This Summit brought together members of the domestic violence advocacy community and the child welfare system to increase our understanding of how domestic violence and child maltreatment intersect and to discuss ways to improve coordination of services for the families involved. National experts, Wisconsin Children's Court Judge Marshall B. Murray and Nancy Grigsby of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, explored the goals and principles of the child welfare system and domestic violence advocates, the impact of co-occurring domestic violence and abuse on children and parents, and the protective capacity of parents experiencing intimate partner violence
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 Understanding our Differences |
This plenary session focused on the systemic and structural differences that can make cross-system collaboration challenging.
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Overview of Domestic Violence |
In this breakout session for professionals and volunteers from the child welfare system, Nancy Grigsby defined battering, described what domestic violence is and isn't, explored various tactics batterers use to exercise power and control, and described how domestic violence impacts victims.
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A day in the life of a dependency case with DV |
This breakout session for domestic violence advocates and service providers introduced the purposes, state and federal legal requirements, and processes of the child welfare system, describing the timelines unique to child welfare cases, the goals of safety, permanency, and well-being, and the requirement that reasonable efforts be made to prevent removal and reunify families.
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Barriers to Safety |
Barriers Chart |
Through presentations and small group discussion, participants focused on the barriers to safety and leaving that are created by community, trauma, socialization, and a victim's history of childhood abuse. During this dialog, participants explored how these barriers to escape can also be barriers to successfully completing a case plan and how to create a case plan that helps victims overcome the barriers identified in individual cases.
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Impacts and Dilemmas |
Beginning with a discussion of the ways that domestic violence negatively impacts children and parenting, and explaining how our legal responses (such as protection orders and foster care) are often inadequate or are otherwise difficult for children and families, the presenters began to focus on the resilience factors and innovative approaches that our systems can use to enhance family safety.
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Tools for Improving Practice |
GCADV Tool Kit |
CYFD Protective Capacities |
| CYFD Safety Threats |
CYFD Safety Assessment Guidelines |
Discussion Scenario |
Discussion Questions |
Beginning with a presentation on innovative practices and approaches being used around the country to increase cross-system understanding and collaboration, the main part of this session involved small group discussions of a hypothetical family, focusing on identifying threats to the children's safety and the parent's protective capacities, creating a meaningful safety plan, when and whether a protection order is appropriate, and exploring how participants see the hypothetical family differently as a result of the Summit.
Excerpts from New Mexico Statutes, Rules, and Case Law
Safe and Together, Shifting the Paradigm Where Domestic Violence, Child Maltreatment and Child Welfare Meet. http://safe-and-together.endingviolence.com/blog/
Publications
Checklist to Promote Perpetrator Accountability in Dependency Cases Involving Domestic Violence, NCJFCJ, 2011. http://www.ncjfcj.org/images/stories/dept/fvd/pdf/checklist-to-promote-accountability.pdf
Child Safety – A Guide for Judges and Attorneys, Therese Roe Lund (National Resource Center for Child Protective Services) and Jennifer Renne (National Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues), America Bar Association, 2009. http://www.nrccps.org/documents/2009/pdf/The_Guide.pdf
Reasonable Efforts Checklist for Dependency Cases Involving Domestic Violence, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), 2008. http://www.vaw.umn.edu/documents/reasonablechecklist/RE%20Checklist%2009.pdf
A Judicial Guide to Child Safety in Custody Cases, NCJFCJ, 2008. http://www.ncjfcj.org/images/stories/dept/fvd/pdf/judicial%20guide.pdf
Fathering After Violence –Working with Abusive Fathers in Supervised Visitation, Family Violence Prevention Fund Publication, 2007. http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Children_and_Families/FAV-final.pdf
Child Protection in Families Experiencing Domestic Violence, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2003. http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/domesticviolence/domesticviolence.pdf
Advocacy Beyond Leaving—Helping Battered Women in Contact With Current or Former Partners, Jill Davies, 2009. http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Children_and_Families/Advocates%20Guide(1).pdf
Effective Intervention in Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice, Susan Schechter and Jeff Edleson, 1998. http://www.thegreenbook.info/documents/Greenbook.pdf
Confidentiality & Information Sharing Issues—For Domestic Violence Advocates Working with Child Protection and Juvenile Court Systems, Jill Davies. http://www.vaw.umn.edu/documents/infosharing/infosharing.pdf
Tool Kit: Domestic Violence Cases, Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Family Violence Unit of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, and the Georgia Legal Services Program. GCADV Tool Kit
In the Name of the Child: A Developmental Approach to Understanding and Helping Children of Conflicted and Violent Divorce, J. R. Johnston, V. Roseby, & K. Kuehnle (2nd ed., 2009) (chapter 11, on domestic violence, describes the P5 guideline for custody and parenting plans that evaluates the potency of violence, patterns of violence, primary perpetrator of violence, parenting problems, and perspective of the child).