Travis County Commissioners Court
July 14, 2009,
Item 14
Number 14, consider and take appropriate action on request to approve list of potential safe havens advisory committee members and receive an update on the safe havens grant.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners, carol coalburn and I have gretna gardener and cecelia burke and we are here to give update to the court to safe havens grant as well as seek approval on our list for potential members to the safe havens advisory committee.
as all of you know we did receive a grant for supervised visitation and exchange services through the office of violence against women last opportunity.
and it did take a while due to required vision of our grant scope and budget to get the funding to be able to draw down the funding.
and that basically means if we didn't get exactly what we asked for in first grant application, but we're very happy with what we did get.
we were able to utilize the funds this past April and as soon as we could we hired a part-time director and a part-time office specialist to help us with the grant.
and we were very fortunate to get ms.
greta gardner as our director for the grant, and she's moved us along in the past three months she's been here.
before I hand it over to her to give you a few more details on where we are with the grant, I would like to give background on greta so you can see how fortunate we are to get her.
she received her b.a.
from vaster college and went on to get her law degree from the university of maryland school of law.
she is license to do practice law in both maryland and Texas.
she started out prosecuting misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases, also sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse in the courts in maryland.
she then we want on to be project manager for the all state domestic violence program with the national network to end domestic violence.
she was also the managing attorney for the d.c.
office of the legal department of the pennsylvania coalition against domestic violence.
she managed the stop violence against women grants technical assistance project and several other projects all to do with domestic violence.
she was working directly with the office of violence against women on some of those projects and actually with some of the same people that are overseeing our Travis County grant.
the last position that ms.
gardner had before she came to the contribute was director of natural domestic violence violence hotline which is here in Austin and she is currently living with her husband, son and soon to be new addition to the family.
with that I'm going to hand it over to greta to kind of let y'all know where we are currently with the grant.
>> thank you.
good morning, Commissioners.
the grant, like ms.
coalburn indicated, started a little late.
we started in April.
however, we have moved quickly in the past three months and reviewed all the requirements of the grant.
one of the requirements that we are here for today for approval is we are required to have an advisory committee.
it is not an advisory board, there is no voting rights, there's no governance, there's no fiduciary responsibilities.
it's merely to help us get guidelines, procedures, protocols, safety measures, et cetera from a network of community members who have either been involved directly with domestic violence, building a center, people who have their finger on the pulse of the community of Travis County so that we're really tailoring our particular program to the needs of the community and not just doing a cookie cutter approach to whatever other counties or jurisdictions are doing.
one of the things we are required to do is develop a mission statement.
we were able to develop that in one meeting.
i was very proud of our collaborative team which consists of the courts, c.e.s., safe place, the county attorney's office and a.p.d.
currently we've been to three or four different site visits, one in dallas, one in seattle that are team just came back from to observe other locations throughout the country as to what some of their protocols are, how they are dealing with problems and issues.
we've attended several conference calls so we are able to receive technical assistance via teleconference and communing with some of our fellow grantees so we can do peer kind of learning and supervision.
our greatest challenge at the current time is to get this advisory committee up and running.
we would like to have a meeting in September so that we can start flushing out some of our policies and procedures and move along.
our grant is up this time next year, September -- well, more or less September 2010.
it's my concern that we're not going to spend all of our money.
the office on violence against women, if you don't spend your money, they will take your money.
i don't like giving money back.
i am familiar with the process for a no cost extension because we were so delayed, but I will try to do that as well.
however, I know just when we met with you there was the concern as to what the county's responsibility was once this grant ended in September 2010.
there is no true responsibility at the county.
mostly of the money is seed money.
generally it's a two to five-year plan that if we do apply for 'em implementation rant they would like to see your sustainability plan for weeding your off off the money and that's what with we want to talk to the budge committee about.
we're thinking about a sustainability group so that we can start building those blocks together now.
>> did you all have any questions?
>> how much increase
>> [inaudible] have we created through the grant for supervised visitation?
