August 19, 2010

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

 

MINUTES

Thursday, August 19, 2010

3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

San Francisco Civil Court

400 McAllister St., Room 509

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

 

I.          CALL TO ORDER/ AGENDA CHANGES  

            Beverly Upton called the meeting to order at 3:10 pm with no changes to the agenda.

 

II.        INTRODUCTIONS               

 

III.       APPROVAL OF MINUTES             

            The Council approved the minutes from May 20, 2010 [Kirshner-Rodriguez/Pandorf/All].

 

IV.       BUSINESS                 

 

A.        Announcements         

• Captain John Ehrlich of the San Francisco Police Department announced that there is a new lieutenant assigned to the Child Abuse and Exploitation Unit, Lt. John Geraty.
• Sonia Melara of Rally Visitation Services announced that Rally will be holding an event as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month on October 7, 2010, where Judge Donna Hitchins will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award on the occasion of her retirement from Family Court.
• Beverly Upton of the Domestic Violence Consortium (DVC) announced that the DVC is finalizing its Calendar of Events for Domestic Violence Awareness Month and she will provide it to Laura Marshall for distribution to the Council when it is complete.
• Maria Bee of the DA’s Office confirmed that Victim Services will hold its annual event on October 12 at lunchtime.
• In recognition of Family Violence Prevention Fund's Health Cares About Domestic Violence Day, Carol Schulte, Department of Public Health, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, reported that she and Dr. Leigh Kimberg, LEAP and SFDPH Maxine Hall Health Center, are coordinating a noontime "brown bag" training concerning intimate partner violence on October 13, 2010 at SFGH's Carr Auditorium.
• Dr. Emily Murase of the Department on the Status of Women announced an event being hosted by the Friends of the Commission on the Status of Women to be held on October 18. Additionally, the Department will hold its annual Cell Phone Drive for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
• Kathy Baxter of the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center announced a conference on childhood trauma and domestic violence being held on October 22.
• Chief Wendy Still of the Adult Probation Department announced that APD has applied for a grant that would help lower caseloads for the Domestic Violence Unit. Also, APD is implementing a new domestic violence risk severity instrument as a 2^nd level of assessment with each probationer, and is revising its field protocols for the Domestic Violence Unit. In September, APD will be holding a centennial celebration.

 

B.        Violence Prevention Plan      

Tara Reagan, Sr. Planner and Policy Analyst with the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families was in attendance at the meeting a provided a brief update about the status of the City’s Violence Prevention Plan of 2008. Ms. Reagan made it clear that she does not coordinate the Violence Prevention Plan and could not provide specific details. Ms. Reagan informed the Council that DCYF is in the process of hiring a Planner/Analyst to coordinate the implementation of the Violence Prevention Plan, with an estimated start date in mid-September.  

 

Dr. Murase expressed frustration that the Violence Prevention Plan focused so heavily on gang violence and stranger violence despite the fact that she and Ms. Upton and others in the domestic and family violence communities attended all the planning and drafting meetings. Dr. Murase informed Ms. Reagan that the Family Violence Council would be happy to support the work of implementing the Violence Prevention Plan but would like to see family violence made more of a priority. Ms. Melara, who also serves as a Health Commissioner, seconded Dr. Murase’s comments.

 

Ms. Reagan informed the Council that DCYF plans to create a Violence Prevention Coordinating Council to oversee the implementation of the Plan. None of the councils or advisory bodies recommended by the Plan have been created yet. Chief Still noted that the recruitment for the Coordinating Council has already begun, as she has received a request for staff assignments to serve on that body.

 

Commission on the Status of Women Vice President Julie Soo asked whether issues of truancy might be included in the work of the Coordinating Council and the Violence Prevention Plan. Laurie Vargas of the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) informed the Council that the SFUSD opened a truancy assessment resource center last year that has a counselor on site every day. Captain Ehrlich elaborated by discussing the truancy task force that meets regularly to address this issue. The task force is working to ensure that issues of family violence, which can often be a cause of truancy, are woven into services. Additionally, they are working on simplifying case management services to reduce duplication of services. Nancy Kirshner-Rodriguez, Director of Government Affairs for Mayor Newsom, announced that the Mayor will be hosting a public event in the next week related to these efforts to address truancy.

