Address Confidentiality
As a part of a comprehensive safety plan, an address confidentiality program provides survivors who have recently located, with a substitute address because they fear future harm.
Safe Time
Ensures that survivors do not jeopardize their financial security or risk unemployment by taking time off to deal with the consequences of abuse. Employers would give survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, staling and human trafficking time off to seek injunctions for protection (TPO’s and other stay away orders), obtain medical care/counseling for injuries sustained as a result from the violence, obtain services form a DV/SA program, making the home secure, etc.
Increase in State Allocation for DV Shelters
An increase in the state’s allocation for certified DV shelters would bring the state’s allocation up from 30% to 50% and offset VOCA cuts over the next 2-3 years.
Paid Leave for All
(Ga Coalition for Paid Leave)
Seeks paid family and medical leave for all working people. This would be a piece of model legislation that would provide family and medical leave insurance benefits created through the state treasury.
Training Requirement on DV and Child Abuse for Court Personnel
Increases and clarifies training requirements for court personnel regularly involved in domestic violence matters.
Registry Clean Up
(Stand With Survivors Coalition)
Addresses a gap in the existing statute from 2015 (HB 454) which authorized criminal family violence orders, including stay-away orders in bond or probation conditions, to be entered on Georgia’s Protective Order Registry by creating a mechanism to enter those orders onto the registry.
Add Pets to TPO's
(Stand With Survivors Coalition)
Would award the survivor temporary exclusive care, possession, or control of an animal that is owned, possession, or control of an animal that is owned, possessed, harbored, kept, or held by the petitioner, the respondent, or a minor child residing in the residence or household of the petitioner or respondent.
Strangulation Education
(Stand With Survivors Coalition)
Would require law enforcement officers who are responding to alleged incidents of non-fatal strangulations to read a statement of notification to victims of strangulation on-scene.
HB 218 Weapons Carry License Reciprocity
(Moms Demand Action)
Would impact survivors of intimate partner violence if carry licenses are rushed during a public health crisis and perpetrators are able to carry firearms across state lines with no way to verify that they are legally allowed to be in possession of a firearm.
Paid and Protective Leave
Ensures that survivors do not jeopardize their financial security or risk unemployment by taking time off to deal with the consequences of abuse. Employers would give survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and human trafficking time off to seek injunctions for protection (TPO’s and other stay away orders), obtain medical care/counseling for injuries sustained as a result from the violence, obtain services from a DV/SA program, making the home secure, etc.
GA Safe Workplaces Act
(Respect Georgia Workers Alliance)
Gives employees a right of action (legal action) when they have experienced workplace harassment and when an employer has retaliated against a worker when the worker has opposed the harassment or submitted a claim. The worker can be FT/PT, contractor, vendor, subcontractor, or consultant, etc.
Address Confidentiality Program
Would create an Address Confidentiality Program administered by a state agency in order to new addresses confidential for those who are survivors of DV, SA, Stalking, and Trafficking. Addresses would be protected from drivers’ licenses, library cards, school enrollment records, etc.
HB96 50/50 Custody Adjudication
Seeks a 50/50 Presumption in Child Custody adjudications. This standard would remove judicial discretion and has been shown in other states to increase the likelihood that children will be placed with abusive parents as a result of disputes over custody and visitation during relationship dissolution. HB96 also removes the age limit for children to determine with which parent they wish to live- inviting in more opportunity for children to be coerced; and it increases the standard of evidence from the civil standard of preponderance to a higher standard of clear and convincing when there is an abuse claim.
Funding For Domestic Violence Programs
State-administered funding for domestic violence programs is a crucial component of the network of services and systems that assist victims of domestic violence in Georgia. GCADV requests 2.7M in funding for domestic and sexual violence programs.
Strengthening Protections For Victims of Family and Dating Violence
GCADV supports legislation to amend O.C.G.A. 19-13-1 to expand the family violence definition to include dating partners or persons whom a past or present pregnancy has developed.
Strengthening Protections for Victims of Stalking
GCADV supports legislation to amend O.C.G.A. § 16-5-90 to expand the stalking definition to recognize that stalking can happen in any public or private property occupied by the victim.
GCADV Supports Legislation to Amend the Statute of Limitations on Sexual Assault
GCADV supports SB 287 that seeks to remove the statute of limitations on allegations of sexual assault.
Funding For Domestic Violence Programs
State-administered funding for domestic violence programs is a crucial component of the network of services and systems that assist victims of domestic violence in Georgia. GCADV supports the Governor’s proposal for level-funding of domestic and sexual violence programs.
Definition Change of Primary Aggressor
GCADV supports legislation to amend O.C.G.A. language from primary aggressor to dominant aggressor. This will help with reducing arrests of survivors and adequately reflect the reality of the incidences from the lens of isolated behavior to patterned behavior.
Domestic Violence and Public Safety
GCADV Supports legislation which legislation which mirrors existing federal law making it a felony crime for domestic violence perpetrators to possess a firearm or ammunition while they are subject to a Family Violence Temporary Protective Order or if they are convicted of a qualifying family violence-related misdemeanor. GCADV also supports legislative efforts which would require domestic violence perpetrators who are subject to this prohibition to relinquish their firearms to local law enforcement.
Strengthening Protections for Victims of Family and Dating Violence
GCADV supports legislation to amend O.C.G.A. 19-13-1 to expand the family violence definition to include dating partners or persons whom a past or present pregnancy has developed.