Resources
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 Justice and Courage Oversight Project
Resource Committee Meeting of May13, 2003
Minutes
Call to Order and Role Call
Present:
Sharon Woo, District Attorney’s Office
Art Faro, Adult Probation Department
Kavitha Sreeharsha, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach
Susan Fahey, San Francisco Sheriff’s Department
Caroline Donnola, Department on the Status of Women
Justine McGonagle, Department on the Status of Women
Joe McFadden, San Francisco Police Department, DV Unit
Oli Sadler, Department of Telecommunications and Information Services
Approval of Minutes
Minutes from the 4-08-03 meeting were approved.
Report on Chair Meeting
Sharon Woo, Chair, gave a report on the meeting of the Interdepartmental Communications and Coordination Committee (ICCC) role and function. Recommendations will be first submitted to the ICCC and then submitted to the Oversight Panel.
New Directions: Discussion on Prevention/Education/Training (PET) Projects
Discussion made regarding multi-language material given to victims upon initial police contact. Kavitha indicated that if DV forms which are given to victims are made available to her, she could find resources to do the translations. Inspector McFadden also gave information regarding need for translation services for victims when police make contact during the initial call. Currently, ATT interpreter services are available upon initial contact. A need was identified for follow-up interviews. It was reported that these interpreters are provided by officers at Adult Probation Department (APD) who are certified interpreters, but cuts have been made in terms of contracting out these services to Court certified translators. D.A’s office also reported that Court certified interpreters are used during their process. There was discussion about the possibility of consolidations of interpreter services for the Justice community.
There was discussion around budget cuts. Budget cuts may affect interpreter services i.e. APD using APD staff which in turn would affect probation officers who are certified to do translations individual work loads. It was also reported the VINE information system may not be available due to budget issues and STC training money for probation officers still may be cut completely from budget. Also positions of retired district attorneys may not be filled due to budgetary issues.
To further discussion about “prevention” which was how the Committee left off at the last meeting,
ideas were discussed which could be good models to look at in terms of starting this process. The Committee discussed the possibility of the Resource Committee focusing more attention on creating programs that focus on prevention, education and training rather than focusing primarily on what to do after violence has begun. Art Faro mentioned the DARE model which focuses on school, children and funding outside of local budget processes. Art agreed to provide information regarding this process at the next meeting. Sharon discussed a program in Santa Clara County where the D.A.’s go into the schools to educate kids about domestic violence. Sharon agreed to provide information regarding the Santa Clara model at the next meeting. Oli Sadler discussed using current resources in the City and County of San Francisco to help this process. Websites and GTV are venues where information related to DV cases and services can be given to help in information flow processes. There was discussion around creating public service announcements having batterers address batterers and another announcement of survivors addressing victims.
Training issues were also discussed by Committee members. Given budgetary issues some solution driven ideas were discussed, such as the establishment of a repository for information about training focused on DV issues for service providers, probation departments, attorneys, law enforcement, social services, etc. This repository of information could help training providers get necessary certification processes information needed to establish a certified course for STC, POST, or the BAR association. The repository could also give leads on who to contact to get these requirements met and their respective certified courses could be listed in this repository once the courses were “certified”. Again the idea of a website with links was discussed for this process; the need to identify someone or an agency who could update the information was something which needed to be looked at for this endeavor in order to ensure continuation of updating.
Action: A. Faro will research prevention programs that the Committee could possibly model a prevention program after. S. Woo will provide information regarding the Santa Claramodel for next meeting. Oli Sadler and Justine McGonagle will start process of making information available on website.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held on June 10, 2003, 1:30p.m., City Hall, Conference Room 421.
