Continuing Education for CCR Partners

Team Door County in Milwaukee: (front) Anni Lampert, HELP of Door County; (seated, counter clockwise) Taylor Jandrin and Carol Lenius, both of the Door County Department of Human Services–Adult Protective Services; Jamie Craig of the Sexual Assault Center.

There is a very particular sense of shared purpose among people who
serve others, and this spirit of cooperation and collaboration is
extraordinarily strong in Door County. Every professional I have ever
had the opportunity to work with knows that we can serve people better
when we have not just an awareness of our community partners, but
have also forged personal relationships with them. This is a beautiful
thing, and Door County’s Coordinated Community Response (CCR)
Team members all know this.

Last year our team became aware of a grant that the Wisconsin
Department of Justice was awarded, and we continue working together
to fulfill the goals of that grant: simply put, to improve the response to
older victims of abuse and hold offenders accountable. This grant
originated in the Office of Violence Against Women–Abuse in Later
Life Program, a division of the Department of Justice.

All of the many agencies and organizations that serve older adults in
Door County have a role to play. We share the goal of serving older
adults with dignity and respect and work collaboratively to ensure their
safety. Some organizations focus on prevention, others on responding to
incidents, and others on holding offenders accountable.

So far in 2019, three teams – comprising professionals from the
Sturgeon Bay Police Department, Door County Sheriff’s Department,
the district attorney, Door County Department of Human Services–Adult
Protective Services, the Sexual Assault Center, and HELP of Door
County – have attended three intensive, multi-day sessions. These team
members have been trained in training others about the dynamics of abuse in later life, recognizing tactics used by abusers and working together to help older people recover and thrive.

A community kick-off event is coming up Sept. 12 in the beautiful
ADRC in Sturgeon Bay. Partner professionals who serve older adults
have been invited to hear what team members have learned so far. If
you’re interested in attending, contact me at
[email protected].

The next steps include updating a Community Resources Directory.
Many agencies have created these for use in their own areas, so we
believe it will be a fairly simple matter to gather them into one big
digital directory that can be updated easily and frequently.
That directory will be submitted for approval, and once approved, our
teams of trainers will hone their presentations and start scheduling
trainings in late spring of 2020.

Door County’s CCR team meets quarterly at the Justice Center in
Sturgeon Bay. We welcome all who also serve older adults as well as
anyone who deals with issues related to domestic violence and/or sexual
assault.