Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) is pleased to offer the fourth free virtual training in the Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence (DV/IPV) Support series. The training is on Thursday, October 12, from 1 to 4 p.m.ET. The deadline to register is Wednesday, October 4.
About the Training
This training will build on the prior three trainings by sharing an overview of how law enforcement agencies can partner with community-based organizations to support victims and survivors following the arrest of the accused person, how criminal legal system stakeholders intersect and collaborate with DV/IPV resource centers, and how coordinated community response (CCR) and high-risk response teams play a critical role in community safety. The training will also build on previous trainings in the series to discuss additional support for community well-being.
Did you miss previous DV/IPV trainings?
You can watch APPR trainings on demand, including three DV/IPV recordings.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the training, participants will:
- Learn how law enforcement agencies partner with community-based organizations to support survivors
- Understand better how criminal legal system stakeholders can collaborate with domestic violence resource centers
- Learn how CCR and high-risk response teams support community safety
- Learn how DV/IPV supports contribute to community well-being
- Be familiar with APPR resources and the APPR Community
Training Faculty
The trainers for this session have many years of experience with pretrial justice, domestic violence, and intimate partner violence.
Dr. Kelvin L. Banks, associate director, Center for Effective Public Policy
Dr. Banks has more than 20 years of criminal legal system experience, with the past 10 years in pretrial justice. He was previously the director of Harris County Pretrial Services and Pretrial Services for the Third Judicial Circuit of Michigan.
Gwendolyn D’Aiutolo, domestic violence community educator, Action in Community Through Service (ACTS)
Tamika Cheree Henry, founder, I Am Here
Ms. Henry is a writer, speaker, and advocate of mental health and domestic violence awareness. Born and raised in Detroit, she experienced tragedy early in life, losing her mother and father to gun violence at a young age. As an adult, Ms. Henry lost her only child. Years of great faith, courage, and walking through her grief and ultimately healing resulted in her founding I Am Here. Ms. Henry is passionate about helping others turn tragedy into triumph. She holds a BA in communications from Purdue University Global and lives near St. Louis with her husband.
Keilah Joyner, program associate, Center for Effective Public Policy
Ms. Joyner supports the National Resource Center on Justice-Involved Women, including the Gender-Informed Practices Assessment and an initiative focusing on gender-responsive policies and practices assessment. She also provides programmatic and training support to APPR. Before joining CEPP, Ms. Joyner worked for the Florida Commission on Offender Review and various nonprofit agencies.
Shawn LaGrega, deputy director, Maine Pretrial Services
Mr. LaGrega has many years of experience in pretrial services and responding to DV/IPV. He serves on the Maine Commission on Domestic and Sexual Abuse and is a national trainer on the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA) tool. Mr. LaGrega has presented nationally and internationally on a broad range of topics related to DV/IPV, including assessing risk, addressing the needs of survivors and incarcerated women, and pretrial agencies’ responses to DV/IPV.
Dr. Tammy Meredith, consultant, APPR
Dr. Meredith helps communities apply science to solving problems. Her social justice projects include preventing environmental violence, promoting pretrial justice, and quantifying racial and gender system disparities. Dr. Meredith cofounded the Atlanta-based public policy research firm Applied Research Services and managed it for nearly 30 years. Her career includes quantitative research to predict violent behavior; she has also led numerous U.S. Department of Justice studies, published academic and practitioner articles, and led professional research seminars.
Orleny Rojas, senior manager for racial equity and justice, Center for Effective Public Policy
Before joining CEPP, where she supports the APPR initiative, Ms. Rojas managed the implementation and operation of New York City’s Supervised Release Program in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Staten Island as director of criminal court operations. She led a team of social service practitioners who partnered with community organizations to meet the needs of pretrial participants and improve pretrial outcomes. Ms. Rojas has more than 12 years of experience working with criminal justice and community stakeholders to center and address the needs of vulnerable populations.
Brittany Davis, associate director of community accountability and engagement, Center for Justice Innovation
Ms. Davis provides training and expert assistance to communities across the country that seek to enhance their response to gender-based violence. She helped coordinate Project SAFE, an OVW-funded initiative aimed at enhancing services for justice-involved Black women survivors, and helped develop an abusive partner intervention curriculum for court-mandated individuals and a blueprint for restorative justice approaches to domestic violence in New York City. Prior to her work at the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI), she was a program manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters, where she developed curricula and facilitated after-school mentoring programs for high school students; an applied research fellow at Polaris, a leading nonprofit that works to combat and prevent human trafficking, and a social work intern at the Legal Aid Society’s Exploitation Intervention Project where she worked on a team providing holistic defense services to individuals with a history of commercial sex involvement or trafficking victimization. Ms. Davis also works as a therapist at a private practice working with individuals with a range of experiences, including histories of sexual violence and trauma. Ms. Davis graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in policy and Columbia University with a master’s degree in social work and a minor in law.
First Sergeant Jessica Tacha, Prince William County Police Department
First Sergeant Tacha is assigned to the Criminal Investigations Division, overseeing the Domestic Violence Program, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force detective, and the FBI’s Task Force Human Trafficking detective. She has been a law enforcement officer for over 16 years and was part of the creation of the Prince William County Police Department Lethality Assessment Program in 2017. She is responsible for maintaining all aspects of that program to include the unique collaboration between Action in the Community Through Sexual Assault Services (ACTS) and members of the department.
Rachel Taylor, director of sexual assault services, Action in Community Through Service (ACTS)
Ms. Taylor graduated from George Mason University with a bachelor’s degree in criminology, law and society and minors in psychology and sociology. In late 2013, she began working with the sexual offender team with adult probation and parole in Manassas, Virginia. Ms. Taylor became supervisor of the team in 2017 and left in 2022 to join ACTS and pursue her passion for helping victims of sexual assault and all those supported by the organization’s mission.
Michelle Toledo-Cainas, senior program manager, Center for Justice Innovation
Mrs. Toledo-Cainas is a program manager for the Gender and Family Justice team at CJI’s Domestic Violence Resource for Increasing Safety and Connection project. She engages communities to identify challenges and opportunities in addressing intimate partner violence risk assessments. Before coming to CJI, Mrs. Toledo-Cainas founded the Georgia Latinos Against Domestic Violence task force in 2009 to support Latino community members and those who work with them—and has been an advocate for domestic violence cases in system and community settings. She has participated with the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Arte Sana, and the Ahimsa House boards of directors.
Application Process
Space in this training is limited. Prospective participants must complete the training registration by Wednesday, October 4, 2023, and be selected to attend.
Priority consideration will go to community and criminal legal system stakeholders, including people affected by DV/IPV. Space is available for national technical assistance providers to participate.
APPR will make selection decisions immediately after the October 4 registration deadline. Confirmed participants will receive additional information about the training, including how to attend the online session and access related resources.
Please direct any questions to Samuel Steed, operations assistant at the Center for Effective Public Policy, at ssteed@cepp.com.