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State Activities:
Connecticut | North
Carolina | Texas | West
Virginia
Other Activities:
Salt Lake City | Franklin/Hampshire, MA | Johnson County, KS
Connecticut
Greenbook Project Takes Root in Connecticut
Without Federal Grant
(Excerpted from the Greenbook Newsletter)
In addition to the six sites receiving federal Greenbook grants to conduct three-year pilot projects, a number of similar projects are under way around the country without the direct support of federal Greenbook funding. One such effort in Connecticut has already made important strides toward changing the way services are delivered in domestic violence and child maltreatment cases.
The "Children and Domestic Violence" project is conducted under the auspices of the state government's Office of Policy and Management (OPM), the budget and planning arm of the executive branch. Cobbling together funding from several federal and state sources, arrest-policy funding in particular, the project has been instrumental to a number of initiatives in the state.
"Our goal is to learn how we can improve the way we handle these cases to allow for better safety for women and children," says Melanie Kerr, Planning Specialist for OPM and the leader of the Greenbook effort. "We've got all the agency people working together very cooperatively, and we've built a good level of trust" among the project's various public and private stakeholders.
Three-Pronged Approach
The initiative operates along three tracks. Bridgeport's Center for Women and Families conducts a grassroots component, receiving funding to expand its ongoing family violence outreach program.
The second Greenbook component is a state level protocol assessment workgroup focused on domestic violence, with representatives from a variety of state agencies. The state government granted funds to the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence to hire staff to conduct the effort.
The third component is a Greenbook Committee comprising representatives from each of the affected communities - the judicial branch, domestic violence organizations, victims' advocates from local programs, child welfare representatives and others. The group receives technical assistance funding from the state courts and from the Department of Children and Families, and has been meeting regularly for nearly two years.
"Down the road," says Kerr, "we expect that what we learn from the three components will help chart a course for reforms. It's very helpful, for example, to have the grassroots component in Bridgeport, because their experiences with the problems we're facing are very day-to-day. That information is critical to assessing what works and what doesn't. In addition to learning a lot about what we're already doing well, or maybe not so well here in Connecticut, we're also developing relationships that extend beyond our own communities."
The three-pronged approach might seem to invite overlap, but Greenbook Committee member Marilou Giovanucci, Manager for Court Services Officer Programs, in the state's Court Operations branch, thinks otherwise. "It's working nicely. The Greenbook Committee is grassroots focused, with particular attention to issues of child welfare, and court and provider responses to children and families. The protocol workgroup is more systemic, cutting across courts and systems, to try to identify where it can be helpful in addressing systemic issues identified by the Greenbook project." She says the effort is making a difference. "I have to say, over the years I've worked in a lot of projects related to domestic violence. I really see a lot of enthusiasm in this group. It's a very cohesive group whose members have checked their issues at the door. Everyone recognizes that this is too important to let this go. We really have to go as one."
The EVOLVE Curriculum
Another important effort in the state in which Greenbook participants are involved is the development of a new curriculum for offenders. The development of the EVOLVE curriculum was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Violence Against Women Office. A guiding principle of the curriculum is the desire to make it culturally appropriate for offenders of different ethnicities and social classes, and with varying employment and citizenship status. "The underlying theme of the curriculum is to challenge offenders, in this case men, to consider what kind of person they want to be," says Sarah Wilson, who has led the EVOLVE curriculum effort from her position of Program Manager in the Family Services office of the state's Court Support Services Division. The curriculum is intended to challenge men to consider what is really involved in safe interaction with their children, and with the children's mothers. Says Wilson: "Most of the men really want to be good fathers and be remembered as a role model. The skills-building curriculum challenges them to explore what that means in the context of their violence against the child's mother, their responsibility to their children and their behavior choices."
The EVOLVE curriculum, as with other Greenbook-related efforts, holds great promise for Connecticut's efforts to protect women and children from violence. "Our goal is straightforward," says Kerr. "In cases where there's a domestic violence incident and a child is exposed, we want the system to respond in a way that better holds the offender accountable and immediately moves to provide much needed and valuable services to the victim. In some cases now we do that. As a result of the Greenbook Initiative, we think we'll be able to coordinate our work better in the future, and to provide better support for families as a result."
For more information on Connecticut's EVOLVE curriculum, contact Sarah Wilson at 860-563-7424, ex 36. For more information on other components of the Connecticut Greenbook Initiative, contact Melanie Kerr at 860-418-6306.
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North Carolina
North Carolina's Child Well-Being and Domestic Violence Task
Force
North Carolina's Child Well-Being and Domestic Violence Task
Force, chaired by the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court
and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, began a 10-month
planning process in February 2002. The Task Force's mission:
"to design a strategy for North Carolina to adopt policies
and practice recommendations and an implementation plan that
maximizes the safety of all family members, empowers victims,
and holds perpetrators of domestic violence and child maltreatment
accountable." Subcommittees of the Task Force were charged
with developing specific recommendations to improve current
procedures and policies in the state's courts and law enforcement
agencies; child protective services; and community-based service
organizations. An additional subcommittee explored funding
alternatives for implementation of the recommendations. In
all, some 80 agencies and organizations participated in the
planning process, which produced in November 2002 a comprehensive
set of recommendations for statewide implementation.
For more information, contact Leslie Starsoneck at Leslie.starsoneck@ncmail.net,
or by telephone at 919-733-2455.
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Texas
Texas Joint Task Force
The Texas Council on Family Violence, the Texas Department
of Human Services, and the Texas Department of Protective
and Regulatory Services (PRS) are spearheading "Greenbook"
efforts in Texas. Council staff and state agency officials
collaborated on a proposed memorandum of understanding between
local domestic violence shelters and regional Child Protective
Services and Adult Protective Services offices. Each shelter
and local PRS office designated staff to act as a liaison
to build local relationships and develop local plans for implementing
a cross-training initiative in early 2003. The memorandum
also includes provisions aimed at improving case-screening,
reporting and referral practices, and confidentiality.
