someone else), and they have to report the abuse or neglect of children. It is important for victims to ask about confidentiality rules before they begin working with an advocate.
It may be difficult for you to reach out for help. But you may find that victim advocates can offer you information, support, and access to helpful services you might not know about.