Support for Professionals
Training and Resources
Whether you’re new to serving survivors of sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, stalking, or sex trafficking; an experienced leader; or fall somewhere in between; we’re here to provide legal, logistical, and practical support to help enhance your program’s capacity to respond to survivors’ legal needs.
Here are some examples of topics and issues we can address through training and consultation:
Trauma-Informed Practice/Workplace
- Effective supervision
- Holistic intake and interviewing
- Mitigating vicarious trauma and burnout
- Survivor-led and intersectional practice
- Implementing a trauma-informed approach with clients and at organizations
- Onboarding new direct services staff
- Managing client expectations and having difficult conversations
Education
- On-campus investigation, adjudication, and appeal procedures
- Navigating federal law in higher education cases, including Title IX and Clery Act
- Cross-examination in campus disciplinary hearings
- Safety planning and supportive measures in Campus DDVSAS cases
- Intersection of sexual assault and special education
- Safety planning and supportive measures in K-12 education settings
Mentorship
- Reviewing programs’ policies
- Outreach to survivor communities, including with population-specific communities
- Developing and improving legal services programs
- Creating effective community partnerships
- Referrals to other training and technical assistance providers
- Understanding OVW grant guidelines
Confidentiality and Privilege
- Federal confidentiality law
- Jurisdiction-specific mandatory reporting
- Jurisdiction-specific privilege and confidentiality
- Duties to warn and protect
- Population-specific confidentiality issues, (e.g., confidentiality in custodial settings, when survivors are minors or have legal guardians, in education settings)
General Civil Legal Representation & Non-Attorney Legal Advocacy
- Jurisdiction-specific statutes and case law impacting survivors
- Identifying survivors’ legal rights and needs related to housing, employment, criminal justice advocacy, immigration, and other areas of law
- Providing non-attorney legal advocacy while avoiding unauthorized practice of law
- Safety planning and protection orders for survivors
Training and Technical Assistance Team Mission
VRLC empowers those who serve survivors to use the law to promote survivor safety, autonomy, and paths to accountability. To that end, we provide innovative training, tools, and consultation to create change in communities and systems. Our work centers and is informed by the lived experience of the survivors we represent. We acknowledge that we are more effective when we work in community. We resist systemic oppression, embrace nuance, and celebrate innovation.