A Clark County nonprofit hopes to interrupt an escalating trend of domestic violence homicides — two occurred in July — with a new team that identifies high-risk victims.
YWCA Clark County will introduce the team this fall to combat intimate partner violence and homicides and strengthen how community leaders support domestic violence survivors.
“We are just fed up with the murders. … We’ve had two murders back to back in a 30-day span. We have to do something,” said Beth Landry, YWCA Clark County’s vice president of domestic violence programs.
Two people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides in 2022, nine in 2023 and three so far in 2024. (These numbers do not include the perpetrator if the incident was a murder-suicide.) Landry said Clark County is on track to meet or exceed last year’s rate.
A way to curb the growing trend is recognizing who is most at risk and stopping violence before it happens, Landry said.
“Over the last few years, YWCA and the whole community have seen that domestic violence-related murders are increasing. It’s clear to us that we need to do something different,” Landry said.
YWCA Clark County will launch the Domestic Violence High-Risk Team in October. Funded by a grant from the Washington State Department of Commerce, one full-time staff member, with additional oversight, will guide the team.
The nonprofit is also working to establish partnerships with law enforcement and attorneys.
“It’s clear to us that while we are passionate about the work and we serve lots of people throughout Clark County, just providing services without clear collaboration from key other stakeholders is not enough,” Landry said. “We need to do more so that they can continue to be survivors and hopefully rebuild their lives while also stopping the murders from happening in the first place.”
Law enforcement will primarily refer domestic violence survivors to the high-risk team after conducting a risk assessment. The team will offer survivor-focused wraparound services and collect unidentifiable data, from those who consent, to help better understand trends.
“We can understand more about what impacts a survivor, what leads to these homicides, what homicides have in common, what high-lethality cases have in common and better ways to serve survivors,” Landry said.
A high-lethality survivor is a person who has experienced domestic violence and is at high risk of being killed or seriously injured by their partner or family member.
“The general idea is that our law enforcement partners will be able to talk about services and talk about the danger assessment. … It will help survivors understand and recognize the level of danger that they may be experiencing and really facilitate some conversations around how certain things indicate high-lethality risk, and urging survivors to seek services,” Landry said.
Landry said YWCA understands the demand for a program like this will outweigh the nonprofit’s capacity. But it is strategizing on how it will meet the demand.
“We already know that the demand is significant and the need is significant, that’s already known. It’s about being able to do something about it, being able to provide those intentional services and intervene in meaningful ways,” Landry said.
