November 17, 2010

 

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

 

DRAFT MINUTES

Wednesday, November 17, 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               

 

A.        Announcements         

 

Two members of the Junior League of San Francisco attended the meeting and indicated their desire to learn more and get involved in these issues. The Junior League conducts state and local lobbying with a focus on prevention of violence, health, and education.

 

III.       APPROVAL OF MINUTES             

            The Council approved the minutes from August 19, 2010 [Slabach/Shamji/All].

 

IV.       BUSINESS                 

 

A.        Annual Report on Family Violence in San Francisco

 

Beverly Upton thanked Laura Marshall for her work writing the report. Ms. Marshall provided an overview of the process for preparing the document. Ms. Marshall began collecting data from departments and agencies during July 2010, presenting a preliminary draft to the Council at the August 19, 2010 meeting. Council members provided feedback on the document at that meeting, and Ms. Marshall held an open review and comment period for 1 month following. Any members of the Council or the public could offer comments on the report draft during this period. At the close of the review period, Ms. Marshall revised the draft report with additional data and comments, and convened a review committee to further analyze the statistics collected and discuss conclusions and recommendations. This committee met in October 2010. Ms. Marshall further edited the report based on this committee meeting, and presented the final document to the full Council for consideration and approval on November 17, 2010.

 

Mary Twomey provided a brief overview of the sources and scope of data in the report. Kathy Baxter discussed how the 2010 report and the process for constructing it differ from the 2009 report. Ms. Baxter mentioned that the Council learned a great deal from the first year. The report is growing and developing as the Council learns more, but it is still a process. The report creates a benchmark for the City as all departments aim to improve outcomes.

 

Karen Roye commented that the report is a powerful document. She said that the 2009 report provided a good benchmark of Child Support Services’ work in the area of domestic violence. She has seen patterns in the data that help with targeting resources.

 

Ms. Upton noted that many people are often alarmed in the trend toward “more,” such as the increase in 911 calls. According to Ms. Upton, this trend does not necessarily mean that there is an increase in domestic violence. It more likely means that there is an increase in help-seeking. Community providers have always seen significantly higher numbers of cases than criminal justice agencies, so an increase in calls could potentially mean that there is an increase in confidence in the system among survivors. Ms. Roye concurred. She stated that Child Support Services has seen a growth of 31% of families flagged for family violence in its database. This is due to increased education of families about domestic violence and the safety options available to them.

 

Dr. Leigh Kimberg also attested to the power of the report, noting that once something is written down, it helps everyone recognize the problem a little more clearly. She expressed approval of the District Attorney’s Office Victim Services Division for requesting demographic data, including transgender identification. However, the data shows that the DA did not serve any transgender clients in FY09-10. Dr. Kimberg reports that the Department of Public Health sees a large number of transgender crime victims, and notes that this could mean that more outreach and education and work is needed to link those transgender crime victims with criminal justice interventions.

 

Dr. Kimberg also suggested that the number of victims being tracked and documented in the report could potentially be “case managed” through a memorandum of understanding among intervening agencies to share information. There is a medical model for this type of management.

 

Ms. Twomey shared the statistic that only 1 in 5 cases of elder abuse are ever reported, and noted that this could be applied, to some degree, to the other fields, so it important to keep in mind that many victims are still living in fear.

 

Participants moved to discussing the recommendations of the report. Captain Sylvia Harper informed the group that the Police Department has begun the process of reviewing call codes to see which ones may be applicable to elder abuse and child abuse. This is the first step in an ongoing process.

 

Helen Hale offered some revisions to the language of the 4^th recommendation, suggesting that numerous departments fund and work with the Family Resource Centers, not just Family and Children’s Services.

 

Veronica Martinez of the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families (DCYF) informed the Council that the Violence Prevention Advisory Council that is referred to in the 3^rd recommendation is not yet operational and may come into operation under a different name or different form. Instead, she suggested referring to DCYF instead of the VPAC. However, Dr. Emily Murase stated that it was named as such in the Violence Prevention Plan report that was released and in press announcements, etc., and it is important to have some continuity.

