By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
A recent Facebook post from Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis said that the office’s Victim Advocate Stacy Newman has now been certified as a crisis response advocate.
Newman recently completed a three-day training provided by the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) to earn the certification at the basic level. The free training was offered all across the state to victim advocates.
“NOVA has trained and deployed thousands of responders to disasters small and large (natural and man made) primarily in the United States, but also to other parts of the world,” Ambrozaitis’ post said. “This training will allow for Stacy to be called upon to serve on a NOVA Crisis Response Team.”
“A NOVA Crisis Response Team is a group of individuals specifically trained to provide trauma mitigation, education and emotional first aid in the aftermath of a critical incident, either small-scale or mass-casualty,” the post said.
Ambrozaitis said, “Our office, and Stacy specifically, will now be a resource if we experience an event which would require NOVA services. The skills Stacy learned at this training can also be applied to her day-to-day communications with crime victims.”
Stacy said, ““This is the best training that I have attended. This has increased my knowledge and has allowed me to grow as an advocate.”