What is a Family Justice Center? (Top)

It is the co-location of a multi-disciplinary team of professionals who work together, under one roof, to provide coordinated services to victims of family violence.  Many communities use the name “Family Justice Center” though some communities select a different name to describe their multi-agency service delivery models.  Family Justice Centers are specifically defined in federal law and refer to the co-location of staff members from multiple agencies under one roof.  While a Family Justice Center may house many partners, the basic partners include police officers, prosecutors, civil legal service providers, and community-based advocates. The core concept is to provide one place where victims can go to talk to an advocate, plan for their safety, interview with a police officer, meet with a prosecutor, receive medical assistance, receive information on shelter, and get help with transportation.

The Family Justice Center approach is based on the San Diego Family Justice Center model which opened in 2002. The National Family Justice Center Alliance now helps communities develop such centers across the United States and around the world. The Family Justice Center model has been identified as a best practice in the field of domestic violence intervention and prevention services by the United States Department of Justice. The documented and published outcomes in the Family Justice Center model have included: reduced homicides; increased victim safety; increased autonomy and empowerment for victims; reduced fear and anxiety for victims and their children; increased efficiency and coordination among service providers; and reduced recantation and minimization by victims when wrapped in services and support.(See Casey Gwinn, Gael Strack, Hope for Hurting Families: Creating Family Justice Centers Across America (Volcano Press 2006)).

Why is a Center needed? (Top)

Each year law enforcement agencies around the world respond to alarming incidents of domestic violence. The prevalence of family violence is even more alarming when one considers that experts estimate that only 25 percent of such cases are actually reported.  There are many reasons why victims often fail to report domestic violence, including love, fear, religious beliefs, threats to children, lack of money or resources, or simply not knowing that help is available.

Most criminal and civil justice systems make it difficult for victims to seek help and unintentionally wear them down.  Victims are often required to travel from location to location to seek services that are scattered through a community or region.  They have to tell their story over and over again to officials representing agencies, such as, law enforcement, courts, legal aid, medical, transportation, housing, social services, mental health, rehabilitation, financial assistance, and many more.  The criminal justice system unintentionally makes it easy for victims to become frustrated and ultimately stop seeking help.

How will victims and children benefit from a Center? (Top)

The Center can provide a combination of services and interventions from one location to help victims and offenders break the cycle of violence and develop healthy relationships. A collaborative effort provides more support to victims and children involved in family violence through improved case management and a more fluid exchange of information and resources.  Bridging existing gaps increases a victim’s access to services and resources and makes the entire process of reporting a domestic violence incident much less overwhelming for the victims and children involved.

What are the services and activities that can be provided at a Center? (Top)

A Family Justice Center model can be expected to offer comprehensive medical and legal services, counseling to victims and children, links to Juvenile, Family and Criminal court, as well as access to on-site professionals providing civil legal services, job training and placement assistance, public benefits assistance, advocacy, and safety planning. It can also provide comprehensive prevention efforts such as outreach to young adults and underserved victims through community education.

Most importantly, each Center is different and is based on the needs of victims in each community.  The on-site partners and services at each Center often vary as well based on the unique characteristics of the organizations in a particular jurisdiction.  During a strategic planning process, each Center must identify which services are most needed and helpful for victims by being provided in a co-located service delivery model.  The services may be very limited such as the presence of police, prosecutors, and advocates.  The services may also be very diverse and include full health services, job training, comprehensive and long-term counseling services, camping and mentoring services for children, and a host of other assistance coupled with the basic services from police officers, prosecutors, and advocates.

How do I start a Center in my community? (Top)

Across the country and around the world community leaders, advocates, law- enforcement agencies, service providers, shelters, and concerned community leaders are exploring the possibility of starting a Family Justice Center in their own community. Most communities seek out a grant from public or private funders to assist with the costs of the planning process. Then, communities generally reach out to the Alliance to help them design a planning process for their community.

Prior to starting the formal planning process in a community, the Alliance has developed an Orientation Process to help communities get ready to start a Family Justice Center. The Orientation includes a welcome packet of key information and resources on how to get started as a member, how to access our resource library, how to attend our free monthly on-line webinar trainings and how to participate in our monthly calls with other developing sites.   The Alliance frequently schedules an informational conference call with Casey Gwinn and/or Gael Strack to answer questions, assist in determining a community’s level of readiness and carefully explain the technical assistance and training our team can provide before starting the formal planning process.  We strongly encourage interested communities to spend time becoming familiar with the FJC movement through the free online Resource Library.  Click here to learn about Membership information.

What does the Planning Process look like? (Top)

The formal planning process includes three distinct phases of planning and development when starting a Family Justice Center. The Alliance is often invited by a local community, using public or private grant funds, to participate in all three phases described below.

Phase I – Phase I assesses a community’s readiness for creating a Family Justice Center. Each community has its own level of readiness. Some communities are ready to get started.  They have a long history of working together, years of specialization, long-standing protocols, strong champions, key stakeholders, on and off-site partners who are ready to participate, community buy-in and secured local funding to begin the planning process. In other communities there are a few key people who are just beginning to explore the feasibility of what it would take to get people to talk about starting a Family Justice Center. They see the vision but are not sure how to start.

