Institute For Victim Studies Honored
Hoping to improve the quality of victim
service providers, members of The National Institute for Victim Studies
at SHSU developed a revolutionary web-based program to provide better
training for shelter volunteers.
After two years of hard work, development and testing, the program is
being honored with the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault Innovative
Program of the Year Award. The award will be presented at the TAASA conference
award
luncheon Feb. 25 in Austin.
According to James Marquart, the new training program was developed and
implemented following a grant issued by the Office of Juvenile Justice
and
Delinquency Prevention.
Marquart said it took the work of many people and organizations to put
together the cutting edge technology necessary to create the program.
"
In the last two decades, great strides have been taken to develop and
implement victim service programs and enhance the training of victim
service
providers in the United States," Marquart said. "This program was the joint idea
of our staff and became the critical mission of the Institute.
"
Three people made the program go: Paul Sovelious who is no longer employed here,
Janet Mullings and myself," he said. "The program was also developed with the
assistance of the Austin-based e-learning company AVATAR."
Marquart said the online training program is broken up into several sections
to allow potential volunteers to learn at their own pace.
"
The web-based program consists of eight modules that are geared towards volunteers
who work in shelters," he said. "The modules are about 60 minutes in length and
have a test after each one."
The program is designed to introduce volunteers to issues they may face as shelter
volunteers, including sexual assault and family violence. Providing basic information
online is more efficient and cost effective than conducting the entire training
in the classroom, Marquart said.
"
The ultimate goal is to reduce the training time and the costs associated with
the traditional classroom delivery system," Marquart said. "It helps volunteers
learn at their own pace and come to the class portion of the training better
prepared to deal with the clients. Plus the web-based information can be accessed
at any time to help them in the field."
After the technology of the Internet program was in place, it was taken for field-testing
at the Montgomery County Women's Center. At the center the training program was
tested on adult volunteers through the collaborative efforts of its practitioners,
researchers and clients.
Marquart said the program has been very well received thus far and, pending more
field-testing, could one day be launched nationally.
"
We are still evaluating the program and we wish to test it further in various
Texas sites and with different groups," he said. "The long-range plan is to go
national."
Following two years of development and testing, Marquart said those who worked
on The Web-Based Training Project are honored to have their work recognized with
the TAASA award for Innovative Program of the Year.
"
It feels wonderful to have our very hard work noticed by such an important
group," Marquart said. "Most importantly, the folks at the Montgomery County
Women's Center must be congratulated for their time, commitment and effort in
making this training program work.
"
They really saw the benefits two years ago," he said. "They took a huge risk
and it worked."
- END -
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Hostutler
Feb. 24, 2003
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