BOSS Resources
Whether you are a BOSS Representative or a BOSS Team Member, these valuable resources are here to help make your Garrison BOSS Program Better!
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Victim Advocacy and Ethics
The Army Victim Advocacy Program provides comprehensive assistance and support to those who experience domestic violence and abuse. Support includes crisis intervention, risk assessment, safety planning, assistance with medical treatment, information on legal rights and proceedings and referrals to military and civilian shelters.
Victim assistance providers offer these services with integrity, treating all victims and survivors of crime with dignity and compassion. They uphold principles of justice for both the accused and accuser. VA providers:
1. Represent the interests of and empower their clients.
2. Respect and protect their clients’ civil and legal rights.
3. Respect their clients’ rights to privacy and confidentiality.
4. Respond compassionately to each client with personalized, inclusive, equitable, anti-racist, anti-oppressive and accessible services.
5. Accept a client’s statement of events as it is told, withholding opinion and judgment.
6. Provide services to every client without attributing blame.
7. Foster client-centered advocacy.
8. Advocate for their clients’ stated needs.
9. Act by referring one client to another qualified VA provider when there is a conflict of interest.
10. Protect client privacy and safety when communicating with clients and service providers.
11. Establish and maintain professional boundaries with clients to mitigate the risk of exploiting their knowledge and trust.
12. Follow the ethical imperative of not having sexual relations for at least five years after the professional relationship ends. To do otherwise may exploit knowledge and trust.
13. Recognize the signs and impact of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma and refer clients to other resources or services to avoid any conflict of interest.
14. Offer opportunities for other VA providers to access appropriate services if they are traumatized by a criminal event or a client.
SHARP Program Restructure
In fiscal year 2023, the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program began a restructure based on recommendations from the Secretary of Defense’s Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. The new structure removed Sexual Assault Response Coordinators and Victim Advocates from the operational chain of command and put them under the supervision of the installation Lead SARC. These changes are part of an ongoing effort to strengthen victim advocacy and professionalize the workforce.
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