 

C.        “Courage to Change” Report           

Ms. Upton provided background about the creation of the “Courage to Change” report. The Commission on the Status of Women formed the Justice & Courage Oversight Panel in 2002 following an investigation into the domestic violence homicide of Claire Joyce Tempongko that revealed a number of gaps in the criminal justice response to domestic violence. In 2006, the Oversight Panel conducted the Domestic Violence Victim Safety and Accountability Audit to determine what gaps remained. The Safety Audit resulted in a detailed report with over 60 recommendations for criminal justice and other agencies. The Oversight Panel formed the Audit Implementation Committee to address these recommendations.

 

Ms. Marshall coordinated the work of the Audit Implementation Committee since 2009 and shared additional details about the project. The Audit Implementation Committee comprised members of each of the criminal justice agencies as well as community stakeholders. The Committee met monthly for over 2 years to address the gaps revealed in the Audit. In May 2010, the Committee released its final report, “Courage to Change,” documenting both the reforms that have been made and the work remaining. Ms. Marshall presented the report at the Justice and Courage Oversight Panel meeting on May 4, 2010 and at the Commission on the Status of Women meeting on May 25, 2010. Additionally, at the invitation of Board President David Chiu, Ms. Marshall and Committee members presented the report at the August 2, 2010 meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety Committee.

 

Ms. Marshall provided attendees with an executive summary of the report, and directed them to visit the Department’s website (www.sfgov.org/dosw) for the full report.

 

Dr. Murase thanked all the individuals involved on the Committee, as well as Mayor Newsom for providing the funding for the Safety Audit in 2006. She invited members of the Committee present at Family Violence Council to discuss their experience of the work.

 

Captain Ehrlich of the San Francisco Police Department noted that domestic violence homicides are significantly lower than several years ago. He said that Police Department procedures are better, the outreach is better, and the system is working better based on the Police Department’s work with the Oversight Panel and the Audit Implementation Committee.

 

Maria Bee, Director of the Victim Services Division of the District Attorney’s Office agreed, and stated that the DA’s Office’s involvement in the Audit has been an educational experience, helping all members learn how the system really works. She said that it was an opportunity for agencies to look at themselves and enhance their services.

 

Arturo Faro, Supervisor of the Adult Probation Department’s Domestic Violence Unit stated that the Audit process was helpful in that members could see and speak with others doing similar work. It was a time to speak openly about issues in order to move forward in ensuring people are kept safe.

 

Ms. Upton thanked the co-chairs of the Committee, Kathy Black of La Casa de las Madres and Ken Theisen of Bay Area Legal Aid. Captain Ehrlich thanked Ms. Marshall for coordinating the work of the Committee.

 

D.        Annual Report on Family Violence in San Francisco

Attendees reviewed a draft version of the Comprehensive Report on Family Violence in San Francisco, 2010. Ms. Marshall explained that there were still data points missing and gaps in the report. Additionally, certain agencies, upon reviewing the report, noticed inconsistencies or problems with the data as reported, requiring either corrections or additional explanatory information. Ms. Baxter indicated the sharp increase in calls to the TALK Line operated by the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center, noting that this increase was due to changes in the data tracking system that TALK Line uses that allows for more accurate data collection rather than a true spike in calls to the line. This information should be included in the final report. Ms. Baxter asked that attendees review the information they have provided to check for inconsistencies, errors, or other problems.

