Differing from tradition, the Airdrie and District Victims Assistance Society’s (ADVAS) Golden Heart Award was shared by the whole team of volunteers in 2020.
According to Kym Jarvis, ADVAS’ volunteer coordinator, the Golden Heart Award honours an ADVAS volunteer’s “outstanding selfless efforts to reach out to victims.” The recipient is nominated by their peers each year.
However, in a year that was impacted so significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jarvis said volunteers felt the 2020 iteration of the award should be shared by all 23 of the charity’s crisis support advocates, rather than highlight one individual.
“It’s good recognition and it was well-deserved by the entire team this year,” she said. “I was happy to see everyone share it.”
Jarvis said crisis support advocates play an “immeasurable” role for ADVAS – an Airdrie-based charity that works with other agencies and Airdrie RCMP to provide support services to victims of crime or tragedy, particularly assault or domestic violence.
ADVAS’ crisis support advocates help the charity assist victims of crime or tragedy. According to Jarvis, the volunteers report to the facility one evening a week. They are on call from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and occasionally go out on calls with RCMP officers.
The volunteers also conduct follow-up calls to offer victims of crime additional support or resources.
“Our volunteers are absolutely amazing,” Jarvis said. “They commit so much time, they’re dedicated, and they take additional training throughout the year. Once a month, we offer professional specified training and they are required to come to 80 per cent of training sessions, but they come to more.”
She said the crisis support advocates collectively logged 13,444 hours in 2020 – an average of 585 hours per volunteer. According to Jarvis, this dedication was despite the crisis support program being temporarily halted during the first weeks of the pandemic.
One of ADVAS’ volunteers who is pleased to share the Golden Heart Award with his peers is Erlich Nielsen, a team lead who has been with the charity for about three and a half years. He said he was motivated to become a crisis support advocate after researching local volunteer opportunities, shortly after he had moved to Airdrie.
“It’s really interesting work. It doesn’t get too repetitive and there’s always something interesting that we get to do to help people,” he said.
“It’s nice to go into the station a handful of times a month and talk to some people you maybe haven’t seen in a while, catch up and do some good for the community.”
Nielsen said it was fitting for all 23 volunteers to share the Golden Heart Award this year, given the turbulent circumstances brought on by COVID-19.
“A lot of people had to modify their commitments and how they normally do things with ADVAS,” he said. “It definitely took a lot of people being flexible throughout the entire second half of 2020 to keep delivering the services to the community and keeping volunteers engaged. It was a really good job by everybody.”
Anyone interested in becoming a crisis support advocate for ADVAS can sign up on airdrievictimassistance.com, Jarvis said. After signing up, there is an interview and security screening process.
Then, she said volunteers partake in a training program that lasts roughly six months.
While the training may seem daunting at first, Nielsen said the program does a great job of preparing recruits.
“It can seem intimidating to someone thinking of doing it who is curious, but the training we do is very involved," he said. "It’s not terribly complex, but it really prepares you for the role, and then there’s ongoing training we do on a monthly basis."
According to Jarvis, this was not the first time the Golden Heart Award has been shared by the charity’s whole team of volunteers; it was also shared in 2015 and 2012.
The award began in memory of Marlene Leblanc, who served as a volunteer and staff member for ADVAS
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
