Credentialing offers many benefits to those in the victim assistance field. They include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Enhanced recognition, credibility and mobility in the victim assistance field
- Promotion and acknowledgement of a standardized minimum of forty (40) hours of pre-service training and encouragement of thirty-two (32) hours of continuing education every two years;
- Initiation and definition by the field, rather than by outside professional groups;
- Professional identification with a group whose common ground is victim services and whose members abide by a Professional Code of Ethics for Victim Service Professionals
- Credentials are renewable every two years and may be upgraded.
- Credentialed advocates may request an indication of a “Specialty” on their credential (Comprehensive, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, Homicide, Campus Advocacy or Program Management) supported by documented specialty training.
- Credentialed advocates receive a certificate suitable for framing and a portable wallet card.
- Credentialed advocates may use the designation “CA” after their names.