University of Wisconsion - Eau Claire

UWEC

arrow_back

Proposal

Anti-Violence Crisis Line Advocate

30 hours

Community partner: Family Support Center
Supervisor: Jeni Haddad
Beginning date:
2025-03-06
Ending Date:
2026-01-30

Service-Learning Proposal Description

1.

Briefly describe the project and the community need to be addressed.

Answer FSC’s mission is to empower all individuals, families, and communities to live lives free from domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, and all forms of interpersonal violence through education, prevention, and intervention. Since we work with survivors of violence and violence does not only happen when our offices are open, On-Call Advocates are a critical part of our 24/7/365 crisis hotline, and answer calls when the offices are closed. Calls are routed to On-Call Advocates through an answering service (Gold Cross) and callers that need to speak to an Advocate right away get transferred to the On-Call Advocate through their personal cell phone. While you won’t be in our physical offices, and can take calls from the comfort of your home, we do ask that you are within 30 minutes of the Chippewa Valley, have a confidential space to take calls in, are sober, and have access to transportation when taking calls. The majority of calls are someone needing to talk, process, and emotionally/physically safety plan about past or present trauma. This can be done via phone. There are times when you might need to be with someone in person: to accompany a survivor to the hospital after being sexually or physically harmed, to facilitate shelter for someone fleeing violence, to make a report to law enforcement.

2.

What is the mission of the agency or organization?

Answer FSC’s mission is to empower all individuals, families, and communities to live lives free from domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, and all forms of interpersonal violence through education, prevention, and intervention.

3.

What skills are required for this project? 

Answer Empathy and compassion for individuals in crisis/experiencing current and past forms of interpersonal violence. Prompt and clear communication skills. Comprehensive training is provided prior to becoming an On-Call Advocate. 20 hours are in a class over the course of a month (we aim for 4 5-hour sessions), with a few hours of training on your own as well. We train with a group of 3-5 Advocates at a time.

4.

What are the objectives for the student learning and service?

Answer Providing advocacy and support to survivors of violence who are calling the FSC crisis line after hours. The majority of calls are someone needing to talk, process, and emotionally/physically safety plan about past or present trauma. This can be done via phone. There are times when you might need to be with someone in person: to accompany a survivor to the hospital after being sexually or physically harmed, to facilitate shelter for someone fleeing violence, to make a report to law enforcement.

5.

What are the availability requirements for the student?

Answer Office hours are 8:30-4:30 Monday-Thursday, so On-Call shifts are from 4:30pm-8:30am (16 hours) on Monday- Thursday, and 8:30am-8:30am (24 hours) on Friday-Sunday. Staff is on-call for On-Call Advocate support every weekend and holiday. UWEC students who are receiving service learning credit for this will receive 1 hour per weekday shift and 2 hours per weekend shift in addition to the time on any/all calls they take during their shift.

6.

Additional information (not required).

Answer We ask that On-Call Advocates take 4-5 shifts per month, and that one of those shifts be on a weekend (Friday/Saturday/Sunday). Volunteers send us availability by the middle of the month that we’re scheduling (so mid-March if we’re scheduling for April) and let us know when they are available and how many shifts they would like. For Service Learning hours, you get 1-2 hours (depending on the length of the shift) just for being on call, and then any time that you are on a call as well. Training does not count towards service learning hours.
Center for Service-Learning • Old Library 2100 • University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire • Eau Claire WI 54702-4004
A Unit of: Advising, Retention + Career Center
Phone: 715-836-4649 • Fax: 715-836-4023
Questions/Comments: srvlearn@uwec.edu
Copyright © 2025 UW-Eau Claire and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System