Clarification from the agency

See "Who May Apply" in the "Qualifications" section for more information on who is eligible to apply for this position.

• Serves as a Victim Advocate providing professional and comprehensive advocacy services to victims/survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment.
• Provide immediate and long-term advocacy services, crisis intervention support, including maintaining 24/7 hotline access for adult victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
• Guide victims through reporting options, ensuring confidentiality, informed consent, and access to appropriate legal and medical resources.
• Maintain accurate case files and official reports in compliance with legal, privacy, and organizational standards.
• Prepare and submit recommendations to commanders addressing victim care, safety concerns, and retaliation issues.
• Coordinate medical, legal, law enforcement, and community resources to address victim safety and supportive service needs.
• Conduct safety assessments and develop tailored case management plans with short- and long-term goals and document within the case management systems.
• Plan and deliver training sessions for commanders, civilians, first responders, and community stakeholders on sexual harassment and sexual assault response.
• Conduct outreach and awareness activities, including community assessments and prevention campaigns, to promote program effectiveness.

Conditions of employment

• Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• This position requires the incumbent be able to obtain and maintain a determination of eligibility for a Secret security clearance or access for the duration of employment.
• This position requires regular contact with children under the age 18 and a favorable determination of suitability undergoing specific initial background checks, investigation and periodic re-verification check of multiple agency records.
• The duties of this position require the incumbent to possess or obtain and maintain a valid state Driver's License in one of the 50 U.S. states or possessions to operate vehicles.
• This position has a Temporary Duty (TDY) or business travel requirement of 25% of the time.
• The duties of this position may require the incumbent to carry a cell phone and be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a rotational basis, based on the needs of the organization.
• In accordance with DoDI 6493.03, this position requires the incumbent to obtain and maintain the DoD Sexual Assault Advocate Certification Program (D-SAACP) within six months of employment.
• Incumbents of SHARP positions must complete all required training, obtain certification, and be placed on appointment orders prior to having any victim contact or access to victim information.
• The duties of this position require background checks to be conducted against all records required by law, OPM, DoD, and Army policy and regulation.
• SHARP professionals assigned to installations with correctional facilities are required to provide victim assistance to incarcerated victims of sexual harassment and assault, which requires access to correctional facilities.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities.

• Current Civilian Employees of the Organization

In order to qualify, you must meet the education and experience requirements described below. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Basic Requirement for Victim Advocate:
A. Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in behavioral or social science, or related disciplines appropriate to the position, such as Social Services, Counseling Services, or Psychology.

-OR-

B. Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience that provided the applicant with knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field.

-OR-

C. Experience: Four years of appropriate experience that demonstrated that the applicant has acquired knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field.

NOTE: Transcripts are required at the time of application.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below:

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes providing professional advocacy services to victims or survivors of sexual assault and/or sexual harassment; conducting assessments with clients to evaluate needs and risks; conducting training/seminars on sexual assault/sexual harassment; and coordinating appropriate services with internal or external offices to ensure holistic victim support. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-09).

-OR-

Education: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position, such as: Social Services, Counseling Services, or Psychology.

-OR-

Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide the total number of completed graduate semester hours (or equivalent) beyond the second year (total graduate semester hours minus 36) by 18. Add the two percentages.

NOTE: Transcripts are required at the time of application.

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-09).

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may lose consideration for this position.

The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc). Please review the following links to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply: Applicant Checklist for Internal/Merit Promotion Announcements.

As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

1. Your resume:

• Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration.
• For each relevant work experience, make sure you include the employer's name, job title, start and end dates (include month and year), for qualifications purposes, the number of hours worked per week, and a brief description that show you can perform the tasks at the required level listed in the job announcement. If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete, and you may not receive consideration for this position.
• Use plain language. Avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume.
• If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations, and you may not be considered for this vacancy.
• For additional information, to include formatting tips, see: What to include in your resume.

2. Other supporting documents:

• Cover Letter, optional
• Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable
• Proof of Eligibility to Apply: Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration.
• Time-in-grade documentation: If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old).
• This position has an individual occupational requirement and/or allows for substitution of education for experience. If you meet this requirement based on education you MUST submit a copy of your transcript with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses
• This position requires a job-related license or certification. You MUST submit a copy of your license or certification with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses

NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

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