Implementing a Community-Wide Violence Prevention Plan

For most of 2017, Buncombe County's Prevention Task Force, led by Our Voice's Rape Prevention Educator Katie May and MAHEC's Health Improvement Specialist Deanna LaMotte, developed a community-wide plan to prevent intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and child maltreatment. As of December 2017, there is a complete, working draft of this plan with over 30 community agencies (and counting) endorsing it! This is a huge accomplishment for our community and a model for the rest of the state. (If you would like to add your logo to the plan document as an endorser of this community-wide effort, please contact leed@ourvoicenc.org)

Now that there is a full working draft, the work of implementation will begin in earnest in January 2018. Helpmate, Mountain Child Advocacy Center and Our VOICE are jointly in the process of seeking and applying for funding, but the Prevention Task Force, led by Lee Doyle of Our VOICE, will be starting in January with those activities that can be initiated without additional funding.

Click on the "Prevention Plan" link to the right to see an overview of the plan and to link to the entire document. 

Developing a Community-Wide Comprehensive Prevention Plan

With the Family Justice Center now open and providing trauma-informed, coordinated services to survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual violence, and the Mountain Child Advocacy Center doing the same for child survivors of violence, community efforts are moving upstream. The end goal is to see a day when the Family Justice Center and Child Advocacy Center close their doors (or at least shift their focus) because our community just doesn't have anyone affected by this kind of violence anymore.

To this end, local Buncombe County partners are taking on an ambitious project: drafting a County-Wide Plan to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Violence, and Child Abuse. Why all three types of violence in one plan? Because we know that many of the risk and protective factors for these 3 types of violence are the same. The CDC has also published a helpful document, Preventing Multiple Forms of Violence outlining the reasoning for and possible approaches to addressing all three types of violence. With this document, along with the NC Plan to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence, NC Plan to Prevent Sexual Violence and the NCIOM's Task Force on Essentials for Childhood, a group of motivated and forward-thinking  professionals and community members affected by violence are working together to envision a community where interpersonal violence is not tolerated, and they are mapping out actions to take to make that vision a reality.

The Prevention Task Force, led by Katie May of Our VOICE, is moving this planning process forward. To learn more or to be part of the prevention planning process,, email katiem@ourvoicenc.org.

November Update: Moving Toward Prevention

CHIP's Talk-to-Action work with the Safety Coalition in September and the Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Task Force in October has  highlighted the importance of (and readiness for) expanding efforts more upstream to prevent multiple forms of violence in our community before they ever occur.

Now that we have comprehensive, integrated systems ready to support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable (with the new Family Justice Center and Mountain Child Advocacy Center), these work groups are moving toward measuring and addressing the social acceptance of violence in our community, educating community members about the power and responsibility of bystanders to stop violence before it happens, and on expanding programs that teach youth and young adults about healthy relationships and conflict resolution. The Prevention Task Force is in the process of identifying strategies for a multi-year violence prevention plan. As this plan is developed, details will be available here.

If you would like more information about the Safety Coalition, please contact Julie Klipp Nicholson at Julie.Klipp.Nicholson@buncombecounty.org 

For more information about this workgroup, its goals, action items, etc., please click "Workgroup Overview" on the right sidebar. You can also click here to see the Community Scorecard--local IPV data, active partners, current initiatives and (coming soon) community strategies.

October Update: Establishing the Scope of Work

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month--please help spread the word that domestic violence, sexual assault, and child maltreatment will not be tolerated in Buncombe County! To heighten awareness and honor Buncombe residents who lost their lives to domestic violence, the Family Justice Center is holding a vigil Tuesday, October 4 at 6:30.

The Safety Coalition partnered with CHIP on Friday, September 16 to walk through a Talk to Action meeting, where the group established the overall result they will be working toward and the community indicators they will be monitoring to measure their progress, They also began the task of researching and deciding what strategies they need to pursue to reduce both acts of violence and the community's overall tolerance for violence. This work will continue at future Safety Coalition meetings, which are scheduled quarterly, on the 3rd Fridays (next meeting December 16th).

If you would like more information about the Safety Coalition, please contact Julie Klipp Nicholson at Julie.Klipp.Nicholson@buncombecounty.org 

For more information about this workgroup, its goals, action items, etc., please click "Workgroup Overview" on the right sidebar. You can also click here to see the Community Scorecard--local IPV data, active partners, current initiatives and (coming soon) community strategies.

September Update

The First CHIP IPV Talk-To-Action meeting will happen Friday, September 16, 2016. The long-standing Safety Coalition (which is where the initial energy and leadership for the now-open FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER and MOUNTAIN CHILD ADVOCACY CENTER was born) has invited CHIP staff to lead this activity with the group to identify a few population indicators they will focus on moving forward and to help identify gaps or points of leverage and focus on specific strategies to focus on moving forward.

If you are interested in the Safety Coalition, please contact Julie Klipp Nicholson at Julie.Klipp.Nicholson@buncombecounty.org 

If you are interested in the CHIP work around IPV, please contact Deanna LaMotte at deanna.lamotte@gmail.com

August Update

Though Intimate Partner Violence is a new CHIP priority, IPV already has a highly successful and motivated workgroup (the Safety Coalition) that has been working to improve the service system and increase public awareness of domestic violence and sexual violence for over 3 years now. With the grand opening of the Family Justice Center (a huge project born from this coalition) later this summer, the CHIP team has engaged with the Safety Coalition, its leadership and several subcommittees, but the first full “Talk to Action” meeting will happen this September, after the Family Justice Center is open and running.

For more information contact Deanna LaMotte at deanna.lamotte@mahec.net