NORWICH – The National Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) has granted a scholarship for a multidisciplinary team from Chenango County to attend the 2012 OVC Mass Violence and Emergency National Training Conference in Jacksonville, Fla.

The national scholarship will pay for four members of a Chenango County emergency response team to attend the five-day event for training to coordinate an incident response plan during acts of terrorism or in the event of mass violence and injury in the area.

In response to the offer, David Auwarter, director of the crime victims program at Catholic Charities, has helped compile a team of four stakeholders in the area to attend the conference. Attendees will include himself, Sgt. Patrick Blenis of the Norwich City Police Department and Chenango Memorial Hospital employees Kim McCarthy and Donna Faber.

To qualify for this scholarship, Auwarter explained that a team must have at least four members, two of which must be a law enforcement official and a victim services provider. McCarthy – who is a social worker at CMH – and Faber offered to be part of the team so they could focus on the health aspects of victims in the event of mass injury while Catholic Charities would provide other essential and emotional support.