Town Hall addresses domestic violence at Milwaukee OVP event

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- As Milwaukee closes out 2022 with a rash of violence, influencers packed the Washington Park Senior Center tonight, and declared "We Are Here MKE".

A lot of people, a lot of influential people, came out to this town hall. We saw Sheriff Bell and Senator Lena Taylor and the Director of Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention Ashanti Hamilton.

"Part of the problem that I think we've had is to expect the police to be able to solve this problem themselves. This is something that we want to be able to inject our partners in far before there's a need to actually have to call the police," said Milwaukee OVP Director Ashanti Hamilton.

The two-and-a-half-hour meeting went through a host of topics.

"And let me be clear, even though men tend to be perpetrators of domestic violence, women are also perpetrators of domestic violence," said one speaker.

Tables surrounded the space, with organizations who offer services.

"So we've been operating within Milwaukee central city since 1987," said Antonia Norton, the ASHA Project founder.

The ASHA Project is the first African American domestic violence intervention program in the country.

"You know the title of this event is all hands on deck and so this is critical for us to have conversations with the community and have the community speak about what is needed," said Norton.

Having resources to meet women right where they're at.

"The community may not come to us as an organization but because we live and work in our communities, we are very familiar with the stories that come out," said Tammie Xiong of the Hmong American Women's Association.

Data unveiled show Milwaukee's domestic violence incidents have the highest density in Sherman Park and Franklin Heights. And the age group seeing the largest number of domestic violence victims has changed from 18-25 in 2021 to 26 to 35 in 2022.

"You know we're playing a role in trying to help reverse these numbers. Everybody deserves to live in a community where they're not faced with these types of challenges on a day-to-day basis and it's our job to try to help all of the different partners," said Hamilton.

And as it ended, a call for the audience to carry forward what they learned here.