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Meeting Information



family_violence_council

2009 2008 2007 

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

 

MINUTES

Thursday, April 17, 2008

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

400 McAllister St.Room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Members Present (denoted with x):

X

Presiding Judge, or designee: Commissioner Marjorie Slabach

X

Director of Dept. of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Ms. Teresa Guillen

X

Mayor, or designee: Ms. Catherine Dodd

 

Director of DCYF, or designee: Ms. Kimberly Ganade

 

President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee

X

Director of Child Support Services, or designee: Ms. Karen Roye

X

District Attorney, or designee: Mr. James Rowland

X

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium, or designee: Ms. Beverly Upton

X

Chief of Police, or designee: Lt. Molly Pengel

X

Director of Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention, or designee: Ms. Mary Twomey

 

Sheriff, or designee: Ms. Delia Ginorio

X

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council, or designee: Ms. Kathy Baxter

X

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Chief Deputy Patrick Boyd

X

Chair of Batterer’s Intervention Programs Subcommittee: Mr. Antonio Ramirez

 

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Ms. Andrea Evans

X

X

Director of Animal Care and Control, or designee: Ms. Vicky Guldbech

Public Defender, or designee: Ms. Simin Shamji

 

Chief of Department of Emergency Management, or designee: Deputy Director Lisa Hoffman

X

Superintendent of SF Unified School District, or designee: Ms. Ilsa Bertolini

Family Violence Council Staff Present:

X

Director of Dept of Public Health, or designee: Dr. Leigh Kimberg

 

Administrative Analyst Laura Marshall, Department on the Status of Women

X

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: Ms. Maggie Donahue

 

Senior Policy Analyst Jill Tregor, Department on the Status of Women

I.          CALL TO ORDER/ AGENDA CHANGES              

Beverly Upton called the meeting to order at 3:10 pm, and altered the agenda to hear presentation by Animal Care and Control prior to Announcements and Old Business.

 

II.        APPROVAL OF MINUTES            

Action: Approved the meeting minutes from January 17, 2008. (m/s/c: Kimburg/Donahue/Unanimous)

No public comment.

 

III.       NEW BUSINESS

 

A.        Animal Care and Control: Vicky Guldbech

The Council heard a presentation by Vicky Guldbech of Animal Care and Control (ACC) about the intersection between ACC’s work and family violence:

  • The link between family violence and animal abuse is clear and documented.
  • ACC staff members want to learn how to get involved and support families without causing further harm.

·         ACC has a “Safe Pets Program” which provides a safe place for animals to stay so that a domestic violence victim can leave and find shelter.  However, the program is under-resourced, and pet stays are limited. 

·         ACC had a gentleness training program called STEP, offered in Visitacion Valley and other communities.  STEP taught children and families to treat each other more gently through learning to treat animals gently.  This was a successful program that, with resources, could be brought into the schools as a prevention tool. 

·         ACC has expertise in dealing with animals, but could use training and assistance when dealing with families.  Ms. Guldbech requested training for ACC staff members about resources available, how to effectively intervene, etc.

o        ACC works closely with SFPD and Child Welfare (as they are mandated reporters of child abuse), and Ms. Guldbech stated that her first call in any family violence situation is generally to SFPD.

·         ACC has in-house staff development days every 3 months, during which speakers are invited.  Ms. Guldbech offered this as an opportunity for members of the family violence intervention community to attend and train ACC staff members.

o        Such training would be reciprocal, with ACC providing training to the community about recognizing signs of animal abuse.  Some participants at the meeting discussed adding this type of training to the 40-hour domestic violence certification training.

 

IV.       OLD BUSINESS                                                                                

 

A.        Resource Card

The Resource Cards approved at the January 17, 2008 meeting of the Family Violence Council have been translated into Spanish and Cantonese.  They are available on the Department on the Status of Women website.  Any updates to be made to this information on the card should be sent to Laura Marshall at the Department on the Status of Women at laura.marshall@sfgov.org or (415) 252-2578. 

