Family Violence Council - November 14, 2018 - Minutes

Meeting Date: 
November 14, 2018 - 3:00pm
Location: 

Family Violence Council:

Addressing Violence throughout the Lifespan

 

Minutes

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

400 McAllister, room 617

San Francisco, CA 94102

 

Members:

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Lee Hudson 

Chief of the Fire Department, or designee: Mindy Talmadge

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Akiles Ceron 

Director of Department of Child Support Services, or designee: Freda Glenn 

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

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

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium: Beverly Upton

Director of Elder Abuse Forensic Center, or designee: Shawna Reeves

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: Julie Lenhardt

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

District Attorney, or designee: Gena Castro Rodriguez

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

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

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

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee: Emily Murase    

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

 

Absent: Chief of Juvenile Probation, or designee; Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee; Human Resources Director, or designee; Chief of Police, or designee; Sheriff, or designee; Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee; Public Defender, 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: Jessica Villalobos, First 5 SF; Minouche Kandel, DOSW; Robin Brasso, NCJW SF; Glen Fisher, Institute on Aging; Tamari Hedani, Institute on Aging; Kyoko Peterson, DOSW, Elise Hansell, DOSW; Carol Sacco, DOSW; Suhagey Sandoval, Board of Supervisors

 

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

Approved meeting agenda [Heather Grives, Minouche Kandel]

 

  1. Approval of Minutes                                                             

August 29, 2019 meeting minutes approved [Heather Grives, Tamari Hedani]

 

  1. Approval of FY 2017 Family Violence Council Report            

Minouche Kandel led a discussion of the FY 2017 Family Violence Council Report recommendations.

 

Protocols and Practice:

For Recommendation 3, it was pointed out that the Sheriff’s Department is responsible for Manalive program, not the Adult Probation department. Members wanted to make sure the responsibilities for each department on this recommendation were clear. For Recommendation 7, the Institute on Aging was added as a responsible agency. For Recommendation 4, Judge Teri Jackson asked that the council send her risk assessment tools so she can send them to the Judicial Council.

 

It was suggested that a recommendation about ensuring stability and consistency in the leadership of the Special Victims Unit of the SF Police Department be added. This addition was approved with no objections.

 

Training & Outreach:

For Recommendation 13, there was a suggestion to add a line about data collection on primary aggressors. For Recommendation 14, there was a discussion about the transition from in person trainings to online trainings and whether or not the training was available in Chinese. It was suggested to split Recommendation 14 into A and B, recommending that the Department of Education translate their training into different languages and incorporate instruction on implicit bias. For Recommendation 16, it was suggested to make the recommendation more specific. The phrasing of the recommendation and the meaning of the line about persons with mental health problems were discussed. Members also wanted to make it clear that the Superior Court cannot create the batterers interventions programs themselves. It was decided to remove the line about persons with mental health issues and focus the recommendation on creating a batterers intervention program for monolingual Cantonese speakers.

 

Planning, Research & Data Collection:

For Recommendation 20, suggested to add Human Services Agency as a responsible agency. For Recommendation 21, suggested to add Human Services Agency and First 5 SF as responsible agencies. For Recommendation 25, suggested to add Human Services Agency, Department of Public Health, and First 5 SF as responsible agencies. For Recommendation 26, suggested to delete “late 2018”.

 

Motion to approve the FY 2017 Report was made by Beverly Upton and seconded by Leigh Kimberg, with acknowledgement that some minor changes from Adult Probation need to be made. The motion passed without opposition.

 

Next steps: The FY 2017 Report will be voted on by the Commission on the Status of Women in their December meeting.  

                                                                                                               

 

 

  1. Presentation on Bayview Domestic Violence High Risk Project – Elise Hansell      

Elise Hansell, Grants and Policy Associate from the Department on the Status of Women, gave an overview of the Bayview Domestic Violence High Risk project. The site was chosen due to higher reports to police of domestic violence in Bayview, and this is an intervention that relies on police response. The intervention was developed based on to Jackie Campbell’s research on domestic violence homicide which found that the victims had often interacted with the police even if they had not interacted with service providers. Ms. Hansell went over the lethality factors used in the screening tool used by Bayview police officers. Department on the Status of Women, La Casa De Las Madres, Bayview YMCA, and SFPD Special Victims Unit trained over 200 officers at Bayview Station to use the screening too. The initial data from this project is similar to the data at other locations that have used this intervention.

 

Council members discussed the shelter turn away rates—noted that La Casa De Las Madres made a commitment to house all victims referred to them from this project for at least one night. There was a question about transgender individuals in the project data, and Ms. Hansell responded that she is not sure if the police collect information on transgender individuals. There was a discussion of how officers are dispatched to respond to calls and if language proficient officers are dispatched from other districts for calls.

 

One of the next steps for this project is to get a smart phone app version of the screening tool for the police to use. The department is working with a vendor on developing the app. The Department is also exploring working with a Goldman Public Policy student to evaluate the project.

 

  1. Key Issues in Family Violence                                                                                                                           

 

Domestic Violence Update

 

Domestic Violence Awareness month has ended. There were events happening almost every day, which shows the commitment of the community to this issue.

 

Continued concern about language access and immigrant survivors. Also concerned about survivors being arrested and the need for dominant aggressor training.

                                                                                                                                                                                               

Elder Abuse Update

 

The Institute on Aging has been presenting in a variety of settings and is reaching a wider audience. World Abuse Awareness month is coming up.

 

Institute on Aging reviewed the protocol from the District Attorney’s Office for an elder death review team, but it required too many resources.

                       

Child Abuse Update

The Human Services Agency, First 5, and Safe and Sound are looking into the Family First Prevention Service Act and child welfare reform in general. January is Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children awareness month, and Safe and Sound will be working with Freedom FWD on that. 

 

 

 

  1. Update on Sentencing Commission

Beverly Upton presented on behalf of Jerel McCrary. The Sentencing Commission has been doing some work on racial equity that could be relevant to this council. Beverly suggested using the values statement on racial equity that the Sentencing Commission adopted as a model for the Family Violence Council.

 

  1. Department Updates – All

                                                                                                                                                   

Presiding Judge of the Judicial Court Teri Jackson updated the Council on the Superior Court. All the positions have been filled, and there is now a permanent sitting judge for the domestic violence court. The judges had a domestic violence training that had 85% of the bench attend and went very well. 

 

Emily Murase informed the Council about the Government Alliance for Racial Equity (GARE), which is recruiting from City departments for their program. She also informed the Council that in January and February there will be events for Human Trafficking Awareness month.

                                               

  1. Public Comment                                                                      

 

Robin Brasso from the National Council on Jewish Women commented on domestic violence and racial disparities and children being taken at the southern border.

 

Minouche Kandel announced that the meeting dates for 2019 are on the agenda.

 

  1. Adjournment                                                                            

 

 

 

 
 

Family Violence Council

Quarterly Meeting Schedule 2019

Wednesdays, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm; 400 McAllister Street, Room 617

February 20, 2019

May 15, 2019

August 21, 2019

November 13, 2019