The insights and recommendations that emerge from Fatality Reviews are meant to be put into action. Here are some of the ways advocates and review team members have used the Fatality Review in their communities. Contact us to tell us about your experience, or get help thinking about ideas.
Guide your program work
Many organizations look to the Fatality Review recommendations as “best practice” for their own programs and other systems responding to domestic violence.
One program’s board of directors used the 11 key goals in the 2010 report as a guide to set program priorities. Others have used recommendations in making organizational strategic plans.
Advocates use Domestic Violence Fatality Review recommendations to set the agenda for interdisciplinary groups including STOP groups, Community Task Forces, Coordinated Community Response teams, and Child Advocacy Center teams.
Find many practical examples in Using Fatality Review Reports.
Start a conversation
Advocates use Fatality Review recommendations to raise local issues.
“The Fatality Review is a ‘door opener.’ We use it to start a conversation about domestic violence with other systems. ‘Is this something we need in our county?'”
Show the need for services
Domestic Violence programs cite Fatality Review statistics to demonstrate the need for services, the extent of the impact of domestic violence on their communities, and the needs of specific populations.
“The reports are helpful because they are ‘not spin, just facts.'”
Educate the community
Advocates use the stories in Fatality Review reports and Issue Briefs in community education.
“We use them as ‘myth busters,’ to counter the idea that domestic violence only looks one way.”
Communities share the names and stories of those who have lost their lives to domestic violence.
“We use the data and details of the Fatality Review Project for our march and vigil during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We make a poster with the names and ages of all deaths in the past year and carry that in the march through our small town. Then at the vigil we light a candle for each victim as their name is called.”
