Metro Nashville Employees To Receive Training In Spotting — And Helping — Victims Of Domestic Abuse

Metro Nashville employees could soon receiving training on how to recognize domestic abuse — and what resources are available if they themselves need help.

That’s thanks to an executive order signed by Mayor David Briley this week. It was drafted with the Mayor’s Office on Gender Equity, as well as the Office of Family Safety, which is headed by Diane Lance. She says supervisors will receive additional
 training, on how to respond to an employee’s disclosure of abuse in a victim-centered way.

Lance says that’s because there’s not just “one safety solution for each type of victim.”

“So it’s really teaching the supervisors how to have that conversation in a meaningful and appropriate way,” she says, “and then figure out where to go from there and what type services to direct them to, and how to keep them safe in the workplace and then hopefully at home as well.”

Lance says creating a safe, supportive workplace for victims is important because domestic violence often interferes with work, and can cost someone their job.

Until now, Mayor Briley says, employees experiencing abuse have usually been directed to human resources for guidance. But, he says, “There wasn’t a systematic approach to it, or it wasn’t necessarily informed by the latest thinking in terms of how you need to confront issues of domestic violence.”

The Briley administration is going to ask Metro Public Schools and Nashville Electric Service to adopt the policy as well.

If the Civil Service Commission approves the measure at its meeting next month, it would go into effect immediately.