PDC Orenda Center and Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Youth Advocate

Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 -- 2:00 PM

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Personal Development Center is a private, non-profit victim services agency providing case management, advocacy, and prevention education to individuals and families in the North Wood County and Clark County area.

Having served the community since 1977, the agency has a history of identifying and addressing needs within an atmosphere of confidentiality and concern and provides a wide variety of services. I spoke with Jodi, the Youth Advocate, and she discussed her role at the PDC in more detail.

Listen to o the interview with Jodi here!

Make sure to tune in next Tuesday for the final interview for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

(AI assisted transcription by Otter.ai)

Jodi: "The youth advocate role, it's, at times, the most confusing for the community to understand. I'm always seeking out ways to get the word out and help clarify the role and the need for it. Domestic violence and abuse impacts the whole family and can have serious effects on children."

"In fact, the domestic abuse act of 2021 recognizes children as victims in their own right. To put things in perspective, by the time children start school, at least one child in every classroom will have been living with domestic violence in the home since birth."

"Young children who witness intimate partner violence may regress to previous behaviors such as thumb sucking, bed wetting, and increased whining. They can also develop separation anxiety, stuttering, and unhealthy sleep patterns, while older children may manifest their symptoms with anxiety, depression, risky behaviors and poor grades."

"And my role as the youth advocate is to support youth in situations of domestic violence. An advocate has the ability to sit with them in the courtroom and meet with them in the office or school settings so they don't miss a lot of school hours with transportation and such."

"I provide resources, referrals, and guidance to the youth and their families, and I facilitate support groups and educational groups for youth on a variety of topics or curriculum."

"The Safe Exchange in the supervised visitation programs currently fall under the youth advocate role and this provides youth a safe place to visit with a non custodial parent, while keeping the custodial parents safe, so services are designed to ensure safety while building those positive relationships."

"It's our goal to keep families safe, which makes our work in prevention a large part of being the youth advocate, we're able to work with schools and other youth organizations to provide presentations or information on healthy relationships, bullying, coping skills, internet safety and dating violence. And my role as the youth advocate is to support the youth on the journey to feel safe."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.