October 25 Event to host Local Corporate Leaders, Elected Officials, Others; Assistant City of Cincinnati Police Chief to Keynote
Women Helping Women (WHW), the leading regional resource for the prevention of gender-based violence, will host its Second Annual Community Leader breakfast, Thursday, October 25, 2018 at The Westin Hotel, Downtown Cincinnati, to discuss the state of gender-based violence & prevention in the region. As October is Domestic Violence Month, the event’s objective is to raise awareness about local efforts and detail progress in the fight to end domestic violence and sexual assault. Over 250 community leaders including elected officials will attend the event.
WHW will share innovations and key metrics of progress made in the last year around its multi-tiered approach to gender-based violence prevention and support. A key program, DVERT(Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team), launched in February, a first-in-the-region collaboration between the City of Cincinnati Police Department and WHW and funded by Attorney General Mike DeWine, has seen promising results; in September 2018 alone, there were 172 domestic violence reports in the City of Cincinnati with over 96% of those reports leveraging the DVERT advocate response working at the scene with domestic violence survivors.
“Gender based violence impacts our region’s economic stability, our workforce productivity and the well-being of everyone in our community. We have made significant strides towards educating the public and continue to innovate and expand our services, towards eliminating gender-based violence”, said Kristin Smith Shrimplin, President and CEO of Women Helping Women. “Community leadership and partnerships are critical to our education efforts and broadening awareness”, she continued. Corporately, Tri-Health will be recognized as a community champion for excellence in leadership for their CARES (Center for Abuse and Rape Emergency Services) program and for partnering with WHW as they support survivors during the sexual assault forensic exam process.
Shonda Sullivan, former Chief Human Resource Officer of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts and currently Director of Human Resources & Organizational Development at CincinnatiUSA Regional Chamber will address corporate response programs that empower companies to increase their bottom line through productivity while partnering with WHW advocates to serve survivors in the workplace. Lt. Colonel Michael K. John, Assistant Police Chief, The City of Cincinnati Police Department, will keynote the breakfast event detailing the widespread increase in reports of domestic violence and the continued need for innovative solutions, like DVERT.
In 2017 Women Helping Women served 11,295 clients providing services such as hotline calls, individual crisis intervention, hospital accompaniments and protection order assistance 16,590 times. WHW also expanded outreach services to underserved populations with an 83% increase in Latinx survivors served and a 43% increase in LGBTQ survivors served. As WHW continues to be one of the most innovative prevention resources of its kind in the nation, the organization will announce WorkStrong™, a workplace-based program designed to train employees on identifying and helping to prevent gender-based violence. WorkStrong™ certified workplaces will be supported by WHW ongoing, with confidential support services.