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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Victims advocates: 'It's OK to step in'
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'It's OK to step in'
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Date: April 14, 2014 04:58AM
Victims advocates: 'It's OK to step in'
http://www.insidenova.com/news/loudoun/victims-advocates-it-s-ok-to-step-in/article_5c235404-e1bb-5012-9a88-a87b9fa756cd.html
Members of Loudoun’s law enforcement and legal communities took time Friday morning to recognize people who work to help victims of violent crimes and remember those impacted by crime—giving special attention this year to domestic violence.
The annual ceremony was part of the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week—culminating April 12—which carried the theme “30 Years: Restoring the Balance of Justice.” As recently as 30 years ago, there were no explicit rights for crime victims, including access to compensation or services to help in their recovery.
Sharon Love, the mother of University of Virginia student and lacrosse player Yeardley Love, who was killed in May 2010 by her ex-boyfriend George Huguely, was the featured speaker. Sharon Love and her other daughter Lexie started the One Love Foundation—using Yeardley’s lacrosse uniform number and their last name—to honor her memory and help combat relationship violence.
“My biggest fear when Yeardley went off to college was that she might get injured on the lacrosse field or hurt in a car accident,” Sharon Love told the audience of law enforcement officers, attorneys and court employees at the Loudoun County Courthouse. It was only after her daughter’s death that Sharon Love said she learned just how prominent relationship violence is—and became determined to help stop it.
“Relationship violence is happening every day everywhere…it hurts us all,” she said, quoting statistics that one-in-three people reported knowing someone who has been physically hurt by a partner.
The One Love Foundation focuses on young people between the ages of 16 and 24, where they felt their work could be more effective. “We want to start a discussion and shine a light on this issue,” she said.
To help shine that light—and encourage more people to act on relationship violence when it occurs—the foundation created two smartphone apps. The One Love MyPlan app helps users determine if a relationship is unsafe, and if it is helps to create the best action plan by weighing an individual’s specific characteristics and values. In partnership with LoveisRespect.org, the app provides access to trained advocate support through an embedded chat function. The One Love Danger Assessment, which also is part of the MyPlan app, asks a series of questions and provides connections to other resources to help determine if a relationship is unsafe. The foundation worked with Johns Hopkins University to create the assessment, which has “20 years of research behind” it.
The apps are anonymous and free, and can be downloaded at www.joinonelove.org.
“It helps you to be safe if you want to stay in a relationship or get out,” Sharon Love said, noting the “most dangerous time” for abuse victims is when they are in the process of trying to get out of a relationship.
In addition, the One Love Foundation created a Be 1 For Change public service announcement designed to encourage “bystanders” to abuse to speak up. In the PSA, the One Love Foundation works to tell people it is “OK to step in” when they witness or learn about a violent relationship.
Speaking up is not the expected behavior in our society, Kim Ward, chairman of the One Love Foundation National Advisory Counsel said in the video played Friday morning. “But we want it to become the social norm.”
The Be 1 For Change PSA can be viewed through the One Love Foundation website at www.joinonelove.org.
Also speaking during Friday’s event was Brian Moran, the new Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security. Moran spoke about many of the ways the commonwealth it working to help crime victims, and to improve public safety in general. He highlighted the work on recidivism—“We have to recognize that a lot of these folks are going to get out [of incarceration] and we have to make sure they don’t commit a crime again or there will be more victims.”—and the training and preparation being done with law enforcement agencies around the commonwealth.
One of those is Crisis Intervention Training, of which Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman is a big proponent. Loudoun already has had four classes for sheriff’s office and Leesburg Police Department employees on how to deescalate potentially violent situations involving people with mental illness. The state government provides funding support for the training.
To conclude the ceremony three individuals were recognized for their efforts to help crime victims.
Joyce Sowa, whose ex-husband was sentenced in October to serve 16 years for stabbing her while she slept in December 2011, was honored for her subsequent efforts to help other victims.
“She took what was a terrible, awful, gut-wrenching ordeal and used it to reach out to others,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gigi Lawless, director of the Victim Witness Program, said. Among her efforts, Lawless said, are to lead a domestic violence support group, speaking to law enforcement agencies about how to work with victims and reaching out to hospitals to help them with how to treat not only the physical injuries from abuse, but also the mental and emotional trauma.
Lt. Tom Kinnally, who will retire from the Leesburg Police Deparment in May, was honored for his work supervising the department’s criminal investigation unit. Kinnally, who previously retired from the FBI as the special agent in charge of the Washington field office after 29 years, came to work for the Leesburg department seven years ago.
In addition to his work for Leesburg police, Kinnally also volunteers with Loudoun County’s chapter of Beat The Odds, Loudoun’s domestic violence support groups and serves on the advisory board for the Child Advocacy Center, prompting Commonwealth’s Attorney James Plowman to quip, “Now he is going to tell us how he has more hours in a day than we do.”
Sheriff’s Office Detective Mark McCaffrey, who serves in the robbery/homicide division, was recognized not just for his investigative ability, but specifically was cited for his engaging and friendly personality that allows him to create a report with victims of violent crimes—and to get confessions from suspects.
“Every year our office selects someone who went above and beyond in a particular case or situation,” Lawless said, but when it came to discussing McCaffrey, “there is not one particular case that stands out…it’s every case. He works until no stone is uncovered or unturned.”
Go here to watch the video:
http://www.insidenova.com/news/loudoun/victims-advocates-it-s-ok-to-step-in/article_5c235404-e1bb-5012-9a88-a87b9fa756cd.html
Sharon Love, the mother of slain University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love, speaks at Loudoun's ceremony recognizing National Crime Victims' Rights Week.
