Task Force of the Year Award Presented to Cobb County Domestic Violence Task Force at Statewide Conference

Staff Report

On September 30, 2014, the Georgia Commission on Family Violence (GCFV) awarded the Task Force of the Year Award to the Cobb County Domestic Violence Task Force. GCFV is statutorily charged with supporting Domestic Violence Task Forces in every Judicial Circuit in Georgia. The Task Force of the Year Award recognizes one Task Force that has taken extraordinary strides to better protect victims and hold abusers accountable.

“Cobb’s Domestic Violence Task Force is essential to eliminating this awful problem from our community. It allows people who see the effects of domestic violence from different angles – such as law enforcement, prosecution, counseling, medical and victim legal advocacy – to share those perspectives with each other so everyone can help tackle the problem on all fronts,” Cobb DA Vic Reynolds said. “I am extremely proud to have my office involved with the task force.”

Recent Cobb County Task Force accomplishments include:

• Establishing a Fatality Review Sub-Committee and conducting the first domestic violence fatality review in Cobb County;
• Receiving a mini-grant from GCFV and Verizon’s HopeLine Project to conduct training on lethality assessment and responding to strangulation assaults for 1-2 officers from each law enforcement agency in Cobb County. The training is scheduled for October 23, 2014 in conjunction with Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The training will also be filmed by Cobb TV23 and produced into a DVD which, together with other information and materials provided, will be used by participants to conduct trainings at their own law enforcement agencies.
• Increasing attendance and communication significantly by creating an active email listserv to notify members of upcoming Task Force meetings, events involving member organizations, and to generally share information. The Task Force also created a Facebook page in 2013 and regularly posts to the page.

“The Cobb County Domestic Violence Task Force is extremely important in bringing all those working with victims of domestic violence to the table to discuss our response as a community,” says Ms. Holly Tuchman, CEO & Executive Director of the YWCA of Northwest Georgia. “The Task Force’s fatality review process is especially important in helping us enhance safety and ensure to the best of our ability that our community is providing the services and protection victims need. The death of a victim to domestic violence is a horrific atrocity for the family, friends, and our community. The fatality review affords the opportunity to hopefully have something good come out of a horrible tragedy.”

The Task Force of the Year Award was presented during GCFV’s 20th Annual Conference on September 29 – October 1, 2014 on Jekyll Island, Georgia. This year’s conference theme is “Reflecting, Refocusing and Rejuvenating: 20 Years of Domestic Violence in Georgia.” Over 350 stakeholders — including judges, law enforcement, advocates, survivors, counselors, faith leaders, prosecutors, and community members — have registered to attend. Verizon Wireless is supporting GCFV’s 20th Annual Statewide Family Violence Conference with a $30,000 HopeLine grant.

The Georgia Commission on Family Violence is a state agency created by the Georgia General Assembly in 1992 to develop a comprehensive state plan for ending family violence in Georgia.