The grants to support families in the justice system program (referred to as the justice for families program) was authorized in the violence against women reauthorization act of 2013 to improve the…

This $466,667 federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) under the Justice Systems Response to Families Program (CFDA 16.021) will enable the Center for Safety & Change, Inc., a non-profit domestic violence service provider in Rockland County, New York, to implement a comprehensive project to improve the civil and criminal justice system's response to families affected by domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Key activities funded by this three-year grant include: providing civil legal services and victim advocacy through a bilingual attorney and advocate; supporting a domestic violence program coordinator to liaise between the court, probation, and a supervised visitation program; offering specialized training for court, court-related, and community-based personnel on domestic violence screening, immigration remedies, financial abuse, trauma-informed practices, and cultural humility; and delivering supervised visitation and safe exchange services in partnership with the Rockland Youth Empowerment Center. These coordinated efforts aim to enhance the justice system's capacity to keep victims and their children safe from further abuse while holding offenders accountable.

The grants to support families in the justice system program (referred to as the justice for families program) was authorized in the violence against women reauthorization act of 2013 to improve the response of the civil and criminal justice system to families with a history of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, or in cases involving allegations of child sexual abuse. The program supports the following activities for improving the capacity of courts and communities to respond to families affected by the targeted crimes: court-based and court-related programs; supervised visitation and safe exchange by and between parents; training for people who work with families in the court system; civil legal services; and the provision of resources in juvenile court matters. Projects supported by the justice for families program are those that focus on keeping victims and their children safe from further abuse and holding offenders accountable. Through this continuation justice for families project, the center for safety & change, and its collaborative partners, in partnership with the 9TH judicial district rockland county supreme court (rockland county integrated domestic violence court), rockland county department of probation, and rockland youth empowerment center, will implement a comprehensive project addressing the following purpose areas: 1) supervised visitation and safe exchange; 3) training of court-based and court-related personnel; 5) court and court-based programs; and 6) civil legal assistance. Specific activities will include: 1) supporting a 0.50 FTE bilingual attorney and a 0.65 FTE bilingual advocate to provide legal services to victims of domestic violence; 2) supporting a part-time dvpm coordinator to serve as the liaison between individuals enrolled in the domestic violence program for men, probation and the court; 3) supporting staff at rockland youth empowerment center to provide supervised visitation services; and 4) hosting trainings for court, court-related, and community-based staff on screening for domestic violence and CO-occurring victimizations, family court immigration remedies for DV survivors, financial abuse in matrimonial actions and trauma-informed communication, and cultural humility training to court clerks. This is a continuation of 2017-FJ-x-0012.