Bruce Cummings has seen up-close the need for the sort of work conducted Advocates Crisis Support Services, a non-profit domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy agency that serves Moffat County. Cummings has worked for the organization since 2008, but the flame that leads him to help others was kindled outside the boundaries of any organization.

“I rented apartments, so I saw people in actual struggles they went through because I was overseeing properties,” he said.

One of Cummings’s duties for Advocates Crisis Support Services is his work as the Special Outreach Coordinator. Cummings is in charge of volunteer advocates for people struggling with domestic violence, and he’s just finishing up training sessions with five new volunteers, bringing the total number of advocates for people working with domestic violence up to six.

Advocates Crisis Support Services has about a dozen volunteers in all. Cummings said the other volunteers help people with crises such as accidental deaths that range outside of domestic violence.

“We teach them basically to be crisis counselors,” Cummings said of the volunteers working with people who have experienced domestic violence.

And Cummings said volunteer advocates are needed — to help people struggling with domestic violence and also for other services offered by Advocates Crisis Support Services.

“We used to have less turnover than we have now,” he said. “I think it’s just the busy lifestyle of everybody. It’s the way it is nationwide.”

Cummings described the seriousness of the cases volunteer advocates may encounter.

“We see a lot of child sexual assault perpetrated by family members or close relatives in a position of trust,” he said. “As far as domestic violence, we’re kind of in an isolated area, and that’s what domestic violence offenders like: to isolate the person so they have control over them and can regulate who they see and who they talk to and how much money they have. It gets to be quite a complex situation really fast.”

Cummings said volunteers help to field calls from the 24-hour hotline, often working on-call during nights and weekends.

People experiencing domestic violence often attempt to leave a dangerous situation several times, only to return, Cummings said. An advocate who understands just how hard it is for someone to leave, he explained, is particularly valuable to someone victimized by domestic violence.

“We offer that support so they have somebody that they can go to when things go wrong without judgment,” he said.

Cummings recalled the way his own desire to help people struggling with touch domestic issues blossomed.

“It’s a feeling you get, like when you pull somebody out of a snow bank,” he said. “You feel good about it.”

Advocates Crisis Support Services, Cummings explained, reaches out to a number of communities he said tend to be underserved. He mentioned the elderly, the LGBTQ community, crime victims and others. The organization also runs a shelter.

Denise Bagley, the organization’s client database and information technology manager, said a website for the Advocates Crisis Support Services should be up within this next month. It will be located at craigadvocates.org.

Bagley said the website will offer access to the various sorts of help offered by Advocates Crisis Support Services.

“We have, for example, a Latina outreach coordinator who is bilingual, which is very helpful if we have non-English-speaking clients,” she said.

Bagley stressed the importance of Cummings’s work with underserved populations — including men who have experienced domestic violence.

“It’s great to have a male advocate, because a lot of men may be embarrassed to come and talk to someone,” she said.

Bagley said people seeking help from the organization can call 970-824-9709 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and they can also call the organization’s hotline, 24 hours per day, at 970-824-2400.

Cummings said people interested in volunteering with Advocates Crisis Support Services can call 970-756-3776.