 

B.        Progress toward Goals

The Family Violence Council has made some steps toward accomplishing the goals discussed at the January 17, 2008 meeting:

  • The translation of the Resource Card has been completed. 
  • Co-Chairs have been in conversations with the Department of Emergency Management related to training all new dispatchers about the 3 fields of family violence.

 

V.         ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

A.        Photo Documentation of Injuries Protocol

Dr. Leigh Kimberg of the Department of Public Health (lkimberg@medsfgh.ucsf.edu) asked individuals interested in working with her to revise the protocol for the photo documentation of injuries to contact her.  In 2000, Dr. Kimberg worked with the DA’s Office to develop a protocol for taking Polaroid photos of injuries in health settings that would be admissible and usable in trial.  Now that Polaroid is discontinuing the production of their film, and more health settings are switching to digital photography, new protocols for this technology must be crafted.  Such a protocol should include input from the ADA’s and Police Department staff in charge of the units related to the 3 areas of family violence.  This could be a useful product for the Family Violence Council. 

 

B.        Training Opportunities

The Family Violence Prevention Fund will be conducting a training about the new domestic violence protocols for Child Welfare Workers that are scheduled to take effect as of June 1.  This training grew out of the work of Project Greenbook, a collaboration of domestic violence agencies, child welfare agencies, and the courts looking at children’s exposure to domestic violence.  The training is open to the community, and will be held on May 14 and 15.  Contact Maggie Donahue at maggie.donahue@sfgov.org for details.

 

HSA has developed several collaborations, including an Adult Probation collaborative training, a Juvenile Court collaborative training, and the incorporation of the domestic violence protocols into the Bay Area Academy Core Training for all Child Welfare Workers.  The issue of the mandated reporting of a child’s exposure to domestic violence is very confusing to many workers in the field, and participants at the meeting requested that HSA report back at a later date about how the new domestic violence protocols are functioning in practice. 

 

SafeStart and the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center are hosting a free community training on May 6, 2008, entitled Lasting Impressions: Lifetime Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE Study) with Dr. Vincent Felitti.  For more information, email safestart@sfcapc.org. 

 

VI.       NEW BUSINESS, cont.

 

B.        Victim’s Game of Life

The Victim’s Game of Life is an activity currently being used in the Department on the Status of Women’s Domestic Violence Response Cross-Training Institute.  Participants were given cards representing varied amounts of money and good will.  Given a series of scenarios, participants were forced to make choices about finding safety when faced with violence at home.  The activity highlights the challenges victim of domestic violence face. 

 

C.        Current Trends in Family Violence

 

1.         Child Abuse Awareness Month

An article released by the Center for Disease Control shows that the greatest risk of child maltreatment occurs in the first year of life.  The Shaken Baby Task Force in San Francisco is now training every new parent about the dangers of shaking babies.  Additionally, the Pope made reconciliation and healing from childhood sexual abuse a focus of his visit to the U.S.

 

2.         FY2008-09 Budget

The Governor has proposed 10% cuts to social services, which will have tremendous impacts statewide.  All departments and fields of family violence will be impacted in the coming fiscal year.  The Mayor introduced a resolution to the Board of Supervisors asking that no more set-asides get created without an ongoing supply of new money to support it.  Participants requested an update of budget impacts at the next Family Violence Council meeting.

 

3.         Batterer Intervention Programs

Batterer Intervention Programs have been suffering recently.  Referral to programs by judges is low.  Two of San Francisco’s programs (Mission Council and Manalive) have closed, meaning that batterers are not getting the services they need.  Participants requested that this issue of Batterer Intervention Programs be addressed at an upcoming meeting of the Family Violence Council.

 

VII.      PUBLIC COMMENT                                                           

There was no public comment.

                                               

VIII.    ADJOURNMENT                                                     

Family Violence Council adjourned at 4:25 pm.

 

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