Victoria Polin, MA , NCC, LCPC, ATR-BC - Executive Director
Vicki Polin is
the founder and executive director of The Awareness Center. Vicki is a Nationally
Certified Counselor (NCC), Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC)
in the state of Illinois and is a Board Certified Art Therapist. She
has an undergraduate degree in Women's Studies from Roosevelt University,
and a Masters Degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Vicki also
attended Neve Yerushalayim School of General Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, Israel
and The Etz Chaim Center For Jewish Learning, Baltimore, MD.
Vicki has been working in the trauma field (specializing in sexual violence) for just under twenty-five years. Her experience includes working with individuals, families and groups who have experienced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse/assault, domestic violence, survivors of violent crimes, survivors of political torture, holocaust survivors/children of holocaust survivors, chemical dependency and other addictions, and bereavement issues. She has worked with both adults and children using a broad approach, which includes verbal, art, play, and other creative therapies.
Vicki has been serving on the Family and Sexual Violence Coordinating Council of Howard County, Maryland since 2006.
In the past Vicki has qualified as an expert witness and provided testimony in juvenile court on cases related to childhood sexual abuse and neglect. She has presented educational and experiential seminars to community groups, universities, and at professional conferences on both a local and national level.
Vicki's past volunteer work has included being a Rape Victim Advocate in Chicago, Disaster Mental Health Worker for the American Red Cross, a Volunteer Speaker in conjunction with a rape crisis center, hosted several chats on AOL in the Jewish Community Online, Jews for Judaism and for Etz Chaim Center for Jewish Learning in Baltimore.
Vicki served as a board member of several different not-for-profit organizations, which included VOICES in Action, Inc and Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers: For Juvenile Sex Offenders and Sexually Reactive Youth). Vicki also served on the planning committee of Jewish Women International (JWI) 2nd International Conference on Domestic Abuse.
Vicki was the editor of "The 1997 - Chicagoland Area Sexual Abuse Resource Guide for Care Providers and Consumers"; and also contributed to the book -- Art Therapy Practice: Innovative Approaches with Diverse Populations, by Harriet Wadeson.
For fun Vicki is an artist and amateur photographer.
Also see:
In The News
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Also see:
Your Financial Support is Needed!
Make
a Donation
Email Groups for the Awareness Center This link will bring you to a list of different mailing lists offered by The Awareness Center. We offers several different email groups,which include our general mailing list, press-releases, Jewish survivors of childhood sexual abuse, Parents of children who were molested, Family members of sex offenders, etc.
FAIR USE NOTICE
Some of the information on The Awareness Center's web pages may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.
We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml . If you wish to use copyrighted material from this update for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Last Updated: 04/24/2008
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead
