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Lebanese children have been displaced; hospital facility fees have cost Colorado patients $13 billion; and a Wyoming county without a hospital is finally getting one.

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Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas warns about false claims affecting FEMA's hurricane relief, Vice President Harris prepares for a Fox News interview, and local Democrats want more election funds in key states.

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Hurricane Helene devastated the Appalachians and some rural towns worry larger communities could get more attention, ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month gets mixed reviews, and New York farmers are earning extra money feeding school kids.

CT advocates observe Domestic Violence Awareness Month

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Tuesday, October 10, 2023   

As part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a Connecticut group wants to better educate people about the problem. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence finds, in Connecticut, close to 38% of women and about 34% of men experience violent abuse.

Megan Scanlon, CEO of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence said her groups works with victims to create safety plans for leaving their abuser.

"Sometimes that does mean that you might be applying for a restraining order or a protective order, but sometimes it may mean you might not be," she said. "And then there's other factors to keep in mind. Sometimes it requires changing the locks, adding cameras. There's just a lot of nuance depending on the situation."

She noted developing these plans can help kids in abusive homes, adding this trend increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Studies show the isolation of quarantine made it harder for people to report signs of abuse, and help them escape a dangerous environment.

Another part of this education effort is breaking misconceptions, like the notion it is simple for domestic violence victims to just leave their abuser. There are other misunderstandings,too, Scanlon added.

"I think they think, 'Okay, like this isn't something I should get involved in or it's not my problem because it's between two people or a family member.' And, I think that's absolutely not the case. I think until the community response is similar to other levels of crime, then I think we're going to continue to perpetuate this issue," she continued.

Scanlon added given that abuse can occur over a period of time, it can take quite some time for a person to fully understand something is wrong.

In the last three years, the state's General Assembly made legislative efforts to reduce domestic violence. One law prohibits courts from ordering injured spouses to make alimony payments to convicted spouses. Despite this progress, Scanlon said there's still more work to do.

"So, there are a couple things in the criminal justice response system that I think we want to look at in terms of what is the process for protective orders when there's firearms involved," she explained. "Is that going as smoothly, or as well as it should be so we want to look at that."

She also wants to see the development of a domestic violence docket for the state's courts. In March, the Department of Justice awarded the state's court system more than $3 million which could up the number of protective orders, and misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence.


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