Her contacts will help these women to get those things they need. Maybe helping to relocate the victim and their family, get a job, and have steady counseling to help ease the situation. Often, she finds the victims appreciate this kind of help the best. .
Rita relies on her faith, her co-workers, and victims who have turned their lives around to help deal with her stress. She told me sometimes when you feel you can't win, or find out something bad has happened to one of your clients, you feel like you just can't go on. Her co-workers, and herself, will talk to one another, express their feelings, and reassure each other, things will turn out alright. She goes to church and prays to God, for her clients, and asks for the courage for them to go on, and for herself also. She also loves to hear stories when her clients returning. Many tell her Thank-you, and how their lives have changed for the better. Rita told me hearing the end of the rocky, dirt road opened up to smooth pavement, is the greatest reward. Stress runs rapid in places where you hear things you couldn't even imagine, but as long as you have a way to deal with stress, Rita says it can keep you from being sucked in. .
I thanked Rita, and went off to write my report, only I knew what an interventionist does, but had no idea what an advocate did. So I went to Victim's Assistance and talked to Kellie Holt. She was a sweet girl, who had just started there all but a week ago. She also went to Kent State University, and majored in Psychology. Kellie was fresh out of college, and only had a job at the Battered Women's Shelter prior to V.A. Victim's Assistance, is a fairly new program, to both the county and the country. Summit County works with around 20,000 victims and survivors of abusive types of cases a year. She told me her job was to mainly deal with the parents of abused kids. .
While the child is getting counseling, Kellie helps the parent to understand and comprehend what's going to be going through the child's head.
