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We keep an updated list of our CRT Training Sessions online.
Download our Training Brochure (pdf)

Purpose
Thousands of professionals whose work exposes them to emotional trauma have graduated from the Basic and Advanced crisis response team training institutes presented by experienced practitioners from the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). The 40 hour Basic and 24 hour Advanced sessions equip graduates, in concert with similarly trained colleagues, to help groups of affected people to cope with their immediate emotional reactions when a crisis strikes their community, and to plan for longer-term emotional support. The trainings also assist people to begin the process of developing their own community-based crisis response programs, based on NOVA's nationally recognized National Crisis Response Team (NCRT), which has answered requests to help numerous communities since its inception in 1986.

Demand Growing
The demand for NOVA training has begun to outweigh our ability to ensure that everyone who requests such training can promptly receive it. The training has strong educational components to help participants gain a thorough understanding of this complex subject matter. It particularly stresses, through multi-media and intense group exercises, the practicalities of mobilizing a team, delineating team responsibilities, and learning such skills as Individual and Group Crisis Intervention.

How to Get the Basic Training
There are several ways to obtain basic training.

1. We maintain a mailing list of individuals who want training. Contact us (via email) to get on the mailing list or to ensure that your name is still there. We constantly add names, addresses, and phone numbers of interested prospective trainees to our ever-growing database. As we develop contracts with Local Hosts to hold a training in their city, we ask that they make seats available for "outsiders" from the surrounding region, keeping in mind that their participants are their first priority. The host may charge a fee for the training, commensurate with the amount being charged to all other participants. When such availability is made known to NOVA, we will inform people in the database from the area surrounding that training site of the availability, and interested persons may contact the Local Host and negotiate all arrangements for attendance.

2. You (or your agency) might consider hosting NOVA training in your city. In that event, you would need to enter into a contractual arrangement with NOVA. This is the most cost-effective way to train the largest number of people at one time. Some agencies may agree to fund the training in whole, while other agencies may require participants to pay a fee to attend so that, in effect, the training pays for itself, in whole or in part. To get a ballpark idea of the costs involved, count on airfare for two roundtrip from Washington, D.C. to the destination city, lodging and meals for two trainers for six days, and any costs for ground transportation, parking, etc. In addition, there is an honorarium (or training fee) to NOVA and a cost for the training manuals. Depending on the training facility chosen by the Local Host, there may be costs for the training room, audio-visual equipment, microphones, etc., and many Local Hosts make the event more comfortable for trainees by providing refreshments during the week.

   If you are interested in hosting NOVA crisis response training in your area, please be aware that our training calendar fills up rapidly. Give yourself sufficient pre-planning time.

3. You might want to attend a regional training hosted by NOVA itself. Because of the demand for our trainings, we schedule regional trainings that we host ourselves in cities throughout the country. There is a tuition fee for attending a regional training; however, even with the cost, it is without a doubt a bargain for such a professional training experience. We will keep you informed of any regional trainings that we schedule. If you are on the mailing list, you will automatically be informed when regional trainings are scheduled. A list of training sessions is available online along with the appropriate registration forms.

Advanced Training
The 24 hour Advanced training is open only to graduates of the 40-hour Basic training. As NOVA schedules Advanced trainings around the country, we will inform people who have completed the Basic training about any seats that may be available in those trainings. A person or agency may also host an Advanced training in their community, with the understanding that only Basic graduates may be invited to attend.

Talk to Us About Training!
If you are interested in hosting a Basic or Advanced session in your area in the future, contact Barbara Kendall, Senior Training Coordinator, who coordinates all of our various training programs. She may be reached by email by clicking here.

If you would simply like a package of information with details so that you can consider such an event, contact us (via email) asking for a Basic or Advanced training information package, along with your preferred mailing address.

If You Need a Crisis Response Team or Want to Know Who's Trained in Your Area
We hope that no tragedy befalls your community, but if it does, please know that NOVA's National Crisis Response Team can respond with a simple invitation. In an emercgency, you may contact any NOVA staff member, all of whom are trained crisis responders. In non-emergency situations, please email NOVA.

Likewise, if you'd like to communicate with others in your state who are NOVA-trained crisis responders, we can provide you with names of people who are listed in our active crisis response team database. We provide only general contact information. No confidential information about our crisis team members is provided. Email such requests to NOVA.

Authorized NOVA Trainers
Be certain that if you attend a NOVA training, that training is provided by an authorized NOVA trainer. NOVA places considerable emphasis on a standardized delivery of its training program(s) and allows only authorized persons to deliver its training. Hosts of NOVA trainings (and NOVA trainees) are encouraged to contact the NOVA office to determine if a trainer of any program using NOVA’s names or materials is indeed an authorized NOVA trainer. NOVA trainees can be assured, when obtaining training approved by NOVA, that they are receiving the “authorized” training provided by a trainer known to and approved by NOVA.

NOVA training materials are protected by copyright. NOVA trainers are required to use only approved materials in the delivery of NOVA training. Any non-NOVA videos used in the NOVA training are used with the express permission of the producers of those materials.

NOVA trainers are not authorized to provide NOVA training materials to others. Requests for the use of NOVA materials can be forwarded to the NOVA office for review and approval.

NOVA does encourage trainees to allow others to read and view the materials they receive in NOVA trainings. This “secondary readership” and discussion of the materials is beneficial to all involved. However, merely reading the information does not provide enough substantial information and experience to allow the reader to consider him/herself to be a NOVA-trained crisis responder. Only those who have completed an authorized NOVA training and whose contact information is in NOVA’s central database can be considered NOVA-trained crisis responders.

NOVA has invested more than 30 years of research and development in its theory-based gatekeeper training program and receives no government funding to develop its materials and training program. Thus, revenues from copyrighted materials help support our educational mission. We are a self-sustaining nonprofit organization and operate through training fees and donations.

NOVA has worked diligently to achieve fidelity in its educational content and delivery of that content to the public, and it is our intent to do all possible to ensure the effectiveness of the materials and the delivery of the training. Therefore, NOVA insists on a high degree of standardization in the delivery of gatekeeper training to assure that any conclusions drawn will be valid in proving the program to be effective for the public.

NOVA welcomes and encourages input and suggestions from those familiar with its materials and training delivery so that continuing improvements can be made. The NOVA National Crisis Response Team Training and Education Committee chair, Barbara Kendall, may be reached by email by clicking here.

To Support the National Crisis Response Team
NOVA is committed to responding whenever we are invited. All of our interveners are volunteers and all of our services to traumatized communities are free of cost to the community, but getting to the scenes and feeding and housing our volunteers costs money. Your tax-deductible contribution to help this worthwhile cause is greatly appreciated.

If you support the Combined Federal Campaign, our CFC number is 12155. (Please confirm by checking the front page of our web site; all CFC numbers are scheduled to be changed in the near future.)

Don't Forget: CRT Educational Opportunities at the Annual Conference
Each year, at NOVA's annual conference, we present a track of workshops on crisis response-related topics, and host a reception in honor of our Basic and Advanced graduates and our active National Crisis Response Team Volunteers. Information about the next conference may be found online.