For more information, contact Barbra McLendon at the Texas
Council on Family Violence, at (512) 685-6247, or by email
at bmclendon@tcfv.org.
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West Virginia
West Virginia's Domestic Violence/Child Victimization Study
and Policy Workgroup
The West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence initiated
the Domestic Violence/Child Victimization Study and Policy
Workgroup in 2001 to study the collective response of state
agencies and private organizations to instances where domestic
violence coincides with child abuse or maltreatment. The Workgroup
brings together representatives from the domestic violence
network, child protective services, courts and others. The
Workgroup began by reviewing national "Greenbook" recommendations,
and identifying the shared values of the participants. In
October 2002 the Workgroup issued set of first-phase recommendations,
with a second set planned for 2004, and more study and training
between now and then. The recommendations are the basis for
statewide action to develop or improve state mandates, policies
and practices.
For more information, contact Joyce Cook at 304-965-3552 or
joyce@wvcadv.org.
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Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City and County, Utah's
OJP Collaboration Project
Salt Lake's Office of Justice Programs Collaboration Project
is a joint effort of several nonprofit and government agencies
at the city, county and state levels, all concerned with domestic
violence and child abuse. The Project's mission is to "create
sustainable collaborative initiatives" that encourage timely
and effective interventions in cases where domestic violence
and child maltreatment coincide. Grant staff brought together
key frontline workers, agency directors and elected officials
to form the Salt Lake Area Safe At Home Coalition (SLASAHC).
The SLASAHC examines new and innovative ways to effect systemic
changes. With federal Justice Department funding from the
Office of Justice Programs and the Office on Violence Against
Women, the project has initiated or participated in a variety
of projects in the Salt Lake area on data-collection and dissemination,
cross-training among agencies, development of a dedicated
domestic violence court, creation of a new screening and assessment
tool, as well as several efforts aimed at better coordination
of services.
For more information, visit the project's website at www.ojpcollaborationproject.org,
or contact Grant Director Linda Robinson at 801-238-7728.
Return to topFranklin/Hampshire, MA
Western Massachusetts' Franklin/Hampshire Greenbook Collaborative
The Franklin/Hampshire Greenbook Collaborative is a two-county project in Western Massachusetts funded through the state Department of Social Services (DSS) Domestic Violence Unit. Project partners include: the juvenile court; child protection and regional legal departments of DSS; two battered women's programs; a batterer intervention program; three community residents, including one adult survivor of domestic violence, one childhood survivor of domestic violence and a former perpetrator of domestic violence; a family counseling and supervised visitation center; and a court-appointed child advocate program. Many of the partners have been meeting since the summer of 2000; a project director was hired in March 2002. The Collaborative's mission is to develop integrated systems and community responses to meet the needs of families experiencing domestic violence and child maltreatment, with the safety of family members the highest priority. The Collaborative is currently conducting a strategic planning process that includes gathering information from families about their experiences in seeking assistance from neighbors, community resources, faith communities and elsewhere, as well as their experiences with the systems involved in the project. Staff of the community services agencies and organizations are also being surveyed about barriers to their effectiveness in working with families within their own systems as well as obstacles to effective collaboration with other systems. The resulting information will be to develop and implement an action plan for the project. Staff of partner agencies are also working on ways to facilitate collaboration on current cases in a variety of forums, including multi-disciplinary assessment teams and case-review meetings.
For more information, contact project director Heather Johnson by telephone at (413) 772-0704, by email at FHGreenbook@aol.com, or by at (413) 772-2352. Return to top
Johnson County, KS
Safe from the Start
Inspired by the Greenbook, the "Safe from the Start" project in Johnson County, Kansas works to address the co-occurrence of domestic violence and child maltreatment in the state's second largest county. Local leaders include Judge Allen Slater of the 10th District court of Johnson County; Mary Cole, social service chief for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation services; Sharon Katz, executive director of Safehome, a private shelter for battered women and victims of sexual assault; and Risė Haneberg, director of court services for the 10th Judicial District Court. The project was a finalist for federal funding, but ultimately did not receive a grant. Instead, it has developed local funding, and moved ahead as a collaborative effort. Leaders asked United Community Services (UCS) of Johnson County, the area's human service research and planning agency, to serve as the facilitator for the project, and to help move Safe from the Start forward.
UCS moved immediately to bring together a broad group of stakeholders in the county, and together that group developed six guiding principles for the effort: 1) The highest priority is keeping victims safe; 2) Improving communication among the various family-serving systems is essential; 3) While witnessing domestic violence is traumatic for a child, it does not automatically meet the definition of a child in need of care; support can be provided without necessarily triggering the opening of a child protection case; 4) Service planning by both child protection and domestic violence services should identify new and different responses to better serve victims; 5) Interventions with perpetrators should hold them accountable for stopping their violent and threatening behavior, and address the well-being of child and adult victims; 6) Service providers need new knowledge and must practice skills to serve families from diverse backgrounds.
Safe from the Start had two other significant first-year accomplishments. First was the development of a screening tool to be used by both child welfare and domestic violence providers to determine if child maltreatment and abuse are occurring in the same family. Second was a series of all-day training sessions for human service, law enforcement and court officials on the relationship between domestic violence and child maltreatment.
Plans for the future include increased efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and to improve rehabilitation services for them; ongoing dialogues with law enforcement officials about the complexities of family violence; and identification of strategic steps for creating a strong, integrated community service system for families.
For more information, contact project manager Carol Smith at 913-438-4764, or by email at:
CarolSmith@ucsjoco.org.
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