More money, more help

The Office of Victim Advocacy & Violence Prevention (OVAVP) has received an $812,000 grant to provide more services.

“We help anybody on our campus, students, staff and faculty, who is going … or knows somebody that is going through the issues of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking,” said Priscilla Palacios, program coordinator for the department. “We help support and provide and resources to them during their process
or during their time of need.”

OVAVP received the two-year College Campus Initiative grant from the Office of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division, according to a news release from the university.

The grant allows the office to now be open an extra hour, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
on weekdays.

OVAVP Director Cynthia Jones said the program will now have a full-time counselor and a permanent full-time coordinator.

“So, we’ll have a full-time counselor that students can get immediate access to, which will make a big difference to our office, and who will facilitate weekly support groups here and, hopefully, in the near future in Brownsville as well,”
Jones said.

The grant will also fund five graduate assistants.

“The grant is allowing me to hire five new graduate assistants. … A couple of them are working on a measurement, some part of it that I’m doing with UT Austin and UT Arlington, to collect data and develop a toolkit for advocacy on campus, ” Jones said.

Another student will help with academic advising.

“I have a grad student that we pay for, in academic advising, named Ricardo Lopez,” Jones said. “And, so, any student that comes through here that needs immediate help, because you can imagine if you were in a violent situation you might need to change your schedule right away. He provides pretty much instant access. He can always see somebody within
a day.”

Another of the program’s graduate assistants, Maria Peña, provides counseling services.

“When they get students who come in, who have experienced violence, she’ll be able to get them more immediate access to our counselors, who are working with campus counseling,” Jones said.

She hopes the university will give the program more room.

“We have not expanded, but hopefully, the university will give us some more room real soon,” Jones said.  “Otherwise, we’re going to have six people sharing one little office.”

She said OVAVP has helped around 200 students. OVAVP also has helped community members with referrals and questions.

“But the grant we have is just for students,” Jones said “We can only work and provide advocacy and counseling services for people who are part of the university.  … And although we can’t provide counseling and advocacy [to the general public], we can still tell them where they can find resources or talk to them. … I can talk to them, I just can’t work with
them directly.”

Jones said she regularly accompanies students to the University Police department and court, but is unable to do the same with
community members.

“I think the number of people we impacted last [academic] year was well over 1,000, but that includes trainings,” Jones said. “We train law enforcement, we train counselors and social workers. So, in addition to the hundreds of people we see on campus, we should be able to expand what we do for the community.”

Other resources that are now available include a purchased dorm room for students in a violent situation who may need housing and emergency childcare services for students who need assistance with their children.

OVAVP information is also included  mentioned in university syllabi.

“We just want students to know that we are here, and we can answer questions confidentially,”  Jones said.