Cumberland County, ME –
Cumberland County Manager Peter Crichton today announced a grant award of $438,000 from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women’s Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program. This award, to the County’s Violence Intervention Partnership (VIP) project, will enhance the partnerships between criminal justice agencies, victim services providers, and community organizations that respond to
sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.
“Director Bea Hanson from the Office of Violence Against Women personally met with our VIP team last Friday to learn more about the great work being carried out in Cumberland County to reduce domestic violence and sexual assault,” Manager Crichton said.
“The grant award will allow our partners to provide outreach services to rural victims in Cumberland County, and to help those in our immigrant and refugee communities,” said Faye Luppi, the VIP Director.
Luppi said project partners Family Crisis Services and Sexual Assault Response Services of Southern Maine will also be able to provide advocacy and re-entry planning for incarcerated victims, and sexual assault advocacy services to the Latino community. The VIP criminal justice system partners will continue to respond to domestic violence using specialized Domestic Violence prosecutors, a Domestic Violence Maine Pretrial Case Manager and a Domestic Violence probation officer. The project partners also use risk assessment tools and participate in a High Risk Response Team to identify and intervene in high risk cases, Luppi explained.
The Violence Intervention Partnership was launched as a project of Cumberland County Government in 1998. Since that time, it has secured $3,900,000 in grants from the Office of Violence Against Women to enhance victim safety, hold offenders accountable, and strengthen the coordinated community response to domestic violence and sexual assault in Cumberland County.
For more information, please contact VIP Director Faye Luppi at 207-871-8380 or luppi@cumberlandcounty.org.