Victim advocates open new office

Jonathan Moore sees advocacy for crime victims as part of a social movement.

Crime victims face bias and misunderstandings. They are overlooked. They often feel ashamed, powerless and overwhelmed.

Sometimes they don’t know where to turn.

Moore is part of a community-based organization that has been working to change that over its 40-year history. Victim Support Services serves Island County, as well as four other counties, but now has a physical presence on Whidbey Island for the first time, thanks to a grant from the Office of Crime Victim Advocacy.

The agency is moving into the former Skinner building in Oak Harbor at 740 S.E. Pioneer Way.

The move to the island is called the “Tompkins Project” in memory of Scott Tompkins, a former Victim Support Services board member and supporter of the agency. He was a detective with the major crimes unit in King County and died suddenly last year.

Moore, the community education and outreach specialist, said that many people who haven’t had crime touch their lives don’t understand how devastating it can be. Many communities are under-equipped to deal with the many challenges faced by crime victims, which can include the emotional, financial and physical. It can be a difficult and complicated subject to discuss.

“It is our hope that by opening an office in Island County,” Moore said, “we can serve as a community-based support mechanism that is able to address these tough and dynamic issues.”

Victim Support Services doesn’t deal with victims of sexual or domestic violence, which Moore said requires a different kind of advocacy.

“It’s almost a different profession altogether,” he said.

On Whidbey, Citizens Against Domestic and Sexual Violence has long helped victims of those crimes.

Victim Support Services helps victims of other crimes, from theft to murder. In fact, it began in Snohomish County as an advocacy group for families of homicide victims, then expanded its scope over the years.

“A disproportionate number of calls we receive are about identity theft,” he said, pointing out that clearing up problems caused by that crime can be a long, arduous process. But the advocates can help.

An important aspect of the group’s job is to work with other agencies; police officers, for example, can hand out contact information to victims.

Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks said he’s welcomed the group’s help because the advocates can do a lot of things that his office cannot. He said some people consider his victim witness coordinator an advocate, but she’s really not.

“Her job has some overlap,” he said, “but she can’t really advocate the way they can.”

The victim witness coordinator can’t help a victim with a protection order, for example, because it would be considered a conflict of interest. With limited resources, the prosecutor’s office focuses on helping victims of sex crimes and violent crimes; Banks said he’s thankful that Victim Support Services can come to the aid of victims of property crimes.

Unlike the government office, the nonprofit group can help victims of crimes that are not reported, victims of crimes from the past and people who are not the “primary” victim of a crime.

The job of an advocate is complicated and not well understood by the public, Moore explained. It can take some detective work in determining what help people need and then in finding that help. It might mean a referral to another agency, help with filling out paperwork, transportation to an appointment, calm advice and many other things.

“We’re there to listen and provide any support we can,” Moore said. “Our institutional knowledge is pretty vast in the area of crime victim advocacy.”

Moore said they understand how crime can have a “snowball effect” on a person’s life. A victim of an assault, for example, might not be able to go to work or pay medical bills. That might lead to loss of a job or a home, as well as emotional problems.

Advocates can point that person to the state’s Crime Victims Compensation Program, which has a “very robust” fund for helping victims, Moore said. They might write a letter to the person’s employer and landlord to explain the problem and the law. They might refer the victim to a counselor.

For Moore, crime victim advocacy is about civil rights. A lot has been accomplished over the years; in the state, victims are no longer excluded from the legal process. They have certain rights, including the right to be advised when a perpetrator has a court hearing and to tell a judge how a crime affected them.

A Snohomish County native, Moore worked in Egypt as a legal representative for unaccompanied and asylum-seeking children in Egypt and as an unarmed civilian peacekeeper in South Sudan.

He returned home, he said, to apply the lessons he learned to continue fighting for human rights.