Attachments:
http://www.insidenova.com/news/loudoun/victims-advocates-it-s-ok-to-step-in/article_5c235404-e1bb-5012-9a88-a87b9fa756cd.html
Members of Loudoun’s law enforcement and legal communities took time Friday morning to recognize people who work to help victims of violent crimes and remember those impacted by crime—giving special attention this year to domestic violence.
The annual ceremony was part of the National Crime Victims’ Rights Week—culminating April 12—which carried the theme “30 Years: Restoring the Balance of Justice.” As recently as 30 years ago, there were no explicit rights for crime victims, including access to compensation or services to help in their recovery.
Sharon Love, the mother of University of Virginia student and lacrosse player Yeardley Love, who was killed in May 2010 by her ex-boyfriend George Huguely, was the featured speaker. Sharon Love and her other daughter Lexie started the One Love Foundation—using Yeardley’s lacrosse uniform number and their last name—to honor her memory and help combat relationship violence.
“My biggest fear when Yeardley went off to college was that she might get injured on the lacrosse field or hurt in a car accident,” Sharon Love told the audience of law enforcement officers, attorneys and court employees at the Loudoun County Courthouse. It was only after her daughter’s death that Sharon Love said she learned just how prominent relationship violence is—and became determined to help stop it.
“Relationship violence is happening every day everywhere…it hurts us all,” she said, quoting statistics that one-in-three people reported knowing someone who has been physically hurt by a partner.
The One Love Foundation focuses on young people between the ages of 16 and 24, where they felt their work could be more effective. “We want to start a discussion and shine a light on this issue,” she said.
To help shine that light—and encourage more people to act on relationship violence when it occurs—the foundation created two smartphone apps. The One Love MyPlan app helps users determine if a relationship is unsafe, and if it is helps to create the best action plan by weighing an individual’s specific characteristics and values. In partnership with LoveisRespect.org, the app provides access to trained advocate support through an embedded chat function. The One Love Danger Assessment, which also is part of the MyPlan app, asks a series of questions and provides connections to other resources to help determine if a relationship is unsafe. The foundation worked with Johns Hopkins University to create the assessment, which has “20 years of research behind” it.
The apps are anonymous and free, and can be downloaded at www.joinonelove.org.
“It helps you to be safe if you want to stay in a relationship or get out,” Sharon Love said, noting the “most dangerous time” for abuse victims is when they are in the process of trying to get out of a relationship.
In addition, the One Love Foundation created a Be 1 For Change public service announcement designed to encourage “bystanders” to abuse to speak up. In the PSA, the One Love Foundation works to tell people it is “OK to step in” when they witness or learn about a violent relationship.
Speaking up is not the expected behavior in our society, Kim Ward, chairman of the One Love Foundation National Advisory Counsel said in the video played Friday morning. “But we want it to become the social norm.”
The Be 1 For Change PSA can be viewed through the One Love Foundation website at www.joinonelove.org.
Also speaking during Friday’s event was Brian Moran, the new Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security. Moran spoke about many of the ways the commonwealth it working to help crime victims, and to improve public safety in general. He highlighted the work on recidivism—“We have to recognize that a lot of these folks are going to get out [of incarceration] and we have to make sure they don’t commit a crime again or there will be more victims.”—and the training and preparation being done with law enforcement agencies around the commonwealth.
One of those is Crisis Intervention Training, of which Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman is a big proponent. Loudoun already has had four classes for sheriff’s office and Leesburg Police Department employees on how to deescalate potentially violent situations involving people with mental illness. The state government provides funding support for the training.
To conclude the ceremony three individuals were recognized for their efforts to help crime victims.
Joyce Sowa, whose ex-husband was sentenced in October to serve 16 years for stabbing her while she slept in December 2011, was honored for her subsequent efforts to help other victims.
“She took what was a terrible, awful, gut-wrenching ordeal and used it to reach out to others,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gigi Lawless, director of the Victim Witness Program, said. Among her efforts, Lawless said, are to lead a domestic violence support group, speaking to law enforcement agencies about how to work with victims and reaching out to hospitals to help them with how to treat not only the physical injuries from abuse, but also the mental and emotional trauma.
Lt. Tom Kinnally, who will retire from the Leesburg Police Deparment in May, was honored for his work supervising the department’s criminal investigation unit. Kinnally, who previously retired from the FBI as the special agent in charge of the Washington field office after 29 years, came to work for the Leesburg department seven years ago.
In addition to his work for Leesburg police, Kinnally also volunteers with Loudoun County’s chapter of Beat The Odds, Loudoun’s domestic violence support groups and serves on the advisory board for the Child Advocacy Center, prompting Commonwealth’s Attorney James Plowman to quip, “Now he is going to tell us how he has more hours in a day than we do.”
Sheriff’s Office Detective Mark McCaffrey, who serves in the robbery/homicide division, was recognized not just for his investigative ability, but specifically was cited for his engaging and friendly personality that allows him to create a report with victims of violent crimes—and to get confessions from suspects.
“Every year our office selects someone who went above and beyond in a particular case or situation,” Lawless said, but when it came to discussing McCaffrey, “there is not one particular case that stands out…it’s every case. He works until no stone is uncovered or unturned.”
Go here to watch the video:
http://www.insidenova.com/news/loudoun/victims-advocates-it-s-ok-to-step-in/article_5c235404-e1bb-5012-9a88-a87b9fa756cd.html
Sharon Love, the mother of slain University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love, speaks at Loudoun's ceremony recognizing National Crime Victims' Rights Week.
Attachments: