Adams, Broomfield counties receiving $2 million funding to expand domestic violence team
A pilot program focused on alleviating intimate partner violence in Brighton and Thornton will soon be expanded to the rest of Adams and Broomfield county thanks to $2 million in federal funding.
17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason along with Congressmen Ed Perlmutter and Jason Crow, representatives from the Adams County Board of Commissioners, law enforcement and other partner agencies gathered Monday morning in Brighton to announce the expansion of the Domestic Violence High Risk Team into the rest of Adams and Broomfield counties.
Mason said the DVHRT is set up to identify domestic violence victims early and give them wraparound services that they need to “keep them away from their abusers and off the autopsy table.”
The two congressmen, plus Congressman Joe Neguse, who wasn’t present at the meeting, were acknowledged by Mason for their work on the federal appropriations award for the DVHRT.
“We decided to go big and apply for this $2 million federal grant to fund a high risk domestic violence team, as well as vouchers for domestic violence victims to have a place to stay,” Mason said. “We contacted our federal delegation, and thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Congressman Perlmutter, Congressman Crow and Congressman Neguse, they just ran with it. They miraculously got it into the appropriations bill and they got it passed.”
The congressmen spoke of the “skyrocketing” domestic and intimate partner violence rates since the COVID-19 pandemic and said this funding and program is a direct result of the response to that.
Mason noted that the long-term goal is the creation of a “Family Justice Center,” where survivors of domestic violence can come and get one stop shopping for all of their services.
“This high-risk team is the building block for that (Family Justice Center), and it is an extraordinary step forward serving domestic violence victims in this jurisdiction,” Mason said.
Director of Communications for the 17th Judicial District Chris Hopper said there is not a set date for when the program will expand into Broomfield County, but the new funding will be brought agency-to-agency to begin the expansion.
“The DVHRT is the definition of what is considered a wraparound service effort,” Hopper said. “It is literally a group of people from the community that wraps around a victim of domestic violence and involved children to help protect them from further trauma caused by relationship violence.”
Hopper said this could mean temporary housing through hotel vouchers, medical services and mental health treatments, legal assistance, child protective services, Spanish-speaking services for those who may need it, and more.
Service provider partners in the program who were present at the announcement included Family Tree, a service provider for survivors and children who have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking, Project Safeguard, a civil legal services provider for survivors, and Servicios de la Raza, a bilingual human services organization.
The DVHRT process begins when an officer responds to a domestic violence incident report, where they will use a risk assessment tool known as ODARA (Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment) to identify victims who are in a situation with an offender who is at high risk to reoffend.
The cases are then forwarded to the DVHRT team to “triage and coordinate” a supportive response.
For more information and updates, visit adamsbroomfieldda.org/Sexual-Violence-and-Domestic-Violence.
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