Be a volunteer advocate for victims of violence.

Community Safety Network's volunteer program is truly the backbone of this organization. Volunteer advocates allow CSN to offer advocacy, support and a listening ear 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Volunteer advocates include women, men, students, retirees and professionals. All volunteers must attend a free 40 hour training course that is offered several times throughout the year. This comprehensive training enables volunteers to be confident in their knowledge of advocacy and intervention skills on such topics as domestic violence, sexual assault, incest, stalking, community resources and child abuse. Prior experience working with domestic violence or sexual assault survivors is not required; all you need is compassion, commitment and a desire to make a difference.

Read one volunteer advocates personal hotline shift experience below:

I went on call for the hotline at 5 p.m. that night. Like every other shift I worked as a volunteer for the Community Safety Network, I kept a beeper at my waist as I did laundry, cooked dinner, read the paper and watched TV. I had just fallen asleep when the telephone rang. It was a hotline call. The police dispatcher asked me to go to St. John's Medical Center to meet a victim of domestic violence. I hung up, grabbed my purse, notebook and keys, kissed my husband and left. Once there, I met a woman - just a year younger than me - whose drunk boyfriend had become jealous when he saw her talking to another man in the bar. He drove her out of town, pushed her out of a moving vehicle, then stopped and went back to beat her up some more. The woman, who had just moved to Jackson with the boyfriend, had bruises on her face from the blows, bruises shaped like fingers on her neck from strangling, and a sprained wrist from falling out of the car. Since she began dating him, she said, a year earlier, he had scared her once before. At a party, when she asked him to "please slow down" his drinking, he pushed her through a glass patio door and told her not to be so controlling. Now, after the second attack, she understood that her normally sweet boyfriend had a problem. He was abusive, and she knew she could either leave him or go back for more. I listened. I passed her a box of Kleenex. I got her some ice water and a warm blanket. I gave her a hug. I told her she had been very brave. I explained that the employees and volunteers at the Community Safety Network would help her in any way we could. We could offer her a place to stay at the shelter. There, she could rest and discuss her future with other women, many of whom had been through similar struggles. She nodded. She called her mom, and cried some more. Then she lifted her chin, and we went to the shelter. As I drove home, I was emotionally drained. It's hard to listen to so much pain come out of one person. It's hard to watch someone cry so hard that they can't breathe right. It's hard not to cry yourself. Sometimes I do. But it's worth it. Volunteering makes me feel good, deep down inside, in a place that's not satisfied by work, skiing, or shopping for new shoes. As I pulled into my driveway that night, I thought about how nice it was to be in a healthy relationship. I thought about friends and family who had also been abused, years ago. Although I wasn't able to help them back then, when they were in crisis, I am able to help now. So I do.