What do victim advocates do?  

A victim advocate is a person who helps people hurt by crime. When the victim has questions about court and police process, the victim advocate helps find answers. If the person is worried about being safe, doing their paperwork correctly, or getting general support, the victim advocate can help with that too! Victim advocates keep what you tell them a secret unless it is dangerous, so they can be a trusted source during a scary time.

What does a typical day look like in this job?

Victim advocates do many different things, and these can change depending on what day it is and where they are in Arizona. Advocates usually work in the law department or police department. Daily tasks consist of jobs like:  

• Help people fill out forms for money or safety help
• Visit victims in the hospital or their homes
• Teach schools about safety and the court process
• Talks to victims to offer support and a helping hand  
• Writes reports and gives messages to lawyers and police about how victims are doing
• Attends court/meetings with people
    

What skills or abilities are important for this job?

Victim advocates must be kind, understanding people who are able to show help when a victim is sad, angry, or scared. They also must be good at talking to a lot of different people, like a judge, a victim, a lawyer, a victim’s family, or a police officer. Different victims need different things and sometimes advocates contact shelters or hospitals for them. Victim advocates need to be able to work well in a team because in a lot of cases they work with people with other jobs.  
Knowing the laws here in Arizona is needed to become a victim advocate, because they cannot protect people without knowing how the law works. They need to know court rules and people’s rights. Confidentiality, or keeping everything secret, is also really important for victim advocates because they deal with sensitive topics and people hurt by crime. A super important part of victim advocacy is understanding people’s differences. Advocates help anyone hurt by crime regardless of what they look like or where they come from.  

What kind of education, certification, or training is required?

Different places in Arizona have different requirements for education and certification needed to become a victim advocate. Though there are no universal requirements to become a Victim Advocate, a college degree is necessary, and doing a job or internship during college is helpful! There are also certificates you can get to stand out for different jobs. Studying something in college close to victim advocacy, like social services, behavior, or criminal justice, helps get people ready for the job. Sometimes, getting a job as an advocate right after college is possible; while other times, gaining experience in a similar role first is the best path.  

Victim advocates can also be certified, which means they are really good at their job. Two groups, the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) and the National Advocate Credentialing Program (NACP), give out certifications to victim advocates who study hard and pass the test. Not all jobs make you have a certification; it is possible to get a job without one. Certification does not determine how good a victim advocate is, and not everyone has access to certification programs. These programs provide training, but many law and government offices have their own training programs as well. 

What is the most challenging part about this job?

The most challenging part of being a victim advocate is the emotional impact it has on you. Victims deal with a lot of sad and scary things, so helping them may be hard for the victim advocate, even making them sad as well, especially over and over again. In different communities, different resources are there to help victim advocates and the courts. A lot of victim advocates in Arizona work in rural communities, who have less resources for this system, and this can make it harder on advocates, who will need to use what they have or look for resources further away.  This change for advocates can take time and cause more stress due to harder-to-find resources.  
In Arizona overall, though, there are not enough resources in most areas to make the victim advocates’ job go perfectly smoothly. Many shelters will be full, emotional people need a place to turn, and money needed to fund the programs can be limited, but victim advocates do the best they can.  

How much money do victim advocates make?

You can view salary information for victim advocates in Arizona at https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Victim-Advocate-Salary--in-Arizona.