Hospital Accompaniment Response Team

As a Hospital Accompaniment Response Team advocate or HART advocate, your role is to stay with a sexual assault victim at the hospital and provide immediate care, emotional support and compassion before, during and after a medical forensic exam.

Hospital Accompaniment Response Team advocates are on call on a rotational basis and are present with a sexual assault victim at the hospital before, during, and after the medical forensic examination.

Essential Job Functions:

Dispatched to any area hospital within 60 minutes from receiving a call from the Crisis Hopeline
Provide timely, non-judgmental, compassionate and immediate care to survivors of sexual assault
Offer strengths-based, comprehensive, confidential, culturally-grounded, trauma-informed interventions for the survivor
Provide emotional support and resources to a survivor during and after the forensic exam
Connect survivors to follow-up services, if applicable
Call the Crisis Hopeline and provide necessary information before leaving the hospital
Maintain proper records
Maintain regular contact with the Crisis Service Manager and Volunteer Coordinator

Hospital Advocacy Certification:

Complete required training: 40-hour victim-advocacy training, certified by the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) and National Advocate Credentialing Program (NACP)
Complete 20 hours of on-the-job training (10 hours of observing, 10 hours of being observed) for certification
Valid for two years

Maintaining OAG Certification:

Must complete six hours of continuing education yearly by attending available webinars and workshops
Will attend and participate in Sexual Assault hospital accompaniment functions and periodic meetings as directed by the Crisis Services Manager

Scheduling minimum requirements:

Four 6-hour shifts a month, one of the four must be a weekend shift
On-call shifts are 12am-6am, 6am-12pm, 12pm-6pm, or 6 pm-12am.

We provide all services without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.

As a Hospital Accompaniment Response Team advocate or HART advocate, your role is to stay with a sexual assault victim at the hospital and provide immediate care, emotional support and compassion before, during and after a medical forensic exam.

Essential Job Functions:

Hospital Advocacy Certification:

Maintaining OAG Certification:

Scheduling minimum requirements:

Are you a family member or friend of someone who needs help?

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