Yolo Center Offers One-Stop Help for Family Violence
September 12, 2011
By Cathy Locke

Yolo County residents dealing with family violence no longer have to go from one agency to another seeking help.

Five months into a pilot program, legal aid and social service providers say the Yolo Family Justice Center has improved access to aid by bringing the services of nonprofit organizations, law enforcement and local government under one roof. And they are doing so at no additional cost to taxpayers or the participating agencies.

"It's one thing to tell someone to walk down the hall," said Lynette Irlmeier. "It's another thing to hand them a referral" to an agency across town.

Irlmeier is executive director of the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center, which is sharing its quarters in a former Woodland school building with the Family Justice Center.

For someone in crisis, services that are readily available can mean the difference between life and death. For a victim of domestic violence, the only opportunity to seek help may be while an abusive spouse is at work and children are in school.

"In 96 percent of spousal homicides, the victim did not seek any services," said Jonathan Raven, chief deputy district attorney.

Such was the case of Guadalupe Benitez, a 35-year-old mother who was shot a killed by her husband in a Yolo County orchard in 2007 after she refused to get in a car with him. Ignacio Favela Mendoza, 41, of Yuba City was sentenced Thursday in Yolo Superior Court to life in prison without possibility of parole.

"The Family Justice Center could have assisted in a way where she would have felt safe, supported and protected," said Laura Valdes, Victim Services Program coordinator with the District Attorney's Office. "All you need to say is 'Help' and there will be 10 hands to assist you."

The center operates three hours a week, from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays, at 175 Walnut St., Woodland. But since April 13, it has served 44 clients, said Dennis Larsen, who volunteers as the Family Justice Center's project manager.

In some cases, clients have been referred to the center by law enforcement or other agencies involved in the collaborative. Others learned of it by word of month.

Participating service providers say the center isn't just a place, it's a process.

On a recent Wednesday morning, those on hand to assist clients included representatives of the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center, the District Attorney's Office's Victims Services Program, UC Davis Family Protection and Legal Assistance Clinic, the Yolo County Sheriff's Department, Yolo County Child Protective Services and the Yolo County Multidisciplinary Interview Center, which coordinates services for child victims of sexual abuse.

The Sheriff's Department and police departments countywide rotate duties at the center, but all are kept informed of the cases.

Those who come to the center for help meet first with a "client navigator" who listens to their story and finds out what type of service they seek. That information is then presented, without the client's name, to the assembled agency representatives to determine what services are needed.

"We're seeing a lot of domestic violence cases," said Krystal Callaway Jaime, supervising attorney with the UC Davis legal assistance clinic, and those sometimes involve child abuse as well as spousal abuse.

There also have been a couple of cases of elder abuse, a number of requests for restraining orders and clients seeking help with immigration issues.

Care is taken to ensure confidentiality. Some people who seek help are reluctant to become involved with law enforcement. "If they're not ready to take it to law enforcement, we're not here to pressure them," Valdes said.

Plans call for opening a Family Justice Center in West Sacramento in May and eventually offering one-stop services at satellite centers throughout the county.

A $10,000 grant to the center from Wells Fargo & Co. was announced last week. It comes on the heels of a $25,000 grant from Blue Shield and $5,000 from Sutter Hospitals. Brown Construction of Davis also has offered to help refurbish a wing of the former school building for use by the Family Justice Center.

Larsen said grant funds are sought to cover startup expenses and to eventually hire an executive director.

YOLO FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER

The Yolo Family Justice Center helps victims of family violence by providing services of nonprofit organizations, law enforcement and local government at one place.

Hours open: 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays.

Where: 175 Walnut St., Woodland.

Help Hotline: (530) 662-1133 or (916) 371-1907.

To donate: Call Gina Daleiden, deputy to county Supervisor Jim Provenza, at (530) 757-5555.