>> let me clarify.
this is not an implementation grant.
>> this is best practices.
>> correct.
this is just a planning grant for the next year or 18 months depending if we get an extension.
we're not in the implementation phase whatsoever.
we are trying to develop a community needs assessment to answer that question question.
what is our capacity, what is the need and how are we going to meet the need.
been wonderful providing a stop gap measure.
but we're trying to flesh out is that appropriate, it seems to be working, if it's working do we need to fix it or supplement or enhance?
what really needs to happen.
>> so the money is intended to fund planning, and planning is broadly defined as what?
>> planning is broadly defined as to having staff to help plan, to develop your core group which we already have the coordination team to help with the nuts and bolts.
to have your advisory committee help you do input and plan, to attend conferences on best practices nationwide, to attend teleconferences nationwide and to do the
>> [inaudible] of the plan so you can do needs assessment to find out what your community needs.
>> okay.
ms.
burk, any additional comments before we take mr.
pena's question?
>> well, I would just say probably most of you know
>> [inaudible] sort of a spotty history in Travis County.
it started in 1995.
it was a nice cute little house by the courthouse primarily funded by fees and the family bar.
it sort of struggled for years because it's a small nonprofit and could not, of course, support itself on its fees.
in 2005 it merged with life works.
and life works put a lot of time and effort into it, but last year they notified us that they could no longer offer the services.
so we put together the kids exchange network.
and it's a network of about 12 providers.
and a lot of them are therapists that are forensic therapists that do work with the courts already and a lot of them had been providing this service before.
our largest provider is providence corporation.
and they have proved to be a very accident provider.
and it seems to be working real well.
our numbers are up by about 275%.
which tells me that the judges, the lawyers and particularly parents like the services.
they are willingly going and using the services.
the Commissioners court has been very generous starting back in 2001, y'all appropriated $25,000 to the d.r.o.
budget to assist in services provider for low-income people and at the same time councilwoman jackie goodman matched that with a $25,000 from the city.
in 2007 you increased the appropriatation to 64,800.
and that has made a huge difference for kids who otherwise would not have been able to see one of their parents.
the city funding is not there anymore.
>> so is our 64,000 still there?
2009?
>> it is.
it is.
and --
>> do you all still need that?
>> we're almost out this year, judge.
>> could you all, just speaking for the value of this program, it's my impression and please correct me if I am wrong that one of the huge values of this program is in negotiating cases that the court -- if you can negotiate in a supervised visitation, it makes agreement on some of those cases much more tangible than it otherwise would have been.
it is often the sticking point in these cases.
the issue of visitation.
>> that's true.
and you know, most of the rear officials to kids exchange from from d.r.o.
they either come from family court services or from our visitation enforcement program.
because one of the ways that we help families that come for visitation enforcement is to offer three months free kids exchange.
it's a good deal.
and often can get those visits started again.
the other way that I think Travis County is sort of unique in the way that we use visitation services is they are truly a function of the court.
they can act as another source of really good information for a guardian ad litem or for the court in terms of what is happening during supervised visit or during a therapeutic visitation or even with neutral exchanges.
it's another piece or body of information that helps a judge make a determination about best interest of children.
very valuable.
>> one of the things that we find, judge shepherd estimates that of the -- the family violence cases in her court, about 50% don't need visitation services.
about 30% can't have visitation.
about 20% could have supervised visitation.
but I can tell you anecdotally there are very few families on that docket that could afford the service.
they just don't have the financial resources.
and even, you know, working people a lot of times in the pendency of the divorce don't have extra money.
they just simply don't because of the cost of the litigation, the cost of the divorce.
and I think that -- I'm proud of Travis County in that we've stepped up and offered these services.
and it makes a difference to kids, a big difference.
>> a huge difference.
>> mr.
pena.
