“Seeing the look on this young mother’s face and seeing her children clinging to her has left such a memory in my mind that I will never forget. After getting her the food and help that she needed I knew that I wanted to do more.” – Jennifer Fellows
Community Resource Center provides a 40-Hour Domestic Violence Advocate Training. CRC volunteers often join these trainings as they seek to understand, advocate for and support survivors. Jennifer Fellows is a CRC volunteer who participated in our 2020 training.
I first became involved with the CRC volunteering at the food and nutrition center. I volunteered every Tuesday with my church group, and I looked forward to going each week and began to meet so many wonderful people. It was so much fun to see these friendly faces each week. We laughed, we cried, we hugged and shared stories. The love that I felt every Tuesday when I left made me want to go back and serve these wonderful people and love them as much as I could.
One experience that stood out to me while volunteering at the food and nutrition center was seeing a young mother come in to the food and nutrition center with three darling little kids. Her kids were all probably under the age of 5. She was clearly distraught and visibly had been in some sort of abusive situation and/or relationship. She was obviously scared. We helped her obtain the food she needed for her family and helped her to her car. Her car was filled to the ceiling with everything they owned. She had nowhere to go. The manager at the CRC saw this and immediately took over. I knew they were going to take care of her and do what they could to help her and her children. Seeing the look on this young mother’s face and seeing her children clinging to her has left such a memory in my mind that I will never forget. After getting her the food and help that she needed I knew that I wanted to do more. That week I contacted Jani Sepanik from the Domestic Violence Program at the CRC and asked what I could do to help. She informed me of the 40-hour Domestic Violence training that they were offering. I signed up immediately.
I thoroughly enjoyed the 40-Hour Domestic Violence Advocate Training. There was so much information, so many knowledgeable speakers and stories from survivors that were just heartbreaking and yet motivating at the same time. The training helped me become aware of the different types of abuse, effective methods for identifying and helping those who are suffering, and the different laws that protect women and children who find themselves in abusive situations. The amount of information you are taught and given is so valuable not only to people who are working in the field, interns and students but very beneficial to anyone that has ever been in any type of relationship–which is ALL of us! I learned so much from the individuals that were in the class with me. We had professionals, survivors, counselors, volunteers and so many others that shared their expertise, knowledge, resources, experiences and stories of hope with all of us participating in the class. I am definitely a better person for taking the training course.
I would highly recommend this training to anyone that is interested in helping victims of domestic abuse. There is something for everyone.
