Family Violence Council - November 14, 2018 - Minutes
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
- Call to Order/Agenda Changes [Beverly Upton, Katie Albright, Shawna Reeves]
Approved meeting agenda [Heather Grives, Minouche Kandel]
- Approval of Minutes
August 29, 2019 meeting minutes approved [Heather Grives, Tamari Hedani]
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Adjournment
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