Explanation
BACKGROUND: This legislation authorizes the City of Columbus to accept and appropriate U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women’s Improving Criminal Justice Reponses (ICJR) program funds via a sub-award from Franklin County Board of Commissioners’ Office of Justice Policy and Programs. ICJR funds support a county-wide, intra-agency effort to improve justice responses to domestic violence crimes.
Award funds support the implementation of the evidence-based Blueprint for Safety: An Inter-agency Response to Domestic Violence model in Columbus and Franklin County. Blueprint for Safety applies a collective impact approach to domestic violence. It build off local successes by linking best practice communication protocols, risk assessments and evidence collection tactics occurring at each justice phase. Through the Blueprint process, justice and victim advocacy practitioners work collaboratively to review and update current response protocols/practices and develop standard methods for proactive data sharing. The result is a single, written DV response policy with clear protocols outlining each practitioner’s role, responsibilities, specific actions, and documentation duties. Successful implementation of protocols is supported through ongoing training, reference resources and active communication between and across practitioners.
Blueprint for Safety is grounded in the experiences of victims of violence and an understanding of how the intervention of the criminal justice system affects their lives. This victim-centered approach supports authorities’ ability to intervene quickly when there are new acts of violence, intimidation or coercion; and shifts the burden of holding the offender accountable for violence or abuse from the victim to the system. Outcomes of the Blueprint for Safety include:
§ Keeping more women and children in their own home
§ Increased victim safety and perpetrator accountability
§ Reduced domestic abuse-relate...
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