ADV PROGRAMS / SERVICES

(951) 683-0829 in Riverside
(800) 339-SAFE countywide

ADV’s 24-hour Crisis Line is the agency’s gateway for victims of domestic violence and others who seek information and help. It’s a safe and confidential way to ask questions and obtain services.

The Crisis Line provides immediate intervention and assistance to domestic violence victims who need shelter or counseling and other services. Crisis Line staff and volunteers are trained to assess immediate safety issues, provide information about domestic violence, address a caller’s concerns and specific needs and give options and referrals to help the caller identify a plan for what to do next.

ADV answers up to 7,000 Crisis Line calls per year. Crisis Line cards are available through a host of agencies that reach domestic violence victims, including law enforcement, the court system, hospitals, churches, government agencies, community-based organizations and many others. Police officers and sheriff’s deputies responding to domestic violence calls throughout Riverside County routinely give the cards to victims they encounter.

ADV operates outreach offices in Riverside and Hemet.

The outreach program is a vital component in a comprehensive service system for victims of domestic violence, especially for those who still live with their abusers and for those who have left the relationship but who can benefit from counseling, support, and advocacy services. Post-shelter follow-up services can enhance the probability of a victim’s successful transition to a violence-free lifestyle.

By assisting victims earlier in the cycle of violence, outreach services can reduce the need for more shelter services and stimulate long-term benefits for victims and their children. With an early intervention/prevention focus, outreach services delivered in local communities offer a cost-effective and less disruptive alternative to serving the high percentage of domestic violence victims who are not currently in imminent physical danger, and who seek support in reducing or eliminating the abuse in their lives.

Through the outreach program, domestic violence advocates provide comprehensive services to victims in offices near them. Services are provided free of charge to domestic violence victims.

The primary goals of ADV’s Outreach program are to:

• Ensure a victim’s safety
• Help victims understand the dynamics of domestic violence (concepts such as the “cycle of violence” and “power and control”)
• Assist victims in identifying and dealing with their feelings by exploring available options to help them improve their situation
• Provide practical information regarding resources
• Support and promote a victim’s ability to make her own choices

Services include:

• Safety assessment and planning, including helping the victim develop her own safety plan
• Comprehensive case management
• Individual and group paraprofessional counseling
• Individual, family and group counseling
• Referrals to medical and social services
• Referrals and advocacy in obtaining housing resources, including relocation assistance and emergency shelter
• Assistance in completing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
• Court accompaniment
• Life skills training (financial planning, anger management, coping with stress and other topics)

Clients who receive outreach services always have access to the Casa de Paz emergency shelter and residential living facility if it is determined they meet the eligibility criteria for emergency and/or transitional shelter.

Court advocacy services offered by ADV focus on providing information and support regarding the judicial system, prosecution, exclusion, child custody, and divorce.

Mediation accompaniment and court accompaniment and assistance with Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) are also available for domestic violence victims who access outreach services. Victims are helped to prepare for giving testimony if needed.

The Domestic Violence Restraining Order is a primary tool used to protect victims and empower them in obtaining their legal rights. The DV Advocate and Outreach Director are trained in basic procedures for obtaining TROs and continually receive updated information regarding filing, court hearing and enforcement procedures.

Clients are also referred to the Family Justice Center for assistance by an ADV Legal Advocate.

ADV provides individual and support group counseling and advocacy to children ages 5 and older who are impacted by domestic violence. The ADV Children’s Program offers goal-oriented paraprofessional counseling to help children identify and process their feelings, build self-esteem and develop healthy relationships with peers and adults. For a child to receive services, the (victim) parent must also participate in ADV services.

Child Protective Services

ADV receives funding through the Riverside County Child Protective Services (CPS) to provide individual psychological counseling for children of domestic violence victims who are referred to ADV by Child Protective Services because they are being exposed to domestic violence in the home.

Casa de Paz Children’s Services

ADV has a professionally staffed, state-licensed childhood development center at its Casa de Paz shelter. The program includes respite child care. There is specialized case management, individual and group counseling, advocacy, structured and free play and parenting education. The center includes a play area with two-way window, a small room for games.

More information coming soon.

In 1997, ADV received a grant from the California Office of Child Abuse Prevention (OCAP) to create the Coalition for Family Preservation Violence Prevention Program in Corona.

The Coalition of agencies developed preventative approaches to domestic violence, including a teen violence prevention program in middle and high schools in the Corona-Norco Unified School District, a family violence awareness media campaign, a mentor program and a formal partnership with the Corona Police Department to develop a domestic violence unit.

When funding for the program ran out, ADV received a grant from the state Department of Health Services Maternal and Child Health Branch (MCH) to continue the teen violence program.

