One Place Family Justice Center Marks First Year of Helping Victims
October 26, 2011
By Scott Johnson

Christian Dunn said that when she went to the One Place Family Justice Cen­ter for the first time she only expected counseling.

Dunn, 21, said she was in an abusive marriage and what she really needed was a divorce, but as far as she could tell, there was no way she could afford one.

So the Family Sunshine Center counselor told Dunn that she should go to Legal Services Alabama, a nonprofit that provides civil legal help for low-in­come Alabamians.

Dunn reached that des­tination by walking down the hall.

The One Place Family Justice Center will cele­brate its one-year anniver­sary Saturday as a "one-stop shop" for victims of abuse. It has served more than 800 victims since its opening, executive direc­tor Steve Searcy said.

The center, created by a joint effort of Montgom­ery city and county enti­ties, serves victims of do­mestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and elder abuse.

The center soon will re­ceive a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Justice De­partment, and Searcy said that the collaborative, every­thing-under-one-roof model is what is attracting the fed­eral dollars.

"Communities that get it, this is what they are going to do," Searcy said.

One of the great things about the justice center mod­el, he said, is that there is no payroll.

Searcy is an employee of the district attorney's office, and everyone else in the building is either a volunteer or is paid by the agency or organization that employs them.

Searcy said the volunteers are what make the center work.

"We couldn't do this if we had to pay for salaries and benefits," he said.

Community volunteers have served more than 2,500 hours of service hours at the center.

The Justice Center grant is renewable, so One Place can apply for it every time it becomes available.

Montgomery's Family Jus­tice Center is the only one of its kind in Alabama and one of only a small handful in the Southeast.

Other family justice cen­ters in the general region in­clude one in New Orleans and one in Memphis, Tenn. There is not one in Mississip­pi, Georgia or South Caroli­na.

The One Place Family Jus­tice Center has 22 partner agencies, including several with offices in the center's building on Lawrence Street.

Including Searcy, there are five employees of the district attorney's office at the Justice Center.

Other Justice Center ten­ants include attorneys with Legal Services Alabama, counselors with the Family Sunshine Center and the Montgomery Police Depart­ment's entire domestic vio­lence bureau.
Successful journey

Dunn escaped her abusive situation and was able to ob­tain a divorce. Now she vol­unteers for the Family Jus­tice Center.

The Troy University Montgomery student said a warrant officer referred her to the Family Justice Center when she was signing a war­rant against her then-hus­band.

Dunn said she had no idea that the center would have such comprehensive serv­ices.

"I didn't know a place like that existed," she said.

Dunn said that she did not want to send her husband to jail, but she needed to get out of the relationship. Dunn spoke with Kelly McTear, an attorney with Legal Services, and within the week the pa­pers were filed for a divorce from her husband.

"I was amazed," Dunn said. "It was such a burden off me."

The atmosphere at the center is "warm and non­judgmental" in contrast to governmental buildings such as police departments, she said.

The services offered to her included shelter if she needed it, help getting a job, financial help and help with securing a protection order and a divorce. Dunn said she did not even take advantage of all the services offered.

Without her experience at the Family Justice Center, Dunn said, "a lot of the bad things would still be happen­ing."

"It just opened my life up," she said.
The services

The goal of the One Place Family Justice Center is to provide as many services to victims as possible under one roof in a warm and homelike setting.

The center has added a lot since it opened as a bare-bones office on Oct. 29, 2010.

The building is filled with furniture, all of it donated or funded through a grant.

A drab, once-empty room filled with nothing but empty shelves now has three copi­ers and a new paint job.

The following are some of the partners and features of the Family Justice Center:

District attorneys office: Two prosecutors and a victim's services of­ficer are among those housed at the center.

Being there allows them to interact more not only with victims, but also with police officers, something Searcy said rarely hap­pened when he was a po­lice lieutenant with MPD.

There is a small confer­ence room to meet and dis­cuss cases, and the access to the people involved in the case is a big help, Dep­uty District Attorney Car­rie Gray said.

"Most everybody involv­ed in the victim's case is here," Gray said.

Domestic violence bureau: The center also houses the Montgomery Police Department's do­mestic violence bureau, headed by Lt. Cecil Wil­liams.

The police officers occu­py the upper floor of the building, out of view of victims coming into the center.

The officers do, how­ever, watch over the vic­tims' safety.

The offices of both Wil­liams and Searcy include views of the center's multi­ple surveillance cameras. The front reception area is protected with bulletproof glass, and the center re­cently received a grant to make the metal doors more secure.

The bureau is an investi­gative arm of the depart­ment that follows up on do­mestic violence calls to the police. Justice Center di­rector Searcy calls it the "homicide prevention bu­reau."

About 60 percent of calls to 911 are related in some way to domestic situations, Williams said.

Legal Services Ala­bama: Jim Smith and McTear provide legal help to victims who come into the Family Justice Center.

The attorneys with Legal Services Alabama help the victims with a broad vari­ety of civil legal issues, from divorce and child custody to bankruptcy and title loan entanglements.

"We can help them with whatever (legal) barriers there are," McTear said.

Solving financial issues can be the first step for a victim to keep from falling back into the cycle of vio­lence, McTear said.

Often, victims are wom­en who suddenly find themselves going from two incomes to one or from one income to none at all, she said.

Smith and McTear re­ceive help from a group of 10 third-year law school students from Jones School of Law.

The students study un­der Jeff Baker, an associ­ate professor and the co-chair of the Montgomery County Task Force on Do­mestic Violence.

Family Sunshine Center: This nonprofit has been providing counseling and shelter for domestic violence victims in the area for years.

Counselors with the cen­ter can help victims make decisions such as whether to seek temporary housing at the shelter, which is not located at the Family Jus­tice Center, and whether to pursue criminal or civil ac­tions.

Children's play room: Here, children of victims can spend time in a room filled with toys, games and books and a safe distance from the re­peated details of domestic violence.

The room allows chil­dren to be children and to avoid being re-victimized by hearing the story of abuse repeated to a police officer, Searcy said.

Forensic Exam Room: Here, rape victims can receive a full forensic exam, have a shower and change into a fresh set of clothes.

The exam room includes equipment that digitally collects evidence that can be used in a criminal case.

One of the advantages of having the exam room on-site is that rape victims don't have to share their story over and over, Searcy said.

Instead of going to the emergency room, the Po­lice Department, a counse­lor's office and the district attorney's office, the vic­tim can just go to the Fam­ily Justice Center.

With fewer barriers, the victim is less likely to give up on pursuing the case, Searcy said.

Searcy said the very first victim at the center was a sexual assault victim who came in later in the af­ternoon of Oct. 29 from outside the city.

Searcy said he was wor­ried about whether they would be ready for their first victim.

He said she set his mind at ease when she raved about the center, saying "this wasn't what I ex­pected."

Since the center opened last year, several partner agencies have expressed interest in moving into the building, Searcy said, but there simply is not any­where to put them at this point.

"The only thing I wish we had done differently is gotten a bigger building," Searcy said.