Victoria, B.C.- The Province has selected who will head up the new Provincial Office of Domestic Violence. 

Cory Heavener, currently the Director of Critical Injury and Death Reviews and Investigations for the Office of the Representative for Children and Youth, will take on this new role effective March 26, 2012. 

Heavener has led two significant investigations and reports dealing with domestic violence, ‘No Private Matter: Honouring Christian Lee’, and most recently ‘Honouring Kaitlynne, Max, and Cordon – Make Their Voices HeardNow’,  a report on three children who were killed by their father, Allan Schoenborn.   It is from that report that the Province made the decision to create the new Office of Domestic Violence. 

"I feel honoured to have been asked to lead this new provincial domestic violence office” says Heavener, “I know from my close work with women and children affected by violence what a difference the right services at the right time can make.” 

Operating within the Ministrey of Children and Family Development, the office will be accountable for ensuring all domestic violence policies, programs and services are effective and delivered in a comprehensive and unified way across government.

 The first task will be to identify the gaps facing families experiencing domestic violence, then develop an action plan to respond to the recommendations made in the Schoenborn report.