Shelby Kay Looper | 2018 National Crime Victims' Service Awards Tribute Video

SHELBY KAY LOOPER: Having a rural perspective, it helps me know how other people are feeling if they're from a small town. There are many domestic violence situations where a woman doesn't want to leave. There are many sexual assault situations where a woman or a man doesn't want to report. Being from a small town myself, I know how it works. 

There might be four or five police officers for the whole town, so there's a lot of crime that just kind of goes unnoticed and a lot of people that go unhelped, which can create a lack of hope. So the way I want to create hope is just to create awareness of our program and awareness of how to get help. 

I am in charge of four advocates and currently three interns and everything that they do. Before I was the Director of the Victim Advocate Program, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of collaboration between law enforcement and the Victim Advocate Program.

MAN: Hey.

SHELBY KAY LOOPER: I was going to ask you if you've contacted the victim. There was a need for victim advocates to always be on the scene to help victims because that was not happening. I worked with the Domestic Violence Officer to make sure that we were responding to domestics as much as possible as long as the scene was safe. 

Having a victim advocate on scene, it's been wonderful, because I was able to talk to he or she immediately. I want to be able to reach out a hand to help victims feel empowered so they know things will change because we're going to help you change them. 

You know, I always got the, "Wow, you're really young for, you know, doing this." And I appreciate that. But it just shows that people my age, we're here to change things. In order to be a leader, you have to be a servant. What motivates me today is to be the best boss I can be, to help other people become leaders that can really help change the world.