AMHERST – The town and the University of Massachusetts has been awarded a grant that will help both deal with domestic and sexual violence.
The Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women has awarded $173,643 that will allow for the hiring of a full-time civilian advocate who will have an office in both the town police and UMass police departments, said Capt. Jennifer Gundersen.
It will also pay for intensive training.
"We're very excited," she said. The grant was a collaboration with the town and UMass police and the Everywoman's Center at UMass. She said it was very competitive grant. "We think it's a really good service. We think we'll be more effective. We need to more effective," she said when handling these kinds of cases.
"Domestic violence shows no prejudice for social economic (status) or ethnicity... It's an increasing problem in all communities," she said.
In 2009, town police responded to 164 domestic disturbance calls and investigated 27 sexual assaults. UMass police responded to 27 domestic disturbance calls and investigated 13 sexual assaults. The Rape Crisis hotline at the Everywoman's Center received 1,032 hotline calls in fiscal 2010 and provided crisis intervention for 257 new clients, according statistics.
Gundersen said the advocate will be available on site to help police and also the victims understand the judicial system. The advocate will also be able to help police look at ways to prevent the violence from recurring.
"We know we need to do better," Gundersen said.
The two-year grant will provide intensive training for police officers at both UMass and the town when investigating domestic violence among the gay, lesbian and transgender communities.
Gundersen said "there are more instances of domestic violence involving that community." The training will help officers better understand "why a survivor might not want to disclose domestic violence" because he or she might not be out to family or friends.
The grant will also pay for training for bilingual police officers in specialized courses on sexual assault investigation as well as training for police when responding to domestic and sexual violence against people with disabilities.
The grant provides funding for a language interpretation line that will allow police on scene to find an interpreter in whatever language the victim speaks.
"It's a great collaboration, we're really excited about it," said Rebecca Lockwood, associate director at Everywoman's Center.
She said they had an advocate funded with a pilot project grant but the money ran out.
With the new position at the police departments, the center will now have "an opportunity to provide support and advocacy" for survivors they might not have been in contact with before.
Also she police are limited "on what kind of follow-up they can do." The position will allow for that follow up to take place.
"We're creating a stronger safety net for victims," Lockwood said.
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