Skip to main content

Essex County Prosecutor's Office Offers Domestic Violence Awareness Training

Essex County

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens, II, announced today that the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office will offer a free course to equip volunteers and others in the community with training to provide outreach services and crisis intervention to victims and survivors of domestic violence.

According to officials, the program, called Sanctuary, is an interactive 120-hour course. After the completing the course volunteers who are members of local churches, mosques, synagogues, municipal police departments, social service organizations, and emergency agencies in Essex County will be able to provide culturally sensitive outreach to domestic violence victims and their families in a 24- to 72-hour period.

Among other things, the basic course deals with the nature of catastrophe, assisting underserved victim populations, crisis intervention and crisis counseling, the spiritual dimension of trauma, crime and victim advocacy, safety planning and threat assessment, the intersection of substance abuse, mental health, and victimization, officials said.

According to officials, the basic course is 80 hours. That course will start on May 14, 2019. Each session will meet for three hours from 6 to 9 p.m. Application packets are available online at www.njecpo.org (click on “What’s New” tab). Please return the application with all necessary signatures and notarized to EssexVW@njecpo.org by May 10. For more information call 973-621-4689.

Officials say an advance 40-hour course will be offered in the Fall of 2019 at a date to be announced.

According to officials, both courses are a part of the office's ongoing service to assist victims and their surviving family members.

1,000