 

Nancy Kirshner-Rodriguez highlighted the fact that the Bayview District sees the highest number of 911 calls. She raised the idea of creating a recommendation related to targeted intervention. Chief Wendy Still informed the group that the Adult Probation Department received a grant to do additional work in the Bayview Neighborhood, in space provided by Child Support Services. Adult Probation focused on this area because of the high volume of calls from that district. Ms. Marshall will include details of this increased intervention in the Adult Probation section of the report.

 

Action: The Council approved the release of the Comprehensive Report on Family Violence in San Francisco, 2010, with suggested edits [Kirshner-Rodriguez/Still/All].

 

B.         Planning for 2011      

 

Participants engaged in an activity designed to help identify what the Council’s priorities should be for 2011, using the recommendations outlined in the annual report as a starting point. Using flipcharts with a recommendation from the report on each, participants had the opportunity to rank them on the following indicators:

 

1. Type of activity needed (budget, policy, work)
2. Outcome (high impact, likely to happen, doable)
3. Relevance to participants’ field
4. Willingness to work on the recommendation

 

Though no clear themes emerged following this activity, the Council steering committee will use the results to draft a work plan for the Council for review at the February meeting. Ms. Marshall invited participants to email her with any additional comments or suggestions. Ms. Marshall will email the Council with the recommendations so that those who would like to work on a particular project can sign up.

 

C.        Intervention Committee Report        

 

The Intervention Committee, which has been meeting since September 2009, provided a proposal of recommendations to the Council for approval. Chief Still commented on the Adult Probation Department’s role in the proposal. She said she is very supportive of the program’s development. The program is in the penal code as an unfunded mandate, and was never fully implemented. She considers it extremely important to serve this population in order to have better outcomes for children and their families.

 

The proposal calls for Adult Probation and the Department of Public Health to conduct feasibility reviews for the full implementation of the program. Ms. Upton explained that the Department of Public Health operates a program called the Violence Intervention Program that has shown positive outcomes for hard-to-serve and complex offenders, and would be an ideal home for a child abuse intervention program of the type San Francisco requires. There are several batterer intervention programs in San Francisco, but Ms. Upton does not believe any of them currently have the intention of expanding to serve this new population. VIP is under-resourced right now, but the feasibility review would allow DPH the opportunity to project the costs for implementing a child abuse intervention program.

 

A participant noted that the child abuse intervention programs in other counties take CPS referrals in addition to probationers, and asked whether the San Francisco program would do the same. Another participant noted that this program would not interfere with the parenting programs already in operation and referred to by Family and Children’s Services. This program may be appropriate for higher-need families once it is operational, but in the initial stages, it should focus primarily on the criminal justice cases, since there is no other program for them right now.

 

The plan for implementation is to ask for feasibility reviews from Probation and DPH by February 2011, and to include any funding needed for the program in the FY11-12 budget request, as well as to use fee-for-service models, when possible. Chief Still also commented that there may be a possibility of receiving Title IVE funds if there is a child at risk in the home.

 

Action: The Council approved the proposal for the implementation of a child abuse intervention program [Still/Roye/All].

 

D.        Good News in 2010   

 

The Co-Chairs announced their intent to end the last meeting of the year on a positive note by eliciting “good news stories” from participants.

 

• Laurie Vargas of the San Francisco Unified School District announced that the mentor program has shown an increase in GPA and a decrease in truancy among participants. This is the only USD program where that information can be tracked and correlated. The program targets foster youth and is seeking mentors.
• Chief Still announced that she is very impressed with San Francisco, and with the value placed on helping people in the City. She is glad to be a part of such great work happening.
• Talitha Guinn of the Institute on Aging spoke about how much collaborations have grown at the Elder Abuse Forensics Center. Mary Twomey told the group about a support group that the IOA held for victims of a recent Ponzi scheme. The group had very positive outcomes.

 

V.        PUBLIC COMMENT                       

None.

 

VI.       ADJOURNMENT     

The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm.

 

2011 Meeting Schedule for the Family Violence Council:

• Wednesday, February 16, 2011
• Wednesday, May 18, 2011
• Wednesday, August 17, 2011

• Wednesday, November 16, 2011