Court-Order Program Serves a Worthy Cause

Thanks to the Orange County Board of Supervisors, the county’s Victim/Witness Assistance Program will be able to continue helping victims of domestic violence for the next six months, until it can work out a plan to raise private money needed to support its court-order program.

The supervisors, at the urging of Board Chairman Harriett Wieder, ordered the county administrative staff to find the estimated $50,000 needed to continue the service that helps victims of domestic abuse obtain court orders that prohibit their attackers from coming near them. The board also created an 11-member committee to try to raise private funds to permanently carry the program.

The nonprofit, state-financed Victim/Witness Program was created to help victims of other crimes; the state funds do not cover the costs of operating the service that helps secure the court orders against abusers. No other agency in the county fills that need. Without the county board’s intervention, victims of domestic violence would have had no other place to turn.

With the help of about 40 lawyers who volunteered their time, nearly 2,000 people sought court orders through the program in the last fiscal year.

It’s a worthwhile and needed project. Battered spouses and elderly people abused by their offspring need someplace to go for help and protection. Now it’s up to the community to decide whether someone will be there for them come next April.