State leaders are teaming up with advocates against domestic violence to challenge the problem across Connecticut.
Senate President Martin M. Looney and Speaker of the House Brendan Sharkey announced their selections to the Family Violence Task Force.
With nearly 1,200 children living in domestic violence shelters a year in Connecticut, state leaders say it was time to study and respond to the problem of domestic violence.
The task force is made up of Karen Jarmoc, President and CEO of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Garry Lapidus, director of the Injury Prevention Center of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Hartford Hospital; State Representative Diana Urban (D-Stonington); and State Senator Dante Bartolomeo (D-Meriden).
"Frankly, we don’t have a coordinated and comprehensive approach within our state departments as to how to deal with children that have been exposed to that level of family violence," said Speaker Brendan Sharkey (D-Hamden).
State leaders recalled the recent tragedy of Middletown baby, Aaden Moreno. The 7-month-old boy was was found dead in the Connecticut River last week, just days after his father allegedly threw the boy over a bridge. The father then jumped in himself in an attempt to commit suicide, but was unsuccessful and is now charged with his son's murder.
"This horrendous circumstance in Middletown very recently and its for that reason and all of those other circumstances that this is just so hugely important," Said Jarmoc, president and CEO of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV).
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The group will look at state policies, practices and models.
"Not everything is legislative, right? And so there are best practice models out there that other states are using to help kids because we know the longterm impact on kids is enormously devastating," Said Jarmoc.
The team will then make recommendations they believe will better prevent and respond to family violence.
The hope is that the same thing does not happen to other children, like that of Moreno, who’s mother filed a restraining order before the baby’s death. The order was denied by the judge.
"It gives us now an opportunity to look at from the judicial department, to look at the extent and relevance of its current practices and perhaps increase them," Said Senate President Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven).
