ASHLEIGH STARNES | SEPTEMBER 26, 2019

At the Georgia Commission on Family Violence Conference, Joel Correa sat on a panel that presented the TPO Court Road Trip: Best Practices Based on Observation and Experience, which he helped create.

In collaboration with Atlanta Legal Aid’s Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton offices, liveSAFE, DeKalb Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, and Partnership Against Domestic Violence, our Safe Families Office Managing Attorney has been participating in a forum addressing best practices for serving survivors of intimate partner abuse in the courts.

Originally, the metro area organizations just wanted to learn from each other by visiting each others’ counties, watching TPO court, and meeting the judges and advocates. These conversations developed into the Metro Atlanta TPO Forum.

After a year or so of gathering best practices and collecting granular details about how TPO court can best serve survivors, the forum put together the TPO Court Road Trip: Best Practices Based on Observation and Experience.

Kylee Elliott, former Legal Advocacy Program Manager at liveSAFE and now Support for Survivors of Murder-Suicide Project Coordinator at the Georgia Commission on Domestic Violence, reached out to the Georgia Coalition on Family Violence to propose presenting the manual at their annual conference. The conference features key speakers and educational workshops addressing family violence matters in the state. 

This year, the conference was held in Athens. Six of our Safe & Stable Families Project staff members were in attendance, as well as judges, legal advocates, law enforcement, and other intimate partner abuse service providers from around the state.

Joel was pleased by the interest generated by the panel presentation. “We received lots of great feedback from attendees, which included judges, legal advocates, and law enforcement officers from all corners of the state of Georgia,” Joel said. “We know that each county’s needs and resources may be different, but our hope is that these best practices can be a useful guide to best serve survivors of intimate partner violence who seek protective orders from their abusers in civil court.”

The TPO Forum hopes to present the manual at other conferences in the future.

Learn more about the Safe Families Office.

Ashleigh Starnes

Communications Manager 

As AVLF’s Communications Manager, Ashleigh works in website content development, social media outreach, and various other forms of communication with our clients, volunteers, and supporters.

Ashleigh is ever-eager to share the remarkable stories of our work, and the impact of AVLF’s staff and volunteers on our community.

Before joining AVLF, Ashleigh was a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey. She holds a BA in English and Linguistics from the University of Georgia. She is also a performance artist, and can occasionally be seen performing movement pieces, poetry, and combinations of the two around Atlanta and beyond.

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