The Alliance has worked with communities in all stages of development including communities that have some buy in, some support, some hesitancy, and lots of questions about what it would mean to start a Family Justice Center in their community.  The Alliance is often invited by a local community to conduct a Community Assessment prior to the beginning of a formal planning process for a Center.

The Community Assessment conducted by the Alliance includes meeting with all stakeholders, hosting a community forum, conducting  focus groups with survivors and professionals, meeting with elected officials and policy makers, learning about the community’s response to domestic violence, assessing level of collaboration and readiness for collocation and ultimately providing recommendations for next steps.  Based on the discussions with the Planning Team, the Alliance will either recommend a 2-day Study Tour Community Assessment or a 4-day Snapshot Community Assessment.

In all cases, the Alliance has been able to help communities work through their questions and come to a decision about whether or not they are ready to move forward. For those that are ready, the Alliance provides a customized strategic planning process that creates a road map for implementation. For those that are not yet ready for co-located, multi-disciplinary services, the Alliance is able to help identify the next steps necessary for moving forward.

Phase II – Phase II involves the creation of the actual Strategic Plan and the implementation process for the plan. The Planning Process takes a great deal of preparation and stakeholder outreach, involves 2-3 days of actual planning meetings, and produces a written plan with the Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategic Activities necessary to create a successful Center.  The Alliance is often invited by a local community to oversee the planning process.  Local communities are always encouraged to work with a Project Coordinator that can manage the process locally and work closely with the Alliance.  The period from the strategic planning process to opening day depends upon a community’s readiness, however communities with a designated Project Coordinator tend to streamline the process faster. The Alliance provides individual and team coaching along with regular progress reviews, and access to our Resource Library which contains best practices,  policies and procedures,  manuals and job descriptions,  teambuilding exercises, board development, sustainability planning, and capacity building, and much more.

"On behalf of the Hamilton County Family Justice Center Steering Committee and everyone who attended the Planning Event and Best Practices Training, I would like to thank you for a wonderful three day event last week. It was truly remarkable.

I have received many positive comments about the entire three days and how well it went! So often, strategic planning is boring and people become disengaged almost immediately. Not so with this process. You all did such a magnificent job educating the group about the FJC model and engaging them in the process. Everyone is very excited to get started and work to make our “big dream” a reality.

In closing, I would again like to express my gratitude for your time and support of the Hamilton County FJC. We are so thrilled to have such fantastic people involved in assisting us in our quest. It is such fun working with you and the entire FJC Alliance. What a great group of people!"

Thank you,
Beth Gehlhausen
Project Manager

Phase III – Phase III occurs after the Center has opened.  The Alliance often conducts a Family Justice Center Snapshot Evaluation.  The Snapshot is an evaluation tool, with weighted scoring mechanisms, designed to evaluate the operational effectiveness of a Center and identify needed areas of improvement.  Three to four members of the Alliance Team generally conduct the Snapshot during a three day site visit.  The Snapshot includes a comprehensive report with recommendations for key steps to address any significant issues or strengthen weaker areas of the collaborative model. Either, Alliance Chief Executive Officer Gael Strack or Directors from other Centers will provide onsite support for the new Director.  The Alliance also hosts a FJC Directors’ Leadership Training Institute for new Directors and new Directors are strongly encouraged to participate in this Institute.  For more information and a description of the services available to help you start a Family Justice Center in your community, contact Mehry Mohseni.

What is the cost for starting and operating a Center? (Top)

Any community considering development of a Center must address the financial issues that come with pursuing such a vision.  When compared to the financial impacts of domestic violence on the business community, the health care system, the legal system, or the impacts on children, the cost of running a Family Justice Center is minimal and the model is cost effective.

The budget for a Center has three major categories: start-up costs, operations (and expansion), or long-term needs. For a description of an operational budget, see Gwinn, Strack Dream Big: A Simple, Complicated Idea to Stop Family Violence, (Chapter 5, “Build the Fence at the Top of the Cliff”).

What is the sustainability plan for a Center? (Top)

There must be a commitment to a Center from government, non-government organizations, and community leaders in order to ensure success.  While there is no guarantee of future funding, the project leaders and partners must take aggressive steps to assure the continuation of the project, such as seeking grant funding at the local, state, and federal levels and donations from the community, businesses and corporations.  A comprehensive strategic fundraising plan must be developed with the help of community leaders and fundraising experts for a capital campaign that includes funds from government and non-government sources.

How can I find out more about the Family Justice Center Model? (Top)

Subscribe to the Alliance mailing list to receive emails about upcoming events and trainings. Consider ordering the two key books: Dream Big: A Simple, Complicated Idea to Stop Family Violence and Hope for Hurting Families II: How to Start A Family Justice Center in Your Community from our store online. Please join the Alliance staff for a free monthly webinar conference on how to start a Family Justice Center or attend the annual International Family Justice Center Conference in April 2012 in New Orleans, LA. The conference will offer special tracks on how to start a Family Justice Center. This conference is an excellent place to bring in a team of key partners who want to help start a Family Justice Center in their community. You can also schedule a virtual, on-line tour of the FJC model. For more information regarding the latter resources, contact Mehry Mohseni.