FAIRBORN — The City of Fairborn recognized October 2019 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Fairborn Mayor Paul Keller read a proclamation during the Oct. 21 council meeting and invited officials who work daily to eliminate domestic violence to accept, including Family Violence Prevention Center Executive Director Debbie Matherson, Director of Fairborn Victim Assistance Kim Seubert and Fairborn Detective Alan Kraker.
“It’s common — about 30 percent of families in America are experiencing domestic violence,” she said. “It’s consequential because it cuts across all sectors of our society, impacting workplaces, schools, hospital interactions and requires law enforcement involvement to support survivors.”
“It’s changeable though,” Matheson added. “Events, even like this [proclamation] recognizing domestic violence — that it exists and that there are opportunities for individuals to find their way away from it.”
Keller highlighted during the proclamation that domestic violence is “intolerable, unacceptable, must be stopped and deserves public attention.”
“Whereas children who witness domestic violence often grow up believing physical cruelty in relationships is acceptable behavior and thus they tend to perpetuate the cycle of violence in society. Whereas many federal, state and local programs addressing the domestic violence problem have achieved success, bringing greater safety to families,” Keller said while reading the proclamation. ” … Whereas anyone can be a victim of domestic violence regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or religion. Whereas we must continue to hold abusers accountable, punish them to the fullest extent of the law and prevent them from influencing more abuse.”
Seubert highlighted that Fairborn is one of the few communities across Ohio to have its own dedicated detective — Kraker — and said the Fairborn Victim Assistance program works with domestic violence victims throughout the entire court process.
“My job is to enhance victim services for all victims of domestic and intimate partner violence — and that’s to hold offenders accountable for their actions,” Kraker said. “In doing so, with assistance from the Family Violence Prevention Center, Fairborn Victim Assistance Program and Fairborn Prosecutors Office as well as the Greene County Prosecutors Office, we all work together in a collaborative effort to hold offs accountable and get the justice the victims deserve.”
“I ask the citizens of Fairborn to assist this agency in the elimination of domestic violence,” Keller added.
