A New Name for Sexual and Domestic Violence Task Force?

The tentatively voted in late May to drop "domestic and sexual violence" from its common-use name and expand its services in East Pasco.

While the new name is "Family and Community Enhancement Task Force of East Pasco," the goup is still operating as the only countywide domestic and sexual violence task force. In addition, West Pasco's Domestic Violence Task force is not included in these changes at all and is a separate operation.

Why change the name? It's a different name for “marketing purposes” while the grant money still rolls in under the official legal name, according to the explanation provided by Sunrise of Pasco. That means for bylaws and grants, it's legal name remains as "Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force of Pasco County." All the grant money stays in that name. It's the same group, but it is expanding. It continues to operate countywide. It still addresses sexual abuse, sexual assault, domestic abuse and families. 

But I have concerns. If we can no longer name these crimes that haven't left our community yet, I hope no one thinks that all the law enforcement officers can relax.

"Fear of the name only brings fear of the thing itself”-Harry Potter,  J.K. Rowling.

Are we so afraid to talk about the issues of domestic and sexual abuse that now we cannot even name these crimes for what they are on a county task force?

I think "eliminating domestic and sexual violence" is not going to help victims in the county.

I spoke to Task Force Co-Chairperson Terri O’Brien, Director of Sunrise of Pasco Domestic and Sexual Violence Center, about the new name and new services.

The new name "is not set in stone," she said.  "There may be a better idea out there than the one from those who were present at the last meeting, and of course, all task force member feedback on it is still coming up, and there is time now for everyone to think about it and what direction this can go in....”

Why keep it open for discussion since those present had already voted at the May 24 meeting?

“Because this is bigger than me and (Co-chairperson) Marty (Driscoll), those who were present... and involves so much that is important in our community," O'Brien said. "We are giving all our task force members an opportunity to provide feedback. Very cognizant to getting it out to the whole community for feedback. It's not just for those members of the task force who attended the last meeting to decide because this is important for all of us to think about and engage in.”

This task force now also has a new mission statement "to join government, community, and private-sector forces to promote a coordinated primary prevention approach to building healthy families and community relationships for the elimination of all forms of abuse and violence." Another change is that it now has a “parenting committee.”

Domestic and sexual violence often involves the Office of Bob Dillinger, Public Defender over Pasco County, which was not notified of the meeting or the vote to change the task force mission and name change.  I checked that out again with Violet Assaid, Sr. Assistant Public Defender:

"No one contacted us or notified us, and we did not send anyone to this task force meeting," she said. "We absolutely want to participate.”

The new name was selected from options presented by Driscoll, a Department of Corrections private contractor, indicate a different focus.

I dislike euphemisms and jellyfish.    

"Family and Community Enhancement Task Force of East Pasco"  is, in my humble opinion, a misleading jellyfish and makes it more difficult to talk about the tough issues. This is supposed to be about collaborating a way to end sexual and domestic assault. Hiding from it by not naming it will only make it worse. For instance, as the only sexual assault task force for Pasco, the “r” word, RAPE, is going to be harder to get people talking about in this watered down version of spin-doctoring rather than a clear and targeted task force that knows what it is and what it wants.