Student making community impact today, not tomorrow

Student making community impact today, not tomorrow

Social work student's innovation impacts lives of Nashville's domestic abuse survivors

Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 04/16/2026

May 2026 graduate Ava Noviello, from Portland, Connecticut, doesn't have to wait until she gets her degree to see the positive impacts of her ideas and hard work.

She spent the past school year working at the Davidson County District Attorney's Office's Victim Witness Services Division, and her proposal for improvement, drafted as her senior capstone project for her Bachelor of Social Work degree, is already being implemented and having positive effects on Nashvillians.

During the 2025-26 school year, Noviello worked as a victim witness coordinator, who works one-on-one with domestic abuse survivors during the course of their court case, educating them on how the court process functions and how they can access local resources such as temporary housing and food aid. In domestic abuse situations, survivors are often cut off from their main financial resource and can be isolated from family and friends during the legal processes, said Noviello. They may also need additional legal services, such as an order of protection, during the court case.

Noviello's supervisor Tracey Houston, director of victim witness services, was interested in enhancing the programs' contact with victims after case closure, to ensure they remain on stable footing as they work toward recovery.

"I have certainly recognized over the years that it seems beneficial to the victims to still receive communication from us after the case is finalized," said Houston. "Just because they may not have processed all the questions they really have on the last day in court. It is a day that is quite traumatic for them, and they may leave the court not knowing everything they need to."

Noviello took on the challenge and researched the demonstrated impact of follow-up calls to survivors outlined in past studies and analyses. Research showed that within the first week after the close of a case, survivors' emotions come to the surface and they begin to feel the full weight of the situation, said Noviello.
Informed by her research, Noviello recommended that the program's social workers reach out to high-risk survivors within the first week, a less intensely stressful time for them but around the time they may be experiencing an emotional surge.

This spring, Noviello and fellow Lipscomb intern Amaya Dryden, have been making the follow-up calls, giving survivors the chance to ask any additional questions or inquire about any additional resources. Affordable mental health counseling is one of the most requested resources at that time, said Noviello, as many bottled up emotions are usually expressing themselves.

Noviello recommended a second contact as well, about three-to-four weeks, allowing enough time for the survivors to act on suggestions and take advantage of available resources.

"I kept in mind to keep the calls short and not to overwhelm the survivor. The system is already very intimidating," she said. "The goal is to give them the opportunity to speak to us, because they may feel as though they don't have that opportunity after the case has been closed. A listening ear is something they have not always had in the past."

"Ava has had great success, with very positive feedback, even from people who don't need any additional action," said Houston. "They are very appreciative of the call. The criminal justice system is overwhelming. Anything we can do to humanize the process is helpful for both us and the victim."

"Even in the short period of time of my internship," said Noviello, "I would say that during those follow-up calls, I have interacted with survivors in situations where I realized that abuse was still occurring and that there were actions we could take. I have been hearing back from them that they were able to arrange counseling sessions, so there has definitely been improvement within this program."

The high crime rate in Metropolitan Davidson County keeps the DA's 22 victim witness coordinators quite busy, said Houston, so she relies on regular interns during the school year to provide extra services or to enact improvements.

But even after this spring's interns graduate, Houston said she will continue the post-court follow-up calls with high-risk victims. Noviello has made that possible by carefully documenting all the follow-up calls and recommended actions that she and Dryden have made this spring.

"Sometimes they are just trying to survive the process, and it is not until the criminal process is over that they can begin really healing, and they need help for that," said Houston.

Noviello came to Lipscomb from a family of social workers and came to Lipscomb thinking she wanted to work with defendants, but after working for the DA, she says she has come to love working with victims and abuse survivors.

Learn more about the Lipscomb University's Bachelor of Social Work.