City of Shelter

A coordinated community response to domestic violence

An 8 1/2-hour, 11-part video-based training series for professionals

Produced by

Global Village Communications

Reviews

• "We decided to purchase the series knowing this purchase would exhaust our training budget for the remainder of the year. That said, we would like everyone to know that the City of Shelter series has become our standby, the most used and the most valuable all-round educational tool we have."
  --Jan Dimmitt, Executive Director, Emergency Support Shelter
  
  
• "The explanation of "courtwatch programs" was so beneficial, we started one of our own."
  --Daryl Rodway, Executive Direct, Valencia Shelters for Victims of Domestic Violence
  
  
• "This series is one of the best I have viewed and we are getting more use out of it than any other video purchased from any group."
  --Vickie S. Pait, Executive Director, Families First
  
  
• "We believe that City of Shelter is one of the best domestic violence videos produced."
  --Susan Drake, Program Director, HAWC
  
  
• "City of Shelter is one of the best domestic violence training videos I have seen and certainly the most comprehensive video-based training series currently available."
  --Sarah Buel, University of Texas, Domestic Violence Clinic
  
  
• "The City of Shelter video series is an innovative and compelling training vehicle. Particularly compelling was the segment on building a coordinated community response--seeing actual community activists, legal experts, health care professionals, advocates for each of the constituencies involved all struggling to understand each other's worlds and make their community safer for women and children."
  --Dr. Jacquelyn Campbell, Johns Hopkins University, School of Nursing
  
  
• "I believe the powerful emotional content of this series will translate into practical, day-to-day, procedural changes that will ultimately result in increased safety for victims of domestic violence."
  --Lt. Mark Wynn (ret.), Wynn Consulting Inc.
  
  
• "Communities that are attempting to improve their coordinated response to domestic violence face a multitude of challenges, ranging from attitudinal barriers to procedural conflicts, to lack of trust. City of Shelter addresses these barriers in a way that a wide variety of professionals can understand, without feeling defensive."
  --Denise Washington, Executive Director, Oregon Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
  
  
• "This video series is the first of its kind to address the issues that face each discipline's struggle with domestic violence advocacy. I like the fact that som many views are presented. You don't hear from just one law enforcement officer, prosecutor, or medical professional. You hear from many from the top to the bottom."
  --Carol Gundlach, Executive Director, Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence
  
  
• " I personally feel that City of Shelter is a vital tool in facilitating groups of people who may want to make a difference, but don't know how, or never knew they could. It's also educational, challenging, energizing, and motivating for community leaders, whose support is vital to our cause."
  --Jeannie Ingram, Director of Domestic Violence Services, YWCA-Birmingham
  
  
• "Coordinated Community Response Teams often struggle with where and how to start the process. City of Shelter's hands-on approach guides the team along the journey."
  --Mary Rowan, Community Response Coordinator, CAP Services
  
  
• "Law enforcement has also borrowed our copy of City of Shelter and used it for a training tool for their officers. Anytime Law Enforcement wants to use your tools for training means it must be good."
  Suzanne Foss, Executive Director Colorado River Regional Crisis Shelter
  
  
• "There's no doubt in my mind that this is the best coordinated community response training tool we've had in a long time."
  --Gail Waymire, Chairperson, Coalition Against Domestic Violence of Steuben County, Indiana
  
  
• "Only one word can describe this-- Excellent!"
  --Chief Kelly Blair, Sugarcreek Twp. Police Dept.
  
  
• "This series provides a ready-made innovative training and educational tool for communities working to achieve a coordinated response to domestic violence. As a professional in the field of domestic violence for over 20 years, I believe this video series serves to be one of the best ever produced."
  --Nancy Neylon, Executive Director,
  Ohio Domestic Violence Network
  
  
• "Your video tape series CITY OF SHELTER provides an excellent resource to meet the training needs of our officers. This series provides more than just the legal details relating to domestic issues. It provides a larger overview of the many agencies and individuals affected by domestic violence."
  --Chief David Helling, Bellbrook Police Dept.
  
  
• "A sensitively done film which is very impactful. A beautifully disturbing documentary."
  --Dr. Susan Toole, Clinical Psychologist
  
  
• "City of Shelter was beautifully done and will definitely have a huge impact on domestic violence."
  --Connie Fox, Co-founder, Louisville Courtwatch
  
  
• "The comprehensiveness of this video series in dealing with all of the various aspects of domestic violence...was excellent. I would recommend the CITY OF SHELTER video series as an exemplary training tool on domestic violence for any law enforcement agency, regardless of size."
  --Chief Philip Potter, CLEE, Piqua Police Dept.
  
