SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — In order to address the rate of domestic violence in the community, Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition (SRDVC) is receiving a $10,000 grant from a national gun safety organization.
Everytown for Gun Safety announced Friday $70,000 in grants to seven organizations nationwide.
“Domestic violence is a public health issue. One in three women across the nation are victimized because of domestic violence and one in seven men,” said Taffy Hunter, SRDVC’s Interim Executive Director said.
Spokane County has the highest rate of reported domestic violence cases in the state.
“The rates of domestic violence in Spokane are fairly high and we actually don’t have a fatality review panel in Spokane that can review these domestic violence homicides,” Citlalli Briseno, Community Response Coordinator for SRDVC said.
SRDVC partners with law enforcement and other agencies to focus on prevention and education to put an end to domestic violence. With this grant funding, officials are establishing that local domestic violence fatality review board. The group hopes that by having this panel review cases, it will be able to understand how these deaths could have been prevented.
“By reviewing the case, we’re able to see if there were any systems providers who came in contact, if there were any advocates who came in contact, if there was an opportunity to provide services that wasn’t taken. It’s not a blame game for anybody, it’s simply an opportunity to learn better what that story looked like and how we may have been able to intervene before the fatality took place,” said Hunter.
Spokane has previously been awarded a grant to help increase the number of gun surrenders from people with domestic violence protection orders. In partnership with SRDVC, YWCA and Spokane Police, over 200 guns have been taken for safe-keeping since May of this year.
This shows the vital role these grants can play in addressing these types of issues. The coalition said it is hopeful for the future.
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