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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
CALLING FOR A HEARING OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE TO RECEIVE AN UPDATE FROM THE PUBLIC SAFETY COUNTY STAKEHOLDERS ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF SAFEGUARDS FOR THE PROTECTION OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE SURVIVORS AND DOMESTIC RELATIONS MEDIATIONS AND CHILD REPRESENTATION
WHEREAS, the Cook County Board of Commissioners took a stance to work towards the full protection of domestic violence and gender-based violence survivors; and
WHEREAS, as part of the Cook County Domestic Violence Initiative, the Board passed an amendment to provide funding as part of the FY2022 budget to improve and expand services for survivors of domestic violence, to address the immediate needs of Domestic Violence Court operations and to establish a 24 hour, 7 day a week court operation for Domestic Violence Court proceedings; and
WHEREAS, said measure was to ensure that adequate funding is available to improve and streamline operations, increase efficiency, and provide accurate information in the criminal justice system, all with the goal of ensuring the public safety of the residents of Cook County; and
WHEREAS, the processes in the criminal justice system are important to the day-to-day operations and are heavily relied on for the safety of victim-witnesses; and
WHEREAS, in addition to domestic violence processes, domestic relations especially when a child is involved are also key in ensuring both victims and the welfare of children are protected; and
WHEREAS, consequently, any proceedings involving the support, custody, visitation, allocation of parental responsibilities, education, parentage, or general welfare of a minor or dependent child, the court may, on its own motion or that of any party, appoint an attorney to serve as guardian ad litem, child representative, and/or an attorney for child pursuant to 750 ILCS 5/506; and
WHEREAS, additionally the court may decide that a child needs a representative, and may appoint the Public Guardian's Office; and
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