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STATUS OF 2016 RECOMMENDATIONS www.fcadv.org JUNE 2017 / FACES OF FATALITY 21 FCADV should develop a pilot project that will enhance the Intimate Violence Enhanced Service Team (InVEST) model to increase participation by states’ attorneys office victim advocates in the ongoing review of domestic violence police reports and partner with prosecutors on cases where risk factors were identified. Status: FCADV contracted with a Florida assistant state attorney to conduct six InVEST regional trainings on the topic of Prosecution and Offender Accountability. The training content focused on methods prosecutors can use to prepare for a domestic violence criminal prosecution without the participation/testimony of the survivor. Three similar trainings were conducted for law enforcement officers. In 2017, FCADV will partner with offices of the state attorney to implement enhanced prosecution strategies. The Bay County InVEST Program continues to promote practices that serve as a model for Florida’s prosecutors. In this last year, the Bay County Chief Prosecutor over misdemeanors advocated to ensure that the court sentenced offenders of misdemeanors to batterers’ intervention programs and increased charges for repeat offenders at the misdemeanor level. Such practices encourage appropriate sanctions for offenders who often plea to reduced crimes or have charges dropped. FCADV and the Statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team should develop a domestic violence media guide for journalists and reporters to reduce and prevent framing domestic violence incidences and homicides with a victim blaming lens. The guide should include education regarding the role of victim-blaming statements and sentiments in perpetrating inaccurate stereotypes while simultaneously negating community efforts to hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes. Status: FCADV developed the content for the media guide and will meet with members of the Statewide Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team Media Workgroup to finalize the guide in 2017. The media guide will provide journalists information on the importance of utilizing language that properly identifies dynamics of intimate partner violence and refrains from victim-blaming. The guide will include referral numbers and resources such as the Florida Domestic Violence Hotline and local certified domestic violence center hotline numbers that can be used by media outlets throughout the state. Florida’s child welfare agencies should improve collaboration with community partners when there are surviving children. Status: FCADV convened a workgroup in October 2016 with representatives from the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative (NDVFRI) and the Arizona Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative (ACASI) on the ACASI traumainformed model of networked counseling services to children who experience the homicide of a parent. The workgroup identified a potential funding source that FCADV applied for to train advocates and mental health professionals to increase providers’ capacity to serve child survivors of intimate partner homicide and their caregivers. FCADV and collaborative partners will develop and conduct a survey to assess the capacity and needs of local communities to provide traumainformed services to children and caregivers. The workgroup will establish pilot sites in which community stakeholders will be invited to attend FCADV’s trainings. Participants will obtain information on trauma-informed practices, the importance of the collaborative network and develop the necessary skills to provide counseling services to children and their caregivers to minimize the long-term effects of the complex trauma that occurs after the loss of a parent, sibling or loved one to domestic violence homicide.


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