Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force Working Group Meeting - May 6, 2026
Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force Working Group Meeting - May 6, 2026
The Cook County Violence Against Women Task Force Court Systems and Programs Working Group convened on May 6, 2026, at 10:00 AM. The meeting was called to order by Commissioner Naya and was publicly noticed under the Open Meetings Act. No public comments were submitted. The group reviewed task force priorities, discussed gaps in the court system, and outlined next steps.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments were submitted in advance or offered at the meeting.
Discussion Items
- Task Force Overview: Katie Dunn presented an overview of the task force, noting that fatal domestic-related shootings in Chicago increased 50% in 2025 despite an overall 33% decline in fatal shootings. She highlighted that Cook County has a higher per capita rate of intimate partner homicide than New York and California combined. The task force aims to create a unified, victim-centered system across civil and criminal courts, data sharing, and legislative reforms.
- Court System Priorities: The working group’s initial priorities include examining court responses to violence against women, increasing services for victims in domestic relations cases, and improving suburban courthouse coordination. Tools such as risk assessments, instructional guides, and fee elimination are under consideration.
- Data Dashboard Overview: Existing data sources include the Chicago Violence Reduction Dashboard, the Cook County Justice Dashboard (Loyola), the Civic Committee Data Hub, and the Chief Judge’s weekly dashboard under the Pretrial Fairness Act.
- Gaps for Survivors Without Children: Chela Garcia, head organizer of Little Village Community Council, noted severe difficulty in finding housing and transitional living for women leaving domestic violence shelters who do not have children. Katie Dunn acknowledged that federal housing grants are being cut and that this issue should be part of local funding prioritization.
- Court Navigators: Commissioner Naya emphasized the need for court navigators to provide wraparound support, especially given federal funding cuts, and cited a recent amendment co-sponsored to support partnerships with nonprofit organizations in courthouses.
- Data Committee Representation: Kate Nolan raised that the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office was not represented on the data and research working group. Janet Hunter (Associate Clerk) confirmed she would share information with her office.
Key Outcomes
- The working group will meet approximately six more times before a final report in June 2026. Public hearings are scheduled for July 2026.
- A survey will be distributed to working group members to collect additional input.
- The next executive committee meeting will be held in person on May 7, 2026, at 10:00 AM in the Cook County Board Room (floor 5).
- Meeting participants were encouraged to submit additional materials to Amy Melanasky for compilation.
- The meeting was adjourned by a motion from Carmen Navarro Dracone, seconded by Katie Dunn, with all in favor.
Meeting Transcript
Do you have access to share? Uh no, not yet. Okay. Hello, everybody. We're just waiting on a few more people. Okay. I think people are kind of start to filter in here, but we can get started. Um so welcome. And I know we're just waiting for Commissioner Onaya. But um good. And I know some of the people that were on earlier meetings are on this one too. So just appreciate you kind of being patient while we go through this. We just wanted to do like an overview of the task course and everything. So appreciate your patience. Okay, perfect. All right, I think we can get started. Uh very good. Commissioner Umaio, would you mind calling this meeting to order? Absolutely. Thanks, Amy. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Um, we're gonna be calling the Chicago Cook Um Cook County Violence Against Uh Women Task Force, specifically the court systems and programs working group uh meeting to order. So we will um ensure that uh we take uh note of who is available. Amy, are you gonna be calling out forks or are you gonna you're taking note of who's available? Yeah, so um I do just want everyone to know I am recording this meeting and it will be transcribed, um, but we do not need we are not going to take role. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Great. Um, so I was made aware that we may be gonna uh we were gonna have two elected other elected officials on the call. I don't see them on there, but we may have representatives from obviously the clerk's office, public guardian. Um I believe uh Alder Woman Um Money Scott was gonna be joining us, Alder Woman Sam Nugents and Commissioner Gaynor, but we may have some of their their team members on board um and in this discussion. So I appreciate you all joining us. Um we will begin with a public testimony. So just um for the record, um public testimony requests or written comments um can be submitted up to 24 hours in advance of the meeting to Nancy.negrete at cook countyil.gov. So um Nancy, uh, can you please um let us know if there's any public comment or any written comments that were submitted for this task force? No uh public comment for this meeting. Wonderful. Okay. Um so we're gonna go around and do a quick um introduction just so that everybody knows who is on um on this call. We'll go around and um folks will do a quick introduction of themsel themselves, so with their name, their title and organization, and I will choose a random person and then we if we do a popcorn style, that would be great. Can we actually have Sarah Hawkins start us off? Okay. Um thank you, Commissioner. Good afternoon. I'm Sarah Hawkins. I am the director of the domestic relations division for the Cook County Public Guardian's Office. Thank you. I can go next. Um, I'm Amy Melanasky.
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