Volunteer Advocates

Advocate volunteer applicants go through a wellness, values and skills assessment. Our volunteer intake process ensures that this demanding role is a good fit for them. Once a volunteer has been admitted to the program, Advocates need to submit a clean Vulnerable Sector check prior to beginning training.

The 40-hour AFTT Advocate training program is designed for a geographically diverse applicant pool and is offered entirely online. Much of the training is designed to be self-study and self-paced, with some Zoom meeting opportunities for content discussion, skills practice and skills role modeling. 

Advocates are educated in the following;

• The AFTT Advocate Role and Fundamentals of Advocacy

• Emotional Literacy and Safe Communications

• Advocate Self-Care and Personal Boundaries

• Sexual Assault Prevention and Understanding Perps

• Psychological Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care

• Suicide Prevention

Module learning material is a combination of external certificate courses provided by institutions such as USA Department of Justice, Alberta Health Services,and internally developed materials. Modules require the learner to demonstrate proficiency in the module material by submitting certificates of completion and/or successful end-of-module test results. Training intake is both from the USA/Canada and Internationally, but currently is provided in English only. 

Volunteer Clinicians

There is a mental health crisis within the religious faith identified as ‘The Truth’ being experienced by members and former members of the faith. Victim-Survivors and their community have endured various forms of abuse and deep rooted intergenerational trauma. Historically, members have been discouraged from accessing mental health support and as a result, many have not had the benefit of professional care to help them recover. AFTT is seeking volunteer clinicians to consult with victim-survivors and their allies as they begin the process of healing from abuse and the resulting trauma that has been kept hidden for many generations.

Volunteer clinicians provide support to the Advocate training program and consult with AFTT on best clinical practices and referrals; however, clinicians do not engage in assessments, diagnosis or treatment.

Commonly reported mental health concerns for survivors, ex members and members who are experiencing this crisis include:

• PTSD/CPTSD

  • feelings of guilt and shame, cognitive dissonance, gaslighting trauma, betrayal trauma dissociation, fight/flight/freeze responses and relationship challenges

• ANXIETY

• DEPRESSION

• TROUBLE SLEEPING

  • Example: nightmares, flashbacks 

• SUBSTANCE ABUSE

• SUICIDALITY 

  • Including suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts

This is only the short list of what has been reported to clinicians by members and ex-members. Trauma informed care (which includes understanding the vocabulary and culture of the faith) will be an important aspect of caring for survivors of abuse within this faith. We have Volunteer clinicians and consultants who currently collaborate with AFTT on the unique needs of victim-survivors.

*All AFTT Clinicians are supervised by Dr. Natalie Bolin, DSW, LCSW, clinical supervisor in the State of California*