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An article in today's paper, "1-stop center designed to help victims", details the Greensboro Police Department's initial plans to open an all-inclusive center for domestic violence to receive services from several agencies.

The department got a head start late last year by receiving a $200,000 grant from the Crime Victims Services Committee under the Violence Against Women's Act Funding. With that money, Lt. Karen Walters and a few other officers traveled across the country to see the all-inclusive center in San Diego — the Family Justice Center. (Visit www.familyjusticecenter.com for more information.)

Police bought equipment, including cameras, recorders and tablet computers for the domestic violence unit, which Walters is trying to form.

The grant also helped the department, along with the Guilford Technical Community College, host a week-long training for about 40 people from law enforcement agencies in the state. Two former FBI agents taught the participants criminal profiling techniques for sex crime investigators and crime scene characteristics in sexual homicides, among other things.

Walters has been working with the relatively new Violence Against Women Responders Network of Guilford County to learn more about what the community in the proposed domestic violence center. UNCG's Center for New North Carolinians AmeriCorps program and Center for Women's Health and Wellness collaborated to create the responders network in September 2010.

The group holds three meetings a year, said coordinator Julie Lapham. During the last meeting in September, the High Point Police Department's presented its innovative response to domestic violence. High Point officers focus on repeat offenders instead of focusing solely on abuse victims and how they can leave harmful situations.

This is a "coup," Lapham said.

"A person who is abused against their will, to require them to go to a court of law, to change their world, and to continually repeat the story versus having a police officer look at the perpetrator is a breath of fresh air."

Besides prosecution, High Point police aim to hold offenders more accountable through follow-up visits, enhanced case management and stern warnings that sanctions will increase if offenders repeat negative behavior.

The responders network will hold its next meeting at the end of this month at N.C. A&T. The gathering will highlight the university's newly created Center for Behavioral Health and Wellness.

The group established an email list to facilitate communication within the network, and to provide announcements about new programs, services, resources, and events in Guilford County related to violence against women and girls.

Request to subscribe to this list-serve by sending their e-mail address and full name to Christine Murray (cemurray@uncg.edu) or Julie Lapham (jnlapham@gmail.com). To post to the list, send an e-mail to VAWRN-L@uncg.edu.