Inter-Agency Council on Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking

Michael Iapoce
Michael
Iapoce
Chairman

The Ulster County Executive’s Office and the Legislature established the Inter-Agency Domestic Violence Council on May 13, 2009.  In the Fall of 2018, due to the intersectional nature of the two crimes, the Council merged with the Safe Harbour Critical Team to include the subject matter of human trafficking.  The mission of the Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Council is to foster organizational and institutional collaboration in an effort to strengthen our ability to prevent and respond to these crimes.  Through community awareness, prevention education, and enhancing the functioning of our criminal justice system, Ulster County remains committed to empowering its residents with knowledge and providing trauma-informed services they may need.

If you require assistance with an experience relating to domestic violence and/or human trafficking, click here.

 

Difficult to discern at times and impossible to separate, the intersection of domestic violence and human trafficking occurs in a myriad of ways, such as when:

• Traffickers are also domestic violence abusers;

• Traffickers utilize a victim's history of abuse (i.e., domestic violence or witnessing domestic violence) to further other forms of abuse in trafficking;

• Domestic violence abusers use a victim’s history of trafficking to intimidate, control and further abuse the victim; and/or

• Domestic violence and human trafficking are separate phenomenon in the life of a victim, however, impact the survivor’s ability to trust institutions, state structures, and people in general.

 

To learn more about how these crimes intersect, please click here. 

 

Accomplishments:

• Hosts the Annual Domestic Violence Forum in the month of October.  

• Hosts the Annual Human Trafficking Forum in the month of January.

• Hosts an annual Teen Dating Violence and Human Trafficking Prevention Video/Mixed Media Contest for Ulster County high school students.

• Developed a Domestic Violence App called PATHH (Prevent Abuse Through Help and Healing) available to smart phone users.