The program has broadened its services to become a model in Riverside County. It has educated thousands of students each year on dating violence, bullying, sexual assault and related issues. It offers a peer-counseling program for students to learn ways to deal with violence in their schools. The program also offers anger management group and individual counseling for students.

ADV co-sponsors an annual “Teen Talk” youth summit with its community partners.

The mission is to reduce the incidence of domestic violence through prevention and intervention programs that provide community and school education, counseling and outreach to victims and resources to help batterers change their behavior.

Speakers and other resources are available to give presentations and in-service training to community groups, churches, youth groups, educators, law enforcement officers, judges, attorneys and other service professionals on issues of domestic violence including:

• The dynamics of domestic violence
• The causes of male violence
• Teen violence prevention
• What you or your organization can do to help

Community Outreach

In the Corona-Norco area, services include crisis counseling, advocacy, victim support groups, referrals to shelters and other services and assistance with temporary restraining orders.

Anger Management Intervention

A Family Anger Management Program (FAME) is available for batterers who are either court-ordered offenders or who refer themselves to the program. Counseling and parenting programs also are offered.

ADV formed a unique partnership with Riverside County Child Protective Services in 2003 to begin providing anger management treatment for perpetrators of domestic violence who are referred by CPS because they are at risk of losing custody of their children.

The program has expanded to include perpetrators of domestic violence who are ordered by the courts to receive treatment. The program also welcomes individuals who are not under court order as well. The 16 week evidence-based program is currently provided in Hemet and in Riverside. Sessions are also available by Skype for those who qualify. Classes are scheduled every Monday from 5 pm to 7 pm.

For more information contact our Riverside office at (951) 320-1376 or click on Contact Us and complete the on-line registration form and select Anger Management as your subject matter when completing the form online. You may also email the program at: info@alternativestodv.org.

Payments for services can also be made from this website for your convenience.

Led by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, ADV has joined other public agencies that assist victims to create three Family Justice Centers (FJCs) in the county.

ADV has advocates who are available to assist victims at the Riverside and Southwest Family Justice Centers on an as needed basis.

ADV offers regularly scheduled individual paraprofessional counseling and educational support groups which focus on a variety of topics relevant to the needs of domestic violence victims including: financial planning, self-esteem, dynamics of domestic violence, effects of DV on children, AIDS, power/control, assertiveness, positive parenting, partner rape, developing healthy relationships, and parenting skills.

ADV also offers clinically-based counseling for individuals, couples and children. Psychotherapists treat a full range of mental and emotional disorders. There is a fee for services based on a client’s ability pay.

Clients who received counseling in the past at our Corona office can still receive services by contacting the office at 951-320-1370 for more details.

ADV has opened the Riverside Counseling Center (RCC) for individuals seeking Anger Management and Co-parenting Classes. Contact the Riverside Counseling Center to schedule your appointment today!

REST was created in 2004 to provide crisis intervention and follow-up services to families with children impacted by domestic violence.

In 2001, ADV formed a partnership with the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) to provide domestic violence intervention services to CalWORKs participants.

Five ADV advocates work in 11 DPSS offices in western Riverside County to assist county welfare employees with clients who are unable to work because of domestic violence.

Speakers, workshops, videos, displays, brochures, posters, victim cards and other educational materials are available on request to community organizations.

Also available is in-service training. ADV has professionally designed and rated domestic violence awareness training programs that serve a variety of professional groups and needs. Among groups who routinely attend ADV trainings and workshops are:

• Domestic violence paraprofessionals and volunteers
• Attorneys
• Judges
• Law enforcement officers
• Firefighters
• Educators
• Ministers
• Social services professionals

Domestic violence doesn’t only affect the home. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace every year.

More secretaries were slain on the job in 1993 than police officers and bartenders combined. American employees miss 175,000 days per year of paid work because of domestic violence. An overwhelming majority – 94 percent – of security directors rank domestic violence as a high workplace security risk.

In two surveys of battered women, 60 percent of respondents indicated they had been late to work because of abuse and 50 percent said they had been absent from work because of abuse while 74 percent reported that they had been harassed at work by their abuser on the phone or in person.

U.S. businesses lose an estimated $100 million in lost wages, sick leave and absenteeism every year because of domestic violence.

Jury awards to victims, co-workers and their estates have ranged from $25,000 to several million dollars paid by employers who have not properly and adequately addressed domestic violence in the workplace.

ADV can help your business through consultation on issues relating to domestic violence in the workplace such as:

• Policy development
• Threat assessment
• How to handle aggressive employees or visitors
• How to properly address security issues
• How to defuse explosive behavior
• Counseling and referral services for employees and dependents
• Training for managers, human resources and line personnel
• Community/corporate activities in support of violence prevention