February 15, 2012 | Department on the Status of Women

Family Violence Council - February 15, 2012

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

MINUTES

Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 3 - 5 pm

San Francisco Civil Court

400 McAllister St., Room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

Members:

	Attendees		Attendees
	Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee		Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: (APS)
X	Mayor, or designee: Louis Sarmiento	X	Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Teresa Guillen
	President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee	X	Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee: Jasmine Dawson
X	District Attorney, or designee: Marianne Barrett	X	Director of Child Support Services, or designee: Karen Roye
	Public Defender, or designee		Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee
	Sheriff, or designee		Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee
X	Chief of Police, or designee: Antonio Parra, Arturo Stellini	X	Director of Domestic Violence Consortium, or designee: Beverly Upton
X	President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Stephanie Simmons	X	Director of Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention, or designee: Talitha Guinn
X	Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Sergio Calizo, Tina Gilbert	X	Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Council, or designee: Kathy Baxter, Blia Moua
	Chief of Department of Emergency Management, or designee	X	Chair of Batterer’s Intervention Programs Subcommittee: Dr. Antonio Ramirez
X	Director of the Department of Public Health, or designee: Leigh Kimberg	X	Executive Director of the Department on the Status of Women, or designee: Emily Murase

Other attendees: Abigail Stewart-Kahn, Adam Gorski, Barbara Spack and Robin Brasso (Democratic Women In Action), Claire McCullough and Ryan Marks (La Casa de las Madres), Meisha Vella and Sonia Melara (Rally Family Visitation Services), Suzy Bischalaney (LEAP), Anna Marjavi (Futures Without Violence), Stacey Hoang (Staff, Dept. on the Status of Women)

I. CALL TO ORDER/AGENDA CHANGES

Kathy Baxter of the Child Abuse Prevention Council called the meeting to order at 3:07 pm.

II. INTRODUCTIONS

Council members and attendees introduced themselves.

III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The Council approved the minutes from November 16, 2011. [Upton/Simmons/ALL]

IV. BUSINESS

A. Updates from Agencies

State Assemblymember Fiona Ma to introduce AB 1644 whereby visitation services will be certified by the State. Ms. Sonia Melara asked Council members to support the bill.

Dr. Emily Murase announced that department budgets have been submitted to the Mayor’s Office. She will forward budget hearing dates to the Council. In addition, Dr. Murase extended an invitation to all to attend the Women Making History event that will take place on March 6, followed by the Women’s International Day Summit which will take place March 8-9.

Dr. Antonio Ramirez announced that his agency, POCOVI, which provides batterers intervention services, is signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mexican Consulate, and recently received a grant to work with customers of the commercial sex industry.

B. Review of Family Violence Council Work Plan/Recommendations:

To improve the outcome of cases, the City’s response must be coordinated with community providers.
1. Child Abuse Intervention Program

Ms. Kathy Baxter reported on the work to address the fact that the County does not have a child abuse intervention program. The Mayor’s Office is working with the Department of Public Health to move forward with creating a program.

Child Advocacy Center

Ms. Abigail Khan has been working on collaborating with entities that respond to child abuse. They hope to break ground in the summer for a new facility located on 3rd Street that is projected to open by year-end. The Board of Supervisors has already given its approval, and the Mayor’s signature is expected soon.

Elder Abuse Forensic Center

Ms. Talitha Guinn reported that the Center’s funding is still on target, and that the elder financial abuse campaign, conducted together with the District Attorney’s office, is scheduled to roll out in May.

Courtwatch

Ms. Beverly Upton reported that domestic violence homicides remain low in San Francisco. What was once 10-12 domestic violence related homicides per year, remains at 2 per year during the last 3 years. If interested, contact Ms. Upton for Courtwatch materials.

Ms. Baxter expressed her concern that there is currently no comparable Courtwatch program for child or elder abuse cases. Ms. Upton stated that people in the justice system have said that having members of the public follow a court case matters.

Public Awareness Campaign: “Family violence is never a family matter. It is a crime.”

Ms. Upton reiterated that domestic violence is not a private matter. Community partners worked with a local ad agency to put up a billboard stating that. The anti-domestic violence group raised over $4,000 within a few days to put a large billboard up on 10th and Harrison Streets. A press conference is scheduled for 3 pm on February 16, 2012. They are close to raising enough money to create a second billboard in Spanish.

Captain Antonio Parra stated that, by state law, domestic violence cases are not eligible for diversion programs, and expressed the need to get everyone onboard as to the severity of domestic violence cases. There is also a need to publicize victim resources and batterer consequences so that people are not discouraged from reporting domestic violence crimes.

An Elder Abuse Campaign will take place in May.

2011 Comprehensive Report on Family Violence in San Francisco: Addendum to 2010 Report

Ms. Leigh Kimberg reported that Suzy Bischalaney will be collecting data and writing the report.

C. New Business

Presentation by Futures Without Violence: March 29-31, 2012 National Conference in SF

Ms. Anna Marjavi from Futures Without Violence, a national nonprofit organization, was invited to speak about the national biannual conference that is scheduled to take place March 29-30. There will be 3 days of activities and panels, including teen dating violence, military response to domestic and family violence, and research evidence. A flyer was distributed. The goal of the conference is to advance healthcare response to domestic violence, and share latest research and best practices. The conference is co-chaired by 45 other organizations and associations and will have over 170 different presentations. The conference fee is on a sliding scale ranging from $150-250. Scholarships are available.

Teen Dating Violence Campaign

Claire McCullough provided an update on La Casa de las Madres’ teen program, where the main goal is to provide direct services to teen victims. Ryan Marks stated that La Casa offers individual counseling and currently has 7 different support groups, but has the capacity to conduct more. February 1was designated as La Casa de las Madres Day by the Mayor. For their teen dating violence campaign, staff tabled at events, and will be at Stonestown Galleria on February 25 to distribute 3,000 bracelets. A poster created by a group of homeless girls who were all victims of domestic violence was shared with the group. Dr. Murase thanked La Casa on behalf of the school district for their work.

Tell Your Story: Social Media Campaign

Dr. Murase invited the group to think about ways to have people tell their own domestic violence story about themselves or someone they know.

Screening Child Abuse in the Child Welfare System Meeting

A meeting will be scheduled with Department of Human Services Director Trent Rhorer.

V. ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ms. Guillen announced that they have seen an increase in grandchild scams in which seniors are receiving calls stating that their grandchild needs them to wire money to bail them out of jail. The Police Department is working with Western Union to identify protocols to thwart these wire transfers, and there is also a program in place where Western Union will refuse wire transfers from individuals prone to scams.

Ms. Upton announced that advocates are working with the Sheriff’s Office to assist incarcerated women, and encouraged people to attend an upcoming conference on trauma.

Captain Parra announced that the 24th Street corridor rapist was brought to justice in 30 days because of the efforts of the Special Victims Unit, and will use that arrest as a model for other high profile cases.