>> judge, good morning, Commissioners, gus pena.
again we're all supportive of this item number 14.
it's needed.
one of the things that we as the older veterans do and I as a former counselor speak to younger veterans and counsel veterans on substance abuse, spousal violence and send them and refer them to bipolar assessment, anger management.
this is very important and one thing that's been left out of this discussion is that a lot of grandparents, uncles and aunts are being awarded p.m.c., permanent management conservancy of kids.
and if it wasn't for them, they would be out there either in foster or lord knows where.
but we're supportive of this and we
>> [inaudible].
i know about kids exchange back in 1995 when I was a bailiff in the courts.
it's very good program.
we should continue to be funded.
it needs funding like no tomorrow.
but anyway, one of the things I would like to make is I do know here and the backup it says complete note we welcome suggestions from the Commissioners court for additional committee members.
please, outstanding individuals already are listed on the attachment, but I would like to see some more grass-roots representation.
there's a lot of experts out there that are not traditionally judges or so-called professionals or lawyers.
there are a lot of people that bring in needed suggestions and recommendations to this -- to this committee and that I would respectfully request that be looked into and maybe include more community members a lot of community members have experience.
violence out there, family violence, spousal abuse, et cetera.
we need that kind of representation on here from the grass roots also.
and I applaud y'all.
i applaud everybody that allowed this to come to fruition.
please, men, men, I'll make this plea to you, walk away if you feel like anger is about to take over your lack of judgment, walk away and get some counseling.
we don't need violence.
that's all have I to say.
thank you all very much.
>> thank you.
>> do you know why the city discontinued their funding of this particular program?
i understand right now $64,000 available as far takes county is concerned, but at one time the city was in partnership and this is just not serving -- this is serving people throughout Travis County.
is that correct?
>> that's correct, Commissioner.
i tell you what, kids exchange does affect the city because families that are using kids exchange are less likely to be calling a.p.d., you know, on a family call.
and people who get visitation with their kids are more likely to pay child support so their families are not going to be accessing other services of the city.
the money was originally appropriated to kids exchange when it was a small nonprofit.
the Monday followed the program to life -- the money followed the program to life works.
when the program left life works the money did not follow the program.
the city recently published a list of items that they intended to cut from their budget.
and this is one of them.
>> this is one of the ones that they -- okay.
>> right.
they said they intended to cut it, but, of course, we have not had access to this money.
we the kids exchange network this year.
but we have been working with several councilmembers and hope that that money can be preserved because it certainly would be to the city's benefit to make sure that these children are seeing their parents.
>> okay.
i just posed the question.
just looking for an explanation.
>> the name safe havens is the national grant?
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
and the principles that are on the fourth page, those are the national safe havens principles.
>> correct.
and in the grant they've asked that you can add or enhance those principles, but they ask that you not modify them so that they are different or detract.
>> I wouldn't dream of modifying their principles.
>> thank you.
>> you do say a page 3, you welcome any suggestions from the Commissioners court for additional committee members.
>> yes, sir.
>> so I guess -- and the first meeting is in September.
>> yes, sir.
>> so in my view, it would help to take a good look at where there might be advisory gaps.
so as we look for other committee members for you, we can fill those gaps.
and mr.
pena's thing is we ought to have grass-roots representation.
this is an outstanding list of prominent citizens of Travis County and some have statewide influence, which is good.
but if we can come up with additional members, I guess that would be good too.
the bottom line of this is our goal is to find out what the best practices are in this area in the united states and put together a plan to bring the best of the best to Travis County.
>> exactly.
>> I can hardly wait for the results.
>> is there any other program in the country looking -- well,
>> [indiscernible] is there any other location in the country that has something similar that we
>> [indiscernible] as far as coming up with the process?
do we know of any other program in existence.
>> we know of several but the one of close proximity and is our consultant is faith liberties place in dallas, Texas.
and a group went in March, some of us are going to follow after we have our children to go and visit personally, but ona foster is the director and in terms of teleconferences and as we're going through the next stage I can have one on one time so we're dealing with best practices.
they are outstanding.
>> we cannot be outdone by dallas.
>> we can't have that.
>> anything further?
move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
that was of the advisory committee.
>> thank you all.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 1:31 PM