International Victim Advocate Exchange Project

There will be two types of connections made through the Project: 

• Visitations: When an Advocate in one country seeks to be placed with a hosting Agency in another country, without reciprocity.
  
  
• Exchanges: When two Agencies in different countries agree to exchange victim advocates for a given period of time

To register with the Project as an Advocate/Agency, interested parties will be asked to:

1. Supply basic contact information
   
   
2. Supply a basic summary of their professional background (Advocate) or the nature of their programs/services (Agency)
   
   
3. Indicate whether they are seeking a visitation or exchange (organizations have the option of simply registering as hosting Agencies, desiring solely to host Visitations)
   
   
4. Indicate the nature of victim service program they would wish to be placed with (Advocates) or the background/specialties of Advocates they are willing to host (Agencies).  For example, court-based advocate, domestic violence specialist, etc.
   
   
5. Indicate what country/countries they are interested in being placed in.

How will Advocates/Agencies be Matched?

1. All Advocates/Agencies interested in participating in the Project will be asked to register, and will be assigned a tracking number.
    
2. Public information for each Advocate/Agency will be sent to the national Coordinating Agency for each country for which an interest was expressed. Copies of this public information will be posted in the Visit, Exchange and Hosting Index on this web site.  
    
3. Using their national contacts, the Coordinating Agency in each country will attempt to locate an appropriate hosting program/organization to match the requests.  Additionally, Advocates and Agencies can check the Visit, Exchange and Hosting Index to see if there are any listings which interest them.
    
4. Whenever a potential match is made, either through the efforts of a Coordinating Agency or by an individual requesting a match with an Advocate/Agency in our online Index, the information on will be passed back to the Project Administration for action.  The Project Administration will then contact the  Advocates/Agencies involved, informed them that a possible match exists, and to what extent the match may meet their requirements.
    
5. The Advocates/Agencies involved can then decide if they are interested in pursuing a Visitation/Exchange with the potential match.  Each Advocate/Agency involved in the match will be contacted individually and asked for express permission to release their private contact information for the match.  If permission is received, their contact information will be forwarded to the applicable persons.  If permission is refused, this indicates the match does not suit the Advocate/Agency in question, and ends the process.
    
6. Once a match is made and private contact information is passed on to the Advocates/Agencies in question, the formal involvement and responsibility of the International Victim Advocate Exchange Project ends.  At this point it becomes the responsibility of the two agencies in question to work out the details of the exchanges/visits, travel and legal/visa details, funding issues, etc. 
    
7. In order to help the Project improve it's services, and to aid future participants, the Project will maintain a Visitation/Exchange Feedback and Reporting system.  This will allow us to track the number of visitations/exchanges in planning, failed or completed.  We will also collect information on satisfaction, on issues discovered during visitations/exchanges, and other data which will allow us to improve our policies and procedures.

Due to the scope and nature of this Project, the Internet will be used extensively, if not exclusively, for communication between the Project, Advocates and Agencies.  In order to protect the privacy of participating Advocates and Agencies, all information sent to and received via this web site is automatically encrypted before transmission across the Internet.