Victim Advocate

The Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center (GCCAC) is excited to launch our new Marianna location on Lafayette Street and is looking for a dedicated and independent Victim Advocate with a strong sense of purpose and passion for serving children to add to our team in January. This role is best suited for a self-directed professional who excels in rural environments, communicates well, collaborates with community partners, and takes initiative without constant oversight. Our work requires compassion, patience, strong ethics, emotional resilience, and the ability to support children and families who have experienced trauma.

A Bachelor’s Degree in a human services or related discipline is strongly preferred (a high school diploma is required). Prior experience working with child victims, vulnerable families, or social services is essential. The successful candidate must have excellent written and verbal communication skills, be able to maintain confidentiality, engage sensitively with diverse populations, respond to after hours on-call to anywhere in Circuit 14 (Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson, Washington and Walton counties), when necessary, and flex their schedule based on the needs of the children and families we serve. Employees must live in one of the counties we serve, as the on-call response time to arrive in person to any of our offices in any of our counties is one hour. Residents of Alabama are ineligible for hire in this position.

This is not a clerical or administrative support position. Successful applicants must be able to manage caseloads independently, coordinate with multidisciplinary professionals, make time-sensitive decisions, and demonstrate strong interpersonal and critical-thinking skills. GCCAC values compassion, teamwork, accountability, and integrity. We are looking for someone who not only has technical experience, but who embodies the emotional maturity and passion required to support child victims and their families during highly sensitive situations.

Description of Duties and Responsibilities:
Essential Functions: Victim Advocate to provide immediate emotional, psychological, and physical health and safety to victims of crime, with a specialization to children.
Primary Function: Victim Advocacy Job Duties
· Greet child victims and their families upon arrival to the center.
· Provide an explanation of available services through the CAC and local community agencies, assess client needs, make referrals as applicable, and advocate for needed services.
· Provide in-person crisis intervention, emotional support, and guidance for victims of child abuse/neglect.
· Provide assistance in filing Victim’s Compensation Claims including making the victim aware of the availability of crime victim compensation, assisting the victim in completing the required forms, and any follow up needed.
· Provide follow-up contact for cases through in-person contacts, telephone contacts, and written communications with victims to offer emotional support, provide emphatic listening, check on victim’s progress, and to ensure that appropriate services are in place.
· Provide follow-up contact for Child Protection Team referrals through in-person contacts, telephone contacts, and written communications with victims to offer emotional support, provide emphatic listening, check on victim’s progress, and to ensure that appropriate services are in place
· Attend multi-disciplinary staffings on behalf of each victim to facilitate the coordination of services.
· Liaison with other agencies on behalf of the victim as needed.
· Coordinate with Victim/Witness Coordinators from the State Attorney’s Office, the Child Protection Team, and local Law Enforcement agencies to ensure child victims and their families are provided with accurate information concerning upcoming court procedures and have ample time and opportunity to interact with the investigators and prosecutor assigned to their case and to ensure that appropriate services are in place.
· Set-up and maintain client and/or program files. Establish and maintain case management files on each case as directed
Secondary Functions: Victim Advocacy
· Identify children who have been victims of abuse, neglect or abandonment resulting
in a dependency criminal case.
· Assess client needs and refer child to appropriate community resources.
· Serve as a liaison between the child, parents, lawyers, and therapist, as needed. Provide emotional support and advocacy for victims and their families
· Coordinate all individual and group sessions, which include, but are not limited to: court process, courtroom terminology, people in the courtroom and child victim’s rights.
· Coordinate courtroom tours.
· Familiarize children with the courtroom experience through our simulated child friendly courtroom.
· Coordinate with Victim/Witness Coordinators from the State Attorney’s Office, the Child Protection Team, and local law enforcement agencies to ensure child victims and their families are provided with accurate information concerning upcoming court procedures and have ample time and opportunity to interact with the investigators and prosecutor assigned to their case and to ensure that appropriate services are in place.
· Provide crisis intervention, emotional support, and guidance.
· Attend multi-disciplinary staffings on behalf of each victim and facilitate as needed.
· Provide follow-up contact through in-person contacts, telephone contacts, and written communications with victims to offer emotional support, provide empathetic listening, check on victim’s progress, and to ensure that appropriate services are in place.
Set-up and maintain client and/or program files. Establish and maintain case files as directed.
Other:
This list of essential functions in not intended to be exhaustive. The Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center reserves the right to revise this job description as needed to comply with actual job requirements.

The Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center is an equal employment opportunity (EEO) employer. It is the Agency’s policy to employ, retain, promote, transfer, terminate and treat all employees, volunteers and job applicants on the basis of merit, competency, experience, formal training and commitment without regard to any individual’s race, sex, national origin, age, religion, color, pregnancy, marital status or disability, or any other factor protected by law.

It is the policy of CAC to comply with all the relevant and applicable provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Successful completion of a drug test is a condition of employment.

Successful completion of a Level 2 background check is a condition of employment.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $21.63 - $23.32 per hour

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance program
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Health savings account
• Life insurance
• Mileage reimbursement
• Paid time off
• Retirement plan
• Vision insurance

Application Question(s):

• Our offices are open Mon-Fri 8am-5pm. In addition to that, VictimAdvocates must be able to work on call overnight or on a weekend approximately 1 day/night per week and respond to our entire coverage area (Circuit 14). Do you have the availability to work on call once per week overnight?
• Our on call response time is 1 hour and you must be able to report to any of our offices in Bay, Gulf, Holmes, Washington, Calhoun and Jackson Counties. Due to that requirement, you must live in or relocate to one of those counties in order to work at our organization. Which county do you reside in?

Education:

• Bachelor's (Preferred)

Experience:

• children/families: 3 years (Preferred)

Work Location: In person

Salary : $22 - $23