On March 2, 2010, around 8:00 p.m., Andreau Yankton approached his wife’s checkout lane at the Publix supermarket in downtown Orlando and shot her in the face, killing her almost instantly. His two former wives had filed injunctions against him in 1996 and 2002.

On February 8, 2010 Cocoa resident Alissa Blanton, 23, was gunned down by a man who stalked her at her home and workplace, the AT&T Wireless Call Center near UCF.

In December 2009, a Sanford man fatally shot his wife and then took his own life. In June, a father fatally shot his wife and two children inside their Heathrow home and then killed himself. In July, a 34-year-old man in Deltona shot and killed his former longtime girlfriend and then himself.

With a little awareness training, all these tragic incidences could have been identified and prevented.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, and an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Young boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults.

Laura Williams, executive director of CourtWatch Florida, Inc., knows a little about domestic violence and what is needed to help protect victims. The mission of her organization is to empower the community to positively impact the court system’s handling of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse cases. Their goal is to make sure that the justice system holds perpetrators accountable while not re-victimizing victims in the process.

“Abusers don’t always batter their victims. My husband never battered me. But he engaged in nearly every other controlling behavior that is detailed on the power and control wheel,” says Williams. “After a three and a half year marriage, my estranged husband fatally shot our two-year-old daughter, Sarah, before he committed suicide in 1996. At the time, I vowed that my loss would not be in vain.”

There are several things that you can do to identify and prevent domestic violence in your own spaces and in the homes around you. By being active in educating people about this problem, you can lessen the chances of domestic violence in your own community.  Williams suggests that you focus on helping people understand it’s about “power and control”, not an anger problem.

“East Orlando, like many other communities, suffers from a lack of awareness on the issue of how domestic violence spreads into various realms of society,” says Carol Wick, chief executive officer of Harbor House, a safe shelter for victims of domestic violence.  “It is not just one family that is being affected by the abuse; it’s their neighbors, their schools, their work environments, friends and extended families.”

Domestic violence affects the bottom line of the business community as well.  According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund study, domestic violence costs American businesses an estimated $3 billion per year and victims are absent approximately 8 million paid working days of the year.

Employers can play a vital role in the protection of domestic violence victims.  Duncan Consulting, Inc., in partnership with Harbor House, has created a Domestic Violence Policy for businesses. The policy is a guideline both for the victim of domestic violence and business leaders. It offers a confidential way for victims to approach management for help and provides resources for victims of domestic violence.

“It is important to be able to know how to respond to a survivor of abuse, without judging, criticizing or telling them what to do,” says Wick. “Protecting survivors starts with believing and validating them. Protection does not mean putting yourself or others in harm’s way; it means acting as a responsible community member who is willing to become educated on knowing how to recognize, respond and refer.”

For more information on how you can help or be helped, visit www.HarborHouseFL.com, (Crisis Hotline: 407-886-2856) or www.CourtWatchFlorida.org.

Article by Johnny Duncan

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Johnny Duncan, PHR, is President of Duncan Consulting, Inc., and is on the Harbor House Advisory Board. He can be reached at johnny@duncanconsult.com or by calling 407-739-0718.