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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, January 23rd, 2003
| Contact: |
Christopher Wickham, Superior Court Commissioner, 360-709-3201 |
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Mary Pontarolo, Safeplace Executive Director, 360-786-8754
X-104 |
County
Leaders Gather To Fight Domestic Violence
OLYMPIA – Community leaders from all disciplines and walks of life
will gather at the end of this month, to develop a strategy to counter the
scourge of domestic violence. The
“Thurston County Domestic Violence Summit” is aimed at creating a
coordinated response to the problem and reducing the number of domestic
violence cases in the county. More than 120 invitees plan to attend.
The problem is significant. From
December of 2001 through November of 2002, law enforcement agencies in
Thurston County were dispatched to more than 2,500 domestic violence calls.
Officials with 9-1-1 Emergency Dispatch say there could have been many
more cases than that, because other calls such as “simple assault” could
have domestic violence as the root cause, even though they were not labeled as
such. In addition, researchers
say many cases of domestic violence are not reported at all.
Thurston County Superior Court Commissioner Christopher Wickham is one
of the key organizers of the event. He
says the goals of the summit are fairly ambitious. “We have a considerable challenge with domestic violence in
the community. We hope to come
out of the summit with a real action plan to deal with the situation including
creating a greater awareness among Thurston County residents of the problem.
We can also form working collaborations to begin to tackle domestic
violence in all its forms.”
The daylong event will be held at the Labor and Industries building in
Tumwater. Among those invited to
attend are elected officials, victim’s support groups, law and justice
officials and educators. Featured
speakers are State Supreme Court Justices Barbara A. Madsen and Mary Fairhurst
and Safeplace Executive Director Mary Pontarolo.
The Thurston County Domestic Violence Summit will be held from 8
AM to 4 PM on Friday, January 31st at the Labor and Industries
Building at 7273 Linderson Way SW in Tumwater.
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