I recently my first volunteer shift with the Seattle Police Departments Domestic Violence Victim Support Team (VST). I must say it was an interesting day?
I have been involved with the program for just over 12 months, which consists of doing an eight week training academy and attending monthly training meetings. It is an intense but rewarding program, both for the volunteers who devote their time, and for the victims of Domestic Violence.
Just recently I have looked inside myself to try to find out what it is within me that causes me to volunteer my time to what could, at times, be a horrible volunteer position. I have not found the answer to that question? But it may have something to do with the fact that I have been a victim of domestic violence, or that I have been a victim of someone else's domestic violence situation, or that I just want to help the people in the community that I live in, or that I love the action involved in this very hands on volunteer role.
I am guessing it is all of the above. I have said it before and will say it again, Dometic Violence is horrific. It can be defined as one person using manipulation and/or force to control another person. When children are involved it is even more devastating. So if there is something, anything that I can do in order to help a person to break the cycle of violence I will do it!
As an outsider it is very easy to say to the victim 'just leave', but not always so easy to do. There are many reasons that cause a person to stay in a relationship with an offender. Insecurity, financial needs, fear....mostly fear of the outcome as was noted in the David Brame situation. His wife finally found the courage to leave him, only to be murdered shortly after. This happens more often than we would like to admit. I think the only good thing that came from the Brame case was that the community became aware of the extent of domestic violence in the community. A reality that most people don't want to know/think about. Unfortunately, there is a high percent of domestic violence victims in our community, and the numbers are growing every year.
The VST program was formed as a way to give greater support to the victims, their children and even their pets during the weekend period, when support was seriously lacking. It is our job to meet with the victim/s after the police have secured the scene and hopefully, apprehended the perpetrator. We will transport the victim to a shelter, to the hospital or even to a relatives, anywhere that they may feel safe. We can supply the necessary resources to enable the victim to get through the weekend. During the week follow up calls are made to make sure the victim is ok.
My day began at 9am with our monthly VST meeting, this month we participated in a training seminar on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. It was disturbing yet really informative! I applaud those people who are able to work with adult and children victims of sexual assault on a daily basis.
I was working the 2nd watch which is from 11am-7pm. I am still waiting for my background to be cleared so I was doing a shadow shift with 2 other volunteers, which was fine with me as it gave me a chance to learn the ropes. I must say that there is a hell of alot of stuff to learn! There are reports to write, follow up calls to make aswell as basically waiting by the radio for any d.v. calls to be reported.
Well I did get to meet my first victim of domestic violence and for confidentiality reasons I cannot discuss the details of the case. Well I realised that I can do this job but you have to keep a level of detachment. At times I can be quite the person of empathy - not often, but it does happen. So at first the natural response is to feel what the victim is going through and feel sorry for her/him. Well I had to pull myself together and admit that feeling sorry, or even wanting to cry with someone who is hurting is not really going to help matters. It was then that I managed to get a grip and figure out how I can help this person in the short time that we have together.
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