Contact: Muriel Baņares, Elsbeth Velasco or
Carmen Ramos Chandler,
(818) 677-2130
mbanares@exec.csun.edu

FOR RELEASE:

Training Sessions Offered to Rape Crisis Volunteers

The center will provide an extensive 60-hour training program to certify volunteers as rape crisis advocates. Those volunteers provide information and crisis counseling for sexual assault victims.

The Valley Trauma Center provides numerous services, including individual counseling and support groups for survivors, their families and significant others, as well as a 24-hour hotline. Currently, 80 volunteers handle the 24-hour hotline and provide on-site emotional support to sexual assault victims by meeting them at the hospital, police station and court in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valley areas.

The center is a nonprofit organization funded by a grant for the California State Office of Criminal Justice Planning and CSUN's Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling.

The Valley Trauma Center 24-hour hotline can be reached at (818) 886-0453 or (661) 253-0258.

For more information about the volunteer program, call (818) 772-0196.