Bridging Academia and Advocacy: Victim Service Agencies’ Perspectives on Developing a University-Based Victim Services Certificate

• In Event: Strategically Developing Community-Academic Collaborations for Trauma-Informed Victim Services and Evaluation Research

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the field of victim advocacy has expanded to include crime victim advocacy organizations, rape crisis centers, women’s shelters, and criminal-legal advocates. Due to this expansion, there has been a call to professionalize the victim advocacy field with the use of university-agency collaborations. University facilitated professionalization is considered beneficial as it is often viewed as a neutral space for empirical-based discussions on current practices (DeHart, 2014). A southern university campus is in preparation to develop a victim studies certificate program to bridge the gap between academia and advocacy. Before developing and implementing the certification, there is a need to evaluate the level of community need for a certification in victim services. This presentation offers findings from quantitative and qualitative data with various victim services agencies (i.e., police agencies, victim advocates, etc.) and provides guidance for future universities aiming to collaborate with community-based services to establish victim service curriculum.

Authors

• Katherine A. Meeker, University of South Alabama

• Alexis R. Rockwell, University of South Alabama