Volunteer/Intern positions at Court Watch for Winter 2015

CourtWatch, a court monitoring program with the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC), is looking for students to volunteer/intern beginning in January 2015!

About KCSARC: Founded in 1976, KCSARC has grown to be the largest sexual assault victim’s service organization in Washington. Our purpose is to alleviate, as much as possible, the trauma of sexual assault for victims and their families. In addition to our CourtWatch program, we offer a comprehensive set of services to meet our clients’ needs including: legal advocacy, therapy, a 24-hour resource line, and parent education.

What is Court monitoring? Court monitoring is the process of gathering information about the courts through observation and research. CourtWatch monitors will observe King County Superior Court cases related to sexual assault and child abuse, and complete targeted questionnaires so that the information can be used to track individual cases and patterns of behavior. Based on monitors’ observations, KCSARC will follow up with justice system personnel to reinforce positive trends, and to recommend improvements that will make the justice system more effective in its handling of cases involving sexual assault and child abuse victims.

Location: Volunteers/interns will observe court proceedings at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent and/or the King County Courthouse in Seattle, and will be required to provide their own transportation to and from court. Applicants can indicate their location preference on their applications.

Time Commitment: One monitoring shift lasts approximately 3.5 hours. Volunteers are expected to make a minimum six-month commitment to volunteer for one shift per month. Volunteers may commit to monitor for less than six months (e.g. semester or quarter) if they will be receiving academic credit; however, those volunteers will be expected to volunteer for at least one shift per week.

Applicants who are selected are also expected to attend the CourtWatch orientation. The next orientation is scheduled as follows:

January 9, 2015 (Friday)

9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

King County Sexual Assault Resource Center

200 Mill Ave S. #10

Renton, WA 98057

Who should apply? This is a great opportunity for students interested in criminal law, sociology, political science, human rights, sexual violence issues, or for those who want increased exposure to the courts.

Application process:  Visit http://www.kcsarc.org/courtwatch to obtain more information and to download an application. You may also contact courtwatch@kcsarc.org to request an application.

Deadline to apply is November 14, 2014.