ATLANTA - The Georgia Commission on Family Violence (GCFV) will host its 23rd annual Statewide Family Violence Conference at the Classic Center in Athens, GA. The conference begins Sunday, September 10th and runs through Wednesday, September 13th. The theme of this year’s event is: Maintaining Our Momentum: Proven and Promising Practices to End Family Violence.

Featured keynote speakers include:

April W. Ross, Esq. Attorney Ross is an Assistant District Attorney for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and a survivor of an attempted homicide at the hands of her husband in 2014. She is involved in a multi-organization task force drafting legislation aimed at reducing the number of domestic violence fatalities involving the use of firearms. Ross also mentors gunshot survivors with spinal cord injuries at the Shepherd Center.

Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell. Dr. Campbell is the Anna D. Wolf Chair and professor of the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She is also the National Program Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars Program. Her fourteen major, federally funded collaborative research investigations have included studies of domestic violence homicide and improving the criminal justice and healthcare response to intimate partner violence.

Over 400 local and national community stakeholders are also expected to be present. The multidisciplinary audience includes: domestic violence advocates, family violence intervention program providers, sexual assault advocates, victim advocates, judges, prosecutors, law enforcement, faith leaders, counselors and community members.

“Through our annual family violence conference, the Commission strives to identify emerging issues in the field of domestic violence and equip our stakeholders with the tools and resources necessary to respond effectively,” said GCFV Chair, Holly Tuchman.

Local and national professionals will present important information on a wide-range of family violence issues such as culturally competent programming, lethality indicators, multidisciplinary approaches, women's use of violence in the intimate partner relationships, federal and state prosecution practices, supervising domestic violence offenders, muder-suicide trends, innovative interventions with teens, sexual assault evidence collection and enhanced services for survivors.

The Georgia Commission on Family Violence was created in 1992 by the Georgia General Assembly. The Commission is charged with the development of a comprehensive state plan for ending family violence in Georgia.

Contact Information:

For more information, please visit gcfv.org or contact Jennifer Thomas at [email protected]