  
• "We incorporated the 'Law Enforcement Response' video as part of our officer training seminar. Our VAWA detective who reviews all of the patrol officers domestic violence reports mentioned to me that she is already seeing a difference in the reports coming across her desk. She attributes this directly to the film. It was unquestionably, the best in-house training session we have had on the topic of domestic violence."
  --Susan Brasier, Prosecutor, City of Riverside, Ohio
  
  
• "This film powerfully depicts the negative impact domestic violence has on its victims and other family members."
  --Major Mark Stusek, Superintendent, Special Investigations Division, Dayton Police Department
  
  
• "Powerful and compelling. Clearly demonstrated how successful, community-wide domestic violence initiatives evolve."
  --Judge V. Michael Brigner, Domestic Relations Division, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court
  
  
• "Awesome! We have never had access to such a thorough training tool."
  --Karen Scott, Executive Director, Women's Tri-County Help Center
  
  
• "It's difficult to put into words the impact that I believe this video will have. Every aspect of it, the visual, the music, the interviews, the flow, and particularly the messages are a respective tribute to victims, and a realistic, personal view for all professionals. Powerful! Intense!"
  --Sara DeLong, Batterer Intervention Specialist, Women's Tri-County Help Center
  
  
• "Dramatic in visual and verbal content."
  --Sgt. James Deaton, Sugarcreek Twp. Police Department
  
  
• "You have brought together the strongest video I have ever seen. Your insight and determination to get it all is well balanced. Having committed 20 years of my life to the field of domestic violence, I thought I had felt as much as possible about this issue. The film moved me deeply, disturbed me, and inspired me. I can't wait to see what changes occur after the community gets to see this!!"
  --Nancy Grigsby, Executive Director, Artemis Center for Alternatives to Domestic Violence
  
  
• "The information, for once, is realistic and factual."
  --Sandra Rogers, Domestic Violence Survivor
  
  
• "CITY OF SHELTER is a powerful documentary which highlights the truth of domestic violence and its impact."
  --Tammy Loader, Women's Tri-County Help Center
  
  
• "I think what you have done is going to have a tremendous impact on all community helpers, ultimately saving lives. Most important, I believe it is going to re-energize those who have been 'fighting the good fight' and have grown frustrated."
  --Chief Cel Rivera, Lorain Police Department
  
  
• "This is a story that needs to be told, told, and told again."
  --Lt. W.L. Bretscher, Bellbrook Police Department
  
  
• "I have not, in the 15 years of working in domestic violence, seen a more powerful and skillful discussion of the issues involving abuse and in coordinating a community response."
  --Janet Hoffman, Executive Director, Abuse and Rape Crisis Shelter of Warren County
  
  
• "Our Just Faith group was in search of materials to help us understand domestic violence and then to be able to make some community response to it. We read the book Getting free but felt we needed a lot more. You shared your video and how it came to be. It was then that we felt we had finally grasped the psychology of domestic violence."
  --Kathleen Kammer, Adult Formation Violence Minister, The Church of Saint Francis of Assisi
  
  
• "The series is a comprehensive and powerful production of the evolution of a domestic violence coordinating council and the development of the community's healthcare, law enforcement, shelter/advocate, prosecutor's, judicial, and batterers' intervention responses to domestic violence. It has nationwide ramifications in that it can be adapted to individual communities."
  --Edna Frantela, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
  
  
• "As an Emergency Medicine physician, I have been involved in this area for a long time and have never seen a program live or recorded, locally or nationally, that has the impact of this series."
  --Judith A. Royer, M.D., FACEP, Emergency Trauma Center, Good Samaritan Hospital and Health Center
  
  
• "I found your tapes to be inspiring, understanding and very practical in using them for our training sessions in the Victim/Witness Advocate Division of the Warren County Prosecutor's Office. As for me, it has made a huge difference in my approach towards others professionally and with victims, friends, and family members."
  --Joanne Ingram, Advocate, Victim/Witness Division, Warren County Prosecutor's Office
  
  
• "City of Shelter is an excellent training series and I would recommend it to any individual and/or agency that provides training on family violence. The information is relevant in any area of our country."
  --Cheryl Fuller, Director of Operations & Development, Domestic Abuse Council, Inc., Daytona Beach, Florida
  
  
• "Too many documentaries approach the question of domestic violence as if the answers have already been found and we need only listen to the truthteller behind the camera and editing desk. The producers of this video approach the professionals they interviewed with a solid understanding of the multitude of questions still to be explored as we come to grips with domestic violence. The questions and answers it presents through interviews and the discussions it records among professionals making historical efforts to move forward on the issue, will resonate in any locale. I think this series captures issues with which anyone involved with domestic violence at any level in any county or municipality will be grappling."
  --Renee Heberle, Assistant Professor, Departments of Political Science and Women's and Gender Studies, The University of Toledo