Branches Receives State-Wide Award for Excellence in Victim Advocacy and Justice

Huntington, W.Va.—Branches Domestic Violence Shelter has received a state-wide award from Attorney Will Thompson and the Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia and the Operation Reach Out committee. Branches Domestic Violence Shelter was honored with the award as part of a ceremony hosted in follow up to Crime Victim’s Rights Week. The ceremony featured awards to survivors and service providers serving victims of crime throughout the state. In addition to the awards ceremony, survivors and victims were honored with a remembrance tree and remarks from Angie Conn, survivor, and the Honorable Tera Salango. Executive Director, Amanda McComas noted, “It is such an honor to have our trauma-informed, victim-centered advocacy approach recognized in the state of West Virginia. Branches is committed to making the safety of victims of domestic violence our priority in everything that we do because everyone deserves to live a life free from violence.”

Operation Reach Out is a collaborative effort involving local advocacy programs that raise awareness of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week and of the various organizations that provide services to crime victims. The Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, within the Office of Justice Programs, leads communities across the country in observing National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first National Crime Victims’ Rights Week to bring greater sensitivity to the needs and rights of victims of crime.

More information about the Office of Justice Programs and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov. More information about Crime Victim’s Rights Week can be found at https://ovc.ncjrs.gov/ncvrw.

For more information about Branches Domestic Violence Shelter or domestic violence services, visit www.branchesdvs.org