Webinar Archive: Reentry Series
3
Victimized Again: How the Reentry Process Perpetuates Violence Against Survivors of Domestic Violence
Webinar date: June 5, 2013
Description
This webinar focuses on work being done at Our Place DC, an organization that provides guidance and services to help currently and formerly incarcerated DC women craft better lives. Their model is unique because it emphasizes comprehensive social and legal services. The legal services are especially critical for survivors because often getting a protection/
restraining order is made more difficult by the requirements imposed by community supervision (parole/probation). Additionally, legal services can help increase access to employment/housing/mental health and other services critical to survivors as they move toward independence.
Presenters discuss best practices for providing domestic violence social and legal services to formerly incarcerated women and the need for comprehensive services. Additionally, presenters discuss how the re-entry process perpetuates violence among an already-vulnerable population — survivors of battering.
About the Presenters
Courtney Cross is currently the Staff Attorney at Our Place DC, where she focuses on providing direct legal services to formerly incarcerated DC women, especially those living in DC's most underserved wards. After completing her Equal Justice Works/AmeriCorps Fellowship with Our Place — wherein she represented clients in domestic violence and family proceedings as well as in parole revocation hearings — Courtney began working out of the organization's new satellite space out of the Mayor's Office of Returning Citizen Affairs in Southeast Washington DC where she continues to provide direct representation, brief advice, and community education to clients. Before joining Our Place DC, Courtney worked as a victim advocate at Survivors and Advocates for Empowerment, also in the District.
Katrina Cheshier is a Case Manager in Our Place DC's Re-Entry Services Department. Katrina meets with soon to be released clients in DC's women's jail and federal prisons to develop service plans. She collaborates with community partners to implement clients' plans and assists reentering clients with immediate and long term goals such as housing, financial assistance, substance abuse treatment, and medical and mental health services. Prior to joining Our Place, Katrina served as DC SAFE's Lethality Assessment Project Advocate, where she worked exclusively with high-lethality clients coordinating comprehensive inter-agency responses to meet each client's safety needs. She has also worked as a Project Assistant at the Legal Resource Center of Violence Against Women and as a Victim Advocate within both the Montgomery County, MD Sheriff's Office and the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, MD.
Click here to access recording. A copy of the PowerPoint (and any other documents from the webinar) is available by clicking here.
This webinar series is supported by Grant No. 2011-TA-AX-K129 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.