LLA Foundation Funds Training for Domestic Fatality Review Team

The Lycoming Law Foundation has awarded a Community Outreach Grant to the Lycoming County Domestic Fatality Review Team in the amount of $2,750.00. The Grant will allow members of the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team to attend a training sponsored by the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative.

The mission of the Lycoming County Fatality Review Team is to review cases of domestic violence-related fatalities in Lycoming County to reduce future deaths and improve service delivery for victims. A fatality review provides a unique perspective on the circumstances of a domestic violence death that can generate specific recommendations to improve practices or policies or identify more effective prevention strategies.

Judge Joy McCoy said, “The ultimate purpose of fatality reviews is to reduce the incidents of domestic violence fatalities by learning from the lives and tragic deaths of domestic violence victims and the systems they encountered.” She also indicated that the Lycoming County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team plans to conduct their first fatality review in the Fall of 2015. The Lycoming County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team is co-chaired by Judge Joy Reynolds McCoy and Coroner Charles E. Kiessling, Jr.

LLA President and Community Activities and Outreach Committee Chair, Tammy Avery Weber stated “The Lycoming Law Association Foundation is proud to sponsor this project. The Foundation’s mission it to ‘cultivate the science of jurisprudence, improve the legal and judicial system and facilitate the administration of justice’ for residents of Lycoming County.”