Make a Difference Today!

Did you know over 700 youths go through the Child Welfare System and foster care system in rural Nevada every year? Advocates for Victims of Abuse, also known as Humboldt AVA are very pleased to announce an exciting new program in addition to our 24/7 on-going crisis intervention and community advocacy for survivors of crime and personal trauma, including relationship abuse, sexual violence, bullying, child abuse and neglect, and stalking and harassment. In a first-ever collaboration of its kind in Nevada, AVA and the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) have entered into a collaborative agreement to establish the Family Advocacy Program for Humboldt and Lander Counties.

The Family Advocacy Program has been implemented to enable AVA to provide trained volunteers as requested by DCFS to assist in providing an array of services to support youths and families who are involved in the Child Welfare System in Humboldt and Lander Counties. Whether the child is placed in a foster home, a kinship home, or with their biological families, AVA volunteers are there to help with supervised visitations, in-home services, and in community services and 24/7 advocacy to ensure a child's best interests and safety is a priority.  

Volunteers are needed! Advocates for the Family Advocacy Program duties will vary and include, but are not limited to, supervised visitation, home visits, safety management services, parenting classes, collecting clothing, toys, household items, etc. donations requested by foster and kinship families, office assistance, and assisting in raising awareness and outreach about foster parenting and child abuse and neglect and to raise awareness and the foster care system and help to recruit more needed foster parents.

To be eligible, volunteers  for the Family Advocacy Program must be:

• • Age 21 or over (depending on type of volunteering sought. Please see below for examples. Other AVA programs accepts volunteers  13 or older for our other programs).
• • Submit to state and federal background checks, Central Registry Screening for Child Abuse, and fingerprinting.
• • Must not have been convicted of a DUI in the past 5 years or fined for used of a cellular or mobile device while driving within the past 3 years.
• • Must adhere to strict confidentiality rules and laws and follow all mandatory reporting requirements for Nevada.
• • 3 references (must not be related to you).
• • Must be able to effectively communicate via written and oral communication, be familiar with email and basic computer skills.

• 25 hours of pre-service training is required, some of which can be done via independent study and locally. 12 hours training annually is required. Some recent training in the required areas may be used for pre-service training hours. Proof of training must be provided.

 Volunteer schedule is extremely flexible- YOU tell US when you can volunteer and what type of volunteering you feel comfortable with! A minimum of 3 hours a month is requested.
If someone would like to volunteer but does not meet all these requirements, it does not automatically exclude you from volunteering! There is an array of volunteering that may be done with AVA. In order to work with clients as a Family and Youth Advocate, all the above standards must be met, with the exception of our Teen Crisis Program, where age requirements are 13 and older.

Other ways to volunteer is to assist with outreach awareness, grant writing, social media and other forms of public relations, crisis intervention, bullying and bystander intervention, teen advocacy,  fundraising, administrative assistance.

Not able to volunteer but still want to help?  Advocates for Victims of Abuse is an all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff. This means any financial donations goes directly to support our direct services.  Financial donations are always needed and very much appreciated.  As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (Tax ID # 26-3966611), any donations made are tax-deductible.   You can also choose us as your charity of choice when shopping at Amazon.  Go to Amazon Smile,  http://www.smile.amazon.com, choose Advocates for Victims of Abuse, and 0.5% of your purchase will go to us.  

If you, a family or friend is a Newmont Mine employee, you can also donate to us as part of their Newmont Legacy Fund. Simply request at the Human Resources office that you would like to choose us as your charity to help.  Every cent truly does make a difference and if it hadn't been for so many of our caring community members we would not have expanded our services and have had the ability to help so many youths and families as we do.