Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

 

Minutes

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

400 McAllister, room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Members:

 

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Jana Taylor

Chief of Juvenile Probation, or designee: Paula Hernandez

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Edith Chan

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium: Beverly Upton

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council, or designee: Katie Albright

Director of Elder Abuse Forensic Center, or designee: Tamari Hedani

Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee: Aumijo Gomes

Director of Department of Child Support Services, or designee: Karen Roye

Director of Department of Public Health, or designee: Leigh Kimberg

Director of Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, or designee: Abigail Stewart-Kahn

Human Resources Director, or designee: Reyna McKinnon

District Attorney, or designee: Rani Singh

Chief of Police, or designee: Dominic Yin

Officer of First 5 San Francisco, or designee: Shelli Rawlings Fein

Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee: Teri L Jackson

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee: Thea Anderson

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Debbie Mesloh 

Sheriff, or designee: Delia Ginorio

Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee: Judy Choy

Public Defender, or designee: Brian Pearlman

Chief of the Fire Department, or designee: Mindy Talmadge

Executive Director of Department of Emergency Management, or designee: Heather Grives

 

Absent: Director of Human Services Agency, or designee; Chief Medical Examiner of Medical Examiner’s Office, or designee; Mayor, or designee; President of the Board of Supervisors, or designee:

 

Others Present:

Carletta Jackson-Lane, Sojourner Truth Foster Family Service Agency; Robin Brasso, NCJWSF; Elise Hansell, SF DOSW; Kate Feng Yeh, APILO; Jerel McCrary, Bay Area Legal Aid; Reneé Espinoza, SF CASA; Tony Flores, SFPD SVU; Gena Castro Rodriguez, SFDA VSD; Emily Murase, SF DOSW; Herschell Larrick, SF DOSW; Andrea Shorter, SF COSW

 

1. Call to Order/Agenda Changes [Beverly Upton / Katie Albright]

II.Approval of Minutes

May Minutes approved [Emily Murase / Tony Flores

III.Key Issues in Family Violence      

 

Domestic Violence Update – Beverly Upton

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month A kickoff event for the month will be held on October 1^st from 6 to 7 pm on the Polk Street steps of City Hall. The theme for the event is “Vote against Violence”.

On October 11^th, APILO will have their 43^rd anniversary event. On October 18^th La Casa De Las Madres will have their 40^th anniversary event. The Trauma Stewardship Institute will hold a workshop on October 29^th, at UC Berkeley.

Presiding Judge Teri Jackson, of the Superior Court, added that judges from the Superior Court are receiving domestic violence training for Domestic Violence Awareness Month                            

Elder Abuse Update – Tamari Hedani

The Police Department manual on elder abuse and dependent adult abuse is being updated and will hopefully be finalized soon.

The San Francisco Veterans Benefits Protection Project is a coalition that fights pension poaching scams targeting older veterans. They are currently looking for funding opportunities.

Shawna Reeves, Director of Elder Abuse Prevention, was recently appointed to the Curriculum Board for the California Department of Insurance.

Child Abuse Update – Katie Albright

There has been a 67% decrease in substantiated child abuse cases in recent years, and the belief is that the main reason for this decrease is the family resource centers. There are 26 family resource centers in San Francisco and they are a significant point of prevention.  

Safe & Sound collaborated with Haas School of Business to estimate cost of child abuse in 2017 in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The estimate was that the 509 verified child abuse cases in San Francisco cause a financial impact of 226 million dollars.

IV.Presentation on Draft of FY 2017 Family Violence Council Report – Minouche Kandel                             

Minouche Kandel from the Department on the Status of Women presented the draft of the FY 2017 Family Violence Council report, which was written primarily by Public Policy Fellow Lucy Snow.  

The aims of the report are to track levels of abuse, identify trends, to ask “who? What? Where? Why?”, identify gaps, and inform policy making. One change in this report from this year to last year was that the data is not by agency anymore. Ms. Kandel presented statistics about the rates, demographics, resources, and accountability programs for calendar year 2017.

Discussion

There was discussion of several aspects of the report. Members asked questions about other Batterers Intervention Programs in San Francisco and their format. Some mentioned the idea of matching offenders with the type of program that suits them best. There was also discussion about the arrests of survivors and the training that the SFPD receives on primary aggressor identification. The lack of housing resources and other resources was also a concern. There was a suggestion to track turn-away rates for services besides housing.

There was discussion on the high numbers of Black victims and the fact that they are less likely to receive services from community based organizations. Members discussed the need for more prevention work, so that people are reached before an offender is arrested. There was also acknowledgement that there may be a bias in reporting children of color as victims of child abuse. There was a suggestion to map out where services are, and where cases are happening. 

Recommendations

There was a discussion of a few of the first recommendations for the council to approve: primary aggressor training, elders with intimate partner violence, barriers to domestic violence services, and community based organizations. The chairs of the council asked for everyone to look over the rest of the recommendations before the next meeting.