Baltimore Receives 2 Grants To Help Those In Abusive Relationships
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Baltimore City has received two grants to prosecute abusers and get legal help for victims.
As Gigi Barnett explains, city leaders unveiled the grants at a time when one in four women will deal with domestic violence at some point in her life.
Nationwide, three women die every day at the hands of domestic violence abusers---an alarming trend and sobering fact. But now the city is armed with two new grants, unveiled this week at the House of Ruth, a Baltimore-based center for battered women. The added funds will help with the workload.
"This work is work that can't just be done and then you turn around. You have to be able to have the communication with the families. You have to be able to consistently be vigilant and have people who are working every single day and follow up on every single case," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.
The House of Ruth will receive part of the first fund, a $406,000, two-year grant to expand its legal services and help victims avoid tricks and traps in court.
"Lots of times, our clients and victims try to navigate it themselves and often negotiate away important remedies that they really are entitled to because they want their children or are afraid of having their address revealed," said House Of Ruth legal clinic director Dorothy Lennig.
The second fund is a $60,000 grant, which goes to the police department's Lethality Assessment Program, also called LAP, which helps police accurately identify women who are at greatest risk of violence---sometimes repeat attacks, as 70% of victims often return to their abusers.
"We have been working at this for years. We have done what no other city has done in the state and in the country," said Baltimore City Special Investigations Unit Captain Ronda McCoy. "We don't try to judge; what we try to do is keep them safe.
Since the city's Lethality program started, the House of Ruth has connected with more than 4,000 domestic violence victims.
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