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Message
from the Chair
 Now
in its eleventh year, the Bellingham-Whatcom County Commission Against
Domestic Violence continues to provide a platform that promotes coordination
and increased collaboration among multiple institutions, systems and service
providers that respond to domestic violence in our community.
I am especially grateful to our funders in this difficult economic time
for their support to meet this challenge: the Cities of Bellingham, Blaine
and Ferndale, and Whatcom County.
This year is the third and final year of the Commission’s strategic
plan that set out to enhance physical access to services; enhance collaboration
among providers and provide increased education on existing services;
transform the approach on service provision; and work to fill identified
gaps in services. Many of the objectives were accomplished: mental health,
substance abuse and domestic violence providers now meet regularly to
coordinate services following a Commission led summit; a model policy
and procedure on Domestic Violence in the Workplace developed in partnership
with local human resource directors is now available on the Commission
website.
Yet despite these efforts and the work of law enforcement, service providers,
clergy, and others, Whatcom County experienced terrible losses from domestic
violence this year. The tragedies continue to remind us that our work
is far from over, and there’s much left to be done to meet our ultimate
goal to end domestic violence.
Commission Against Domestic
Violence
PURPOSE
Functions
- Develop and implement a coordinated comprehensive domestic violence plan that is monitored, evaluated and updated on a regular basis.
- Promote coordination and increase collaboration of institutions, systems and services as they respond to offenders, victims, children and others who have been impacted by domestic violence.
- Increase community awareness and understanding about domestic violence.
- Serve as an advisory board to local government agencies and the community with respect to domestic violence issues.
- Develop community benchmarks for monitoring domestic violence and prepare an annual report.
- Serve as a community forum on domestic violence and create a mechanism for identifying issues, concerns, needs and resources.
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Membership
The Commission consists of 14 government and 14 community members. Government officials are designated by government position. Community members are appointed by the Mayor of Bellingham and the County Executive from among members of the community who have an interest in, or are impacted by, domestic violence. The Mayor and County Executive each appoints seven community members representing the following stakeholder groups:
- Domestic Violence Service Provider (1 each)
- Human Service Providers (2 each)
- Major Employer (1 each)
- Health Care Provider (1 each)
- Community at Large (2 each)
Terms of appointed members are 4 years. If you are interested in serving on the Commission, please contact the Commission .
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Meetings
Commission meetings are open to the public and are generally held on the
third Tuesday of the month from 10:00 a.m. until noon, in January, April, June, September and November.
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.Strategic Plan
The Commission has developed a multi-year strategic plan that is used as a basis for the Commission’s annual work plan. Committees and work groups actively work throughout the year to implement the strategic plan.
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.Publications
Published works of the Commission can be found on the reports page
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