CALCASA and the Legal Aid Society~Employment Law Center of San Francisco, CA (ELC) have the pleasure to report that we conducted our 1st of 3, two-day, Legal Advocacy Regional Training Institutes in Burbank, CA, and it was a great success! We had about 30 attendees from various Rape Crisis Centers, victim advocates from local District Attorney’s offices as well as staff attorneys from other community agencies.
Anya Lakner, a project attorney at the ELC, shared information with participants ranging from a survivor’s right to access time off to seek legal assistance and attend court proceedings to how disability and unemployment rights can keep them protected at work. Anya stressed the importance of educating survivors about their right for time off from work:
“There are specific state and federal laws that, depending on the size of your employer and how long you have been there, can provide survivors time off to seek services, take care of themselves or a loved one, and to attend court proceedings related to the assault. What is important about those two laws is that an employer is not required to let employees know about them so there may be no information in your employee handbook about these protections, so it’s always good to proactively research and figure out what your clients rights are in case their employer does not inform them, either because they don’t know that these laws exists or for some other reason they are not informing you.”
Don’t be left out! You still have two opportunities to be part of this training:
- Tuesday—Wednesday, September 1 – 2, 2009 in Chico, CA
- Monday-Tuesday, September 14 – 15, 2009 in Visalia, CA
**This training is free and open to staff from rape crisis centers and other victim service providers in California. There are also $400 travel stipends (on a reimbursement basis) available for participants on a first-come, first-serve basis. ** Space is limited, so please register early! For more info, please contact Cindy Marroquin at cindy@calcasa.org.
To register for an upcoming training institute, please click here.
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