Boulder County recruiting victim advocates

BOULDER, Colo. — The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office is looking to add more on-scene and outreach volunteer victim advocates before March 1.

Victim advocates provide help for victims of crime, accidents, trauma and other events. There are currently 32 victim advocates. The county is hoping to double the number of victim advocates to get back to pre-pandemic levels, which was 65 total. 

“You can continue to live your normal day to day life, go out, and when the pager goes off, that’s just time to go to work,” said Trevin Montano, a volunteer victim advocate. “We respond on scene to incidents to provide support into victims of crimes and also traumatic events.” 

Montano has been a volunteer victim advocate with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for about a year. He connects the community to resources they need on what’s usually the worst day of their lives.

“We will be talking to them and a lot of times, they’re totally spaced out on what’s happening and what’s going on,” Montano said. “So just to be able to have that paper copy they can hold on to, and reference it, after the scene. The goal is to make them feel they are empowered and they’re getting the services they need onto that. And it also makes them feel that they are gaining control back into their lives.”

The calls have no limits. 

“That can be anything from an unexpected death of a friend or loved one, to a house fire,” said Barbara Park, the program director for the Community Assistance Program. 
 
Park said they’ve also helped Boulder County on a bigger scale. 

“When the floods occurred in 2013, we had a team of advocates that were supporting community members,” Park said. 

“We had the Calwood Fire, and then we went to the Marshall Fire and then even to the Boulder shooting,” Montano said.  

“They help reconnect family members that are lost,” Park said. “We collaborate with different agencies that help find animals and get animals to the different animal shelters, and reunite families with lost and missing animals.” 

Montano acts as the buffer between the community and law enforcement. 

“We do wear the Sheriff’s Office logo, and we are affiliated with the Sheriff’s Office, but we are not law enforcement,” Montano said. “We are just normal civilians.” 

Montano is one of 32 victim advocates right now, helping out in a big way.

“We are in the Boulder County Sheriff’s Honor Hallway for some of the most high-end awards people can receive,” Montano said. “I’ll be getting my name right under Koko as the 2023 Victim Advocate of the Year.”

Montano said he was shocked when he was nominated by his peers.

“I was super excited, really happy about it,” he said.

Montano doesn’t know when he’ll get paged, but he never loses sight of why he helps. 

“It’s pretty rewarding of just watching someone that’s emotionally, and they don’t know what’s happening, and then walking up to them and saying ‘everything is going to be okay, we have all these resources,’ and then watching them have that giant smile of that they know what’s happening.” 

“Our training academy is in April,” Park said. “It’s a 40-hour training over a three-week period. It’s two evenings a week, then two Saturdays April 9 to April 27.”

The training covers crisis intervention, grief response, legal rights, legal procedures, law enforcement, and resource information.

Positions are available for all shifts.

• Day shift is Monday – Friday, 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• Night shift is Monday – Thursday, 6:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m.
• Weekend shift is Friday 6:00 p.m. – Monday 6:00 a.m.

“You don’t have to be restricted to living here year-round,” Park said.  

Outreach advocates can work from home and get in touch with victims via phone, mail or email to offer help.

Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. on March 1, 2024.

For more information, click here.

More reporting by Lauren Scafidi:

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