Elder Support & Protection (ESP) Project
2004 Grant Accomplishments:
In 2004, the United States Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) awarded Compass a two-year
grant to design a curriculum and implement training workshops for law enforcement officers.
The goal of this sixteen-hour training, located in West Tennessee and North Mississippi, was to assist law enforcement
officers in Recognizing, Addressing, and Investigating instances of elder abuse and domestic violence and sexual assault against
individuals with disabilities and against older individuals.
The objectives of
this training were to:
- Distinguish the unique issues associated with victims
of domestic violence or sexual assault who are elderly or are people with disabilities.
- Apply the correct Tennessee criminal code and, if required, adult protection statute to an incident of domestic abuse
or sexual assault.
- Apply effective interviewing techniques to situations involving
a victim who may be elderly or one with a disability.
- Apply effective evidence
gathering techniques to cases of domestic violence or sexual assault involving a victim who may be elderly or one with a disability.
The Project Partners included the Crime Commission, The Memphis YWCA, and The University of Memphis's
Mid South Training Institute. There were 8 two day training sessions and over 200 law enforcement officers were trained.
Due to its success, DOJ awarded Compass Coordination, Inc. an extension of the highly competitive
grant, making it the only agency who received the continuation and one of only nine initial awards nationally.
2006 Elder Support and Protection (ESP) Grant Expectations:
Compass Coordination, Inc. was awarded the continuation grant addressing
(only) Elder Abuse in September 2006 with extensions through June 2010. The Goal of this grant was to continue
to train not only law enforcement officers but also train prosecutors and judges on issues of Elder Abuse and to address the
systemic issues between the agencies involved.
Objectives:
1) Train law enforcement officers with the Department
of Justice's curriculum on the identification, investigation, prosecution and adjudication of cases of elder abuse,
exploitation and neglect, including domestic violence and sexual assault. Partners included local information to curriculum
to create a 16 hour POST Certified and CEU approved training for law enforcement officers.
2) Coordinate and establish policies and protocols with Project Partners,
through critical dialogue, to improve systemic issues that inhibit the ability for each agency to do their job thoroughly
and effectively in protecting vulnerable adults.
3) Design an Advanced Law Enforcement Training to address local systemic concerns.
4) Provide training to Prosecutors and Judges at a National
Conference on Elder Abuse which corresponds with local training to law enforcement.