 

Aiko Pandorf, Executive Director of Asian Women’s Shelter, asked what information would be included from domestic violence service providers. Ms. Marshall explained that the Department on the Status of Women’s Violence Against Women (VAW) Grants Program service outcomes would be used to illustrate some of the help seeking patters among domestic violence survivors. Because these numbers do not represent the totality of services offered or sought, the report will also document all of the crisis line calls received by WOMAN, Inc and the 3 domestic violence shelters. Ms. Marshall had requested this information from providers, but had yet to receive complete data by the time the draft was printed. Also, the VAW Grants Program service outcomes were still incomplete at the time of printing, and this information was also omitted from the draft. Both data sets should be included in the final version.

 

Commissioner Soo noted that certain information has been provided by Zip code or neighborhood, and asked that the final report be provided to Supervisors so that they can be made aware of the need in their districts and the resources available to family violence survivors in their districts. Chief Still noted that the Adult Probation Department has the capacity to sort probationer data by district, and this can be added to the report.

 

Ms. Vargas suggested including data relating to teen dating violence in the report. The SFUSD collects information about dating violence in the biannual Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and presented a report of the findings of the most recent survey at the October 15, 2009 meeting of the Family Violence Council. The survey does not ask students if domestic violence is present in the home. The process for adding new questions to the survey is challenging, and requires significant discussion and validation. However, each year the SFUSD adds new questions to elicit more nuanced information from students. Commissioner Soo noted that she would like to see a question related to how and where students receive messages about dating violence and family violence, as she wonders if many do not report violence against them because they think it is okay.

 

Ms. Upton suggested that it would be worthwhile for the Council to put the issue of teen dating violence on a future Family Violence Council meeting agenda for a broader discussion. Such a meeting may be a good opportunity to engage the Juvenile Probation Department and the Youth Commission in this work. Maggie Donahue of the Human Services Agency’s Family and Children’s Services Division informed attendees that staff from La Casa de las Madres’ Teen Services Unit recently conducted a training for her Division on teen dating violence, and that agency would be appropriate to invite as well. Commissioner Soo suggested engaging LYRIC staff on this issue as well.

 

Though members agreed that data about teen dating violence from the SFUSD survey should be included in the report, additional information about this population and this issue should not be included until the Council has had more time to learn about and discuss it. A larger section related to teen dating violence should be considered for the 2011 report.

 

Helen Hale, Program Officer for First 5 San Francisco, highlighted that the “Missing Pieces” section of the report included the Council’s desire to eventually collect data about family violence from Family Resource Centers. She noted that SafeStart conducted many workshops about children’s exposure to violence and related issues at Family Resources Centers during this past year, and information about this work should be included in the report.

 

Ms. Melara brought up the fact that the report does not capture unduplicated individuals, and that there is likely overlap between the individuals requesting temporary restraining orders and the individuals tracked through police reports. She indicated that many of the clients that access Rally’s services may be involved with civil proceedings or criminal proceedings or both at once.

 

Captain Ehrlich informed attendees that the numbers provided in this report may vary from those provided through CompStat reports, which is due to the query used to draw CompStat numbers that aligns with Department of Justice coding of cases rather than local coding. Captain Ehrlich also suggested that the Police Department could provide a gender break-out of cases.

 

Commissioner Marjorie Slabach of the Family Court raised concerns with the temporary restraining order statistics listed in the report. She believed there was a problem with the query used to draw the figures from the database and would need to work with the database manager at the Family Court to correct the issue.

 

Ms. Bee expressed concern with the way that the District Attorney’s cases were presented. The table of stats for each unit includes a row tabulating a percent of cases resulting in conviction through trial or plea bargain out of the total number of cases filed. This percentage is not accurate, because convictions in a single year do not necessarily relate to the cases filed that year. A case may wait a year or more before a conviction or other outcome is reached. A more accurate percentage might be to divide the number of cases resulting in a conviction by the number of cases resolved during that year. A case may be resolved through a trial conviction, a plea bargain, a dismissal, or an acquittal. However, determining this number would require re-working of the data, and it may be more expedient and less confusing to leave out any percentage from the tables of District Attorney data. This allows the data to stand as-is, without assigning specific interpretations.

