Train to Sit With Her in Court

Advocacy centers train volunteers to sit with survivors through protective-order hearings, so nobody faces the person who hurt them across a room of empty chairs.

CategoryThe Exploited

TimeA training weekend, then hearings

Cost$0

ModeAlone

A protective-order hearing means standing up in a public room and describing the worst thing that’s happened to you, twelve feet from the person who did it. Most people do it with nobody behind them.

You don’t say anything. You just fill a chair on her side of the room, and it changes what that room feels like.

What you'll need

Your local family-violence center or advocacy center
Their training, which is usually one weekend and is not optional
A flexible weekday morning, because court runs on court's schedule

Pitfalls

Do the training. Untrained help in a courtroom can genuinely hurt her case.
You sit and you stay quiet. You're not her lawyer and you don't speak for her.
Court gets postponed constantly. Going back a fourth time is the actual job.

Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. — Proverbs 31:8