County reps to attend domestic violence training

DALLAS – The first training cohort of the new Institute for Coordinated Community Response (ICCR) will begin at the 14th annual Conference on Crimes Against Women (CCAW). ICCR, a program of CCAW funded by the W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation and the Moody Foundation, provides a full year of free training, technical assistance, and networking opportunities to rural, under-resourced Texas counties who are motivated to improve their community’s Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to domestic violence.

In 2018, ICCR received funding from the W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation and the Moody Foundation to address this urgent need. Over the next three years, ICCR will train and support 18 rural, under-resourced Texas counties as they create their own unique CCR to respond to the epidemic of domestic violence. Each year beginning at CCAW, a training cohort of six county-based teams, consisting of a law enforcement officer, prosecutor, and advocate, will receive a year of in-person and online training to build interagency leadership skills, learn more about the nuances of domestic violence, and determine where the gaps and strengths in their communities lie so they can increase accountability for offenders and provide justice for victims.

The 2019 ICCR training cohort is made up of six county-based teams, consisting of a law enforcement officer, prosecutor, and advocate from Burleson, Henderson, Hill, Leon, Limestone and Grimes County. The Grimes County team includes Annie Chumley, Deputy, Grimes County Sheriff’s Office; Courtney Cain, Asst. District Attorney, Grimes County District Attorney’s Office; and Brenda Williams, Crime Victims Coordinator, Grimes County District Attorney’s Office

Domestic violence takes a staggering toll on Texas residents; according to a 2011 study by the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, more than one in three Texas women will experience abuse from an intimate partner in her lifetime. And, although CCRs have been recognized as a best practice in reducing domestic violence since the Violence Against Women Act was enacted more than 20 years ago, many communities struggle to implement and sustain this approach. Rural communities in particular experience unique barriers when addressing domestic violence, including, according to the Texas Council on Family Violence: geographic isolation, a widespread belief in traditional gender roles, a lack of available and affordable training for practitioners, and difficulty maintaining confidentiality in communities with virtually no anonymity.

Rural Texas counties are encouraged to apply for the 2020 training cohort, beginning in May 2020 at the 15th annual Conference on Crimes Against Women. The application can be found at www.ConferenceCAW.org/ICCR-application. For additional information about the Conference, visit www.conferencecaw.org.