Leading by Doing: Innovations in Addressing Domestic Violence in Rural Virginia

Just because smaller communities generally have fewer resources doesn’t mean they aren’t innovating or taking new approaches that others can learn from and emulate. In Pulaski County, Virginia, home to about 35,000 people, they have implemented a number of changes to better address domestic violence.Judge H. Lee Chitwood presides over the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court in Pulaski County and Jaime Clemmer is the court coordinator. Working with community partners, they launched a weekly docket to review cases of domestic violence offenders on probation. They also improved how they handled protective orders by, for instance, ensuring that a victim advocate is present to make initial contact with victims. In addition, they created a video to educate petitioners about protective orders, and the court spearheaded a pilot project to make information about civil protective orders readily accessible to petitioners, respondents, and law enforcement.