The Marion County Children’s Alliance has a Family Violence Prevention work group that helps address the impact of domestic violence locally.
The group includes representatives from social services, nonprofit and for-profit agencies, businesses and the community. Its mission is to organize activities that increase public awareness through education, training and collaborations with individuals, community leaders and public and private organizations.
“In Ocala/Marion County, we average more than 3,000 reported cases of domestic violence each year. The Ocala Police Department had 415 reported domestic violence cases through August of this year and 58 dating violence cases. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office had 1,515 reported domestic violence cases through July of this year. They don’t report dating violence cases. Since we started tracking homicides in 1997, 154 people have died as a result of domestic violence. There have been three homicides this year,” Family Violence Prevention Coordinator Monica Bryant stated…