NCMEC and NOVA: Supporting Survivors and Families through Partnership

Many people seek NCMEC’s help, trying to figure out their path forward after a trauma has affected their lives. We are here to support you, but we cannot do this work alone. We rely on our program partners to be part of the solution for survivors and families. NCMEC is committed to delivering high quality trauma-informed victim services and we are honored to work with the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), an organization that provides exceptional services to victims of crime. 

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At the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA), it is our goal to ensure that no trauma survivor is further harmed by a professional in the field. We believe that it is an honor to support someone in their time of need and every survivor deserves to work with a provider who is properly trauma-informed, professionally trained and has a strong ethical foundation.

As victim service providers, we often meet people at the worst moment in their lives. It is something we can’t sugar coat or skirt around. People turn to victim and survivor support services when the unthinkable has happened.

Unlike most other professions, our careers center around working with people who have just experienced terrible trauma, once or multiple times. As a result, the role that victim assistance professionals hold is immensely important. From the first meeting onward, there are multiple intervention points that can either lead a survivor toward healing or further traumatization as they begin to navigate the many hurdles throughout our society and judicial systems.

Ensuring ethical practice is imperative to pushing the field forward and creating a standard of dignity and respect for all those impacted by crime and crisis. This was one of the many reasons we developed the NOVA Office on Victim Advocacy Ethics. It is a comprehensive resource for victim assistance professionals, offering the necessary guidance and support needed to perform their critical roles.

In addition, we are proud to have developed the NOVA and National Advocacy Credentialing Program Code of Ethics for Victim Assistance Professionals. This is a document that every credentialed advocate must adhere to and outlines the trauma-informed expectations for victim assistance professionals in the field. Advocates and allied professionals across the country have embraced these values and embodied our collective vision for a trauma-informed field of victim services.

We are immensely proud of our passionate community of advocates, survivors and allied professionals who work every day to support those impacted by trauma and adhere to the highest professional standards, often with limited resources. No one wants to be in the position of seeking their services, but should the worst happen, they are there when you need them.