 

Ms. Marshall asked Teresa Guillen, a supervisor with Adult Protective Services, about the Elder Shelter. The Elder Shelter had been operated by the Institute on Aging with funding from APS. In 2009, APS eliminated the 2-bed program. Statistics about the Elder Shelter occupation rates are included in the report. Ms. Marshall asked for clarification about the services provided to elders requesting shelter in lieu of this program. Ms. Guillen informed the Council that APS eliminated the Elder Shelter because it was used so infrequently. In its place, APS has designated emergency funds to be used for a hotel or boarding care if an elder abuse victim requires it, or home-based care if appropriate.

 

Erika Falk, Director of the Elder Abuse Program at the Institute on Aging, suggested that the report include additional data about financial abuse of elders. The Fraud Unit of the Police Department provided the number of cases of financial abuse of elders perpetrated by a family member. Dr. Falk suggested there are 3 types of financial elder abuse: 1) abuse committed by a family member, 2) abuse committed by a trusted associate, such as a conservator, a family friend, or other person known and trusted by the victim, and 3) abuse committed by a stranger. Dr. Falk suggested that the 2^nd type, abuse committed by someone in a position of trust, is closely related to family violence, and the number of cases would be significantly higher if this type is included.

 

Commissioner Soo noted that the Financial Regulatory Authority or the Senior Fraud Task Force of the Department of Insurance may have financial abuse statistics related to San Francisco.

 

Attendees discussed the issue of whether the Family Violence Council and the report should focus on family violence specifically or elder abuse in all its forms. Captain Ehrlich could not comment on what type of data the Fraud Unit collects and whether they would be able to disaggregate the current elder financial abuse information in the way suggested. However, he suggested that the Unit may be able to begin this type of tracking moving forward, and this type of nuanced information may be available for the 2011 report rather than the current report under review.

 

Dr. Falk also alerted the attendees to a new type of elder abuse scam, with perpetrators posing as social workers to gain trust and access to information. Vallan Tyree of Child Support Services stated that similar scams are happening among that agency’s clients, with perpetrators requesting identifying information by posing as Child Support workers.

 

Ms. Marshall outlined the steps for finalizing the report. The attendees agreed to a review period of 1 month, ending on September 17, 2010. Any agencies submitting data should do so by that time. Agencies should also review the data currently included in the report and provide corrections or clarifying information as needed prior to the deadline. Ms. Marshall will gather this information into a 2^nd draft of the report for review by members of the Council.

 

An ad hoc committee will meet at the end of September or early October to analyze the data included in the report and discuss conclusions and recommendations. Ms. Marshall will use this information to revise the report as needed for approval and release at the November meeting of the Family Violence Council.

 

Dr. Murase expressed hope that the Council would be able to approve the document in November so that agencies and community members can use the data for advocacy during budget season in early 2011.

 

E.         Future Meeting Dates                       

Ms. Marshall informed the Council that she would not be able to attend and staff the Council on the current meeting dates of the 3^rd Thursday of the quarter during FY10-11 due to a new standing commitment. Ms. Marshall requested that the Council meetings be moved to the 3^rd Wednesday of the quarter instead. There were no objections to this change. Future Family Violence Council meetings will be 3:00 pm – 4:30 on the following dates (location to be determined):

 

• Wednesday, November 17, 2010
• Wednesday, February 16, 2010
• Wednesday, May 18, 2010
• Wednesday, August 17, 2010

·         Wednesday, November 16, 2010

 

V.         PUBLIC COMMENT                       

Dr. Falk (who was not present during the approval of the May 20, 2010 minutes) added a correction to the report about her presentation in May. Dr. Falk stated the Center worked on approximately 300 cases in the 2.5 years of the Center’s span (rather than in 1 year). Also, the Center does not provide nutrition support.

           

VI.       ADJOURNMENT     

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm.