Domestic Violence In Essex County: Learn How To Help Victims

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — The Essex County Prosecutor’s Office is offering free courses on how to assist victims of domestic violence and other crimes.

According to a news release, the program – which has been dubbed “Sanctuary” – is an intensive 100-hour training program that instructs residents in how to provide crisis intervention and outreach services to those who fall victim to domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, stalking, property crime as well as how to assist survivors of domestic violence-related homicides.

Applications can be found online here, and are due on Jan. 30. For more information, call (973) 621-4689.

The course is presented in two formats: basic and advanced. Upon completion of both courses, volunteers who are members of churches, mosques, synagogues, police departments, social service, emergency agencies, and fraternal organizations in Essex County will be capable of providing culturally sensitive outreach to domestic violence victims-survivors and their families within a 24 to 72-hour period, prosecutors said.

Topics include:

BASIC COURSE – The nature of catastrophe, assisting underserved victim populations (part I), crisis intervention and crisis counseling, the spiritual dimension of trauma, cultural aspects of criminal victimization, and crime victim/legal advocacy. Additional topics will include effective communication skills and support services, safety planning and threat assessment (part I), ethics and professionalism, value clarification, the effects of trauma on an individual’s developmental stages, the intersection of substance abuse, mental health, and victimization, trauma assessment, local resources and networks, and the criminal and family court processes.

ADVANCED COURSE – Emerging trends in crime-victim advocacy, trauma-informed care, trauma bonding, captivity theory, and the science of attraction. Other topics include the politics of power in intimate relationships, ritualistic abuse, primary aggressor, the topology of battering behavior, social aggression and the bystander effect, the use of technology as a means to stalk and terrorize, intimate partner violence, working with the media, assisting underserved victim populations (part II), safety planning and threat assessment (part II) as well as vicarious trauma, spirituality, and self-care.

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