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For immediate release: August 24, 2007
Contact:
Margaret Dubuisson
504-592-5691
mdubuisson@archdiocese-no.org
Corinne Knight
504-592-5690
cknight@archdiocese-no.org
NEW ORLEANS FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OPENS ITS DOORS
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will join Mayor C. Ray Nagin, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and others on August 28 to open the doors of the New Orleans Family Justice Center to those living with domestic violence.
The Family Justice Center, a partnership led by Catholic Charities Crescent House and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, will be a one-stop refuge for survivors of domestic violence to find counseling, legal support, advocacy, case management, law enforcement, job training, and therapy for children.
The New Orleans Family Justice Center will be the 16th center of this kind to open in the United States. This center, housed in a building donated by the City of New Orleans, Mary Claire Landry, Director of Catholic Charities Domestic Violence Services, and her team have worked continuously on this project for the past six months. “The New Orleans Family Justice Center was fast tracked by the Department of Justice because they understood how much more of a problem domestic violence has been since Hurricane Katrina,” Landry said. “This is a great example of how a public-private partnership is working in the city. It can happen.”
At the grand opening event, a jazz band will lead a second line into the building at 830 Julia Street. In addition to Gonzales, Nagin, Blanco and Letten, Mary Beth Buchanan, Acting Director of the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, will speak. Mary Claire Landry and two survivors will share their stories on fighting domestic violence. Bishop Shelton Fabre will lead the invocation.
WHO: Catholic Charities, in partnership with U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales, Mayor C. Ray Nagin, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten & others
WHAT: Grand Opening of New Orleans Family Justice Center
WHEN: Tuesday, August 28 at 11 am
WHERE: New Orleans Family Justice Center at 830 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70113 -end-
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