WILLIAMS COUNTY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TASK FORCE … Members of the task force meet for the first time since 2014. (PHOTO BY LACIE FISH, STAFF)
By: Lacie Fish
October first was the first meeting back for the Williams county domestic violence task force. Judges, law enforcement, the prosecutors office, legal aid, and so many others were invited to attend.
The purpose of the task force is for everyone that is involved with domestic violence to get together and make sure everything is going how it should and they are all working together how they should.
Also to make sure survivors do not get lost in the system. They want the community to know that they stand against domestic violence.
Katie Shaffer, the co-chair of the task force brought it up to the prosecutors office just to see why it hadn’t been moving forward since 2014.
Katie is the executive director for Sarah’s Friends, a non profit organization dedicated in the mission to empower victims of domestic violence and crime to heal emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Sarah’s Friends was founded in 1991 and it’s the leading crime victims service organization in Williams County, serving more than 175 individuals each year through trauma-informed advocacy, case management services, supportive transitional and permanent housing, emergency financial assistance, peer-to-peer group support, and community education and training.
They have a support group on the second Saturday of each month at 1 pm. Contact Sarah’s Friends for more information.
Currently the task force meetings are only open to the force because they talk about cases and use names. But they will be having minutes published for the public because they want to be as transparent as possible with the community.
They are wanting to make sure than survivors of domestic violence are heard at the task force. So if anyone is willing to contact them and talk about their experiences and share their input please contact the task force.
You can find them on Facebook under Williams County Domestic Task Force. Meetings will be held the first Friday of each quarter.
Lacie can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
