DVAC Agenda – March 2016 Approved June 10, 2016
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Edmund G. Brown Jr.Governor / / Mark Ghilarducci
Director
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ADVISORY COUNCIL (DVAC)
Friday, March 11, 2016
10:30 am
USC Capital Center
1800 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
MEETING MINUTES
Members Present: Cherri Norvell Allison (Chair), Anastacia L. Snyder (Co-Chair), Sheri Farinha, Patricia Giggans, Robert Lehner, Nancy O’Malley, Ben Schirmer, Lynda Smallenberger, Debra Suh, Christine Ward
Cal OES Staff Present: Leigh Bills, Joimeiko Coulbourn, Ricki Hammett, Nicole Watanabe
Absent: Krystle Contreras, Louis Gill
I. CALL TO ORDER
Cherri Norvell Allison, DVAC Chair, called the meeting to order at 10:30am.
Introductions were made of the DVAC members, Cal OES staff, and members of the Public.
II. CAL OES UPDATES
Leigh Bills, Cal OES Victim Services Division Chief, provided the following updates:
a. Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding increased which is currently the bulk of work at Cal OES. In order to help with this new workload Cal OES will be hiring 12 new staff members. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) requires that States meet with key stakeholders. Therefore, Cal OES formed the VOCA Steering Committee. Based off the Steering committee’s recommendations, Cal OES expanded current programs, created new competitive programs, and increased existing programs/projects. Cal OES staff is doing the best they can to get the work done. The Unserved/Underserved Victim Advocacy and Outreach Program received a tremendous response which requires additional time for the reading and rating process.
b. OVC conducted a site visit of Cal OES and there weren’t any major findings other than Cal OES is behind in site visits and that the Certification of Assurance of Compliance Form will become longer, to cover all necessary requirements.
c. The NO MORE license plate campaign with the Partnership, Cal CASA, and Senator Gomez’s office is not doing as well as expected.
d. Cal VCP has been doing some cross training at Cal OES.
e. Updates were provided on Request for Proposals with a April 1, 2016 start date.
Ricki Hammett, Cal OES Domestic Violence Unit Chief, introduced Tammy Pratt as a new Program Specialist for the Cal OES Domestic Violence Unit.
Ms. Pratt started in her new position in February and comes from the Cal OES Budgets Office.
III. REVIEW AND APPROVE MINUTES FROM DECEMBER 11, 2015 DVAC MEETING
A motion was made to approve the minutes from the December 11, 2015 DVAC Meeting.
Motion: Nancy O’Malley
Second: Robert Lehner
Discussion: Debra Suh, DVAC Member, requested that the minutes reflect that there was nothing to report on changing the DVAC Mission language, as she received no feedback from the DVAC members.
Motion Passed (Aye: 6, Nay: 0, Abstain: 4)
IV. PRESENTATION ON FY 2015 VOCA ALLOCATION PLAN
Ms. Bills presented on VOCA Victim Assistance Formula Grant Program funding. All states received an increase of VOCA funds. California received an increase of about $180,000,000. With the increase in new funds comes a new reporting system and processes. Cal OES is working with the Federal government and subrecipients to make the process as easy of a transition as possible. It was also shared that the Office of Inspector General will be auditing subrecipients.
Ms. Bills spoke about the Cal OES process for funding allocations and provided an overview of the new funding opportunities for both new and current subrecipients.
Kathy Moore, Executive Director, The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (The Partnership), requested an electronic copy of the 2015 VOCA Allocation Plan. Cal OES will send out copies to The Partnership and DVAC members.
V. IDENTIFYING GAPS IN SERVICES
The DVAC discussed the findings of the Full Frame Initiative/Blue Shield Report and expressed concerns with how information was gathered for the report, as there was no context of when the survivor felt successful in relation to their domestic violence experience. For example, “The question asked to survivors was, “When did you feel successful?” Survivors responded with “when I graduated and received my high school diploma or when I got a car”. However, service providers answered the question in the context of when the survivor feels successful in regards to their domestic violence experience. The DVAC would have preferred to have the conversation reframed to what makes survivors successful/feel successful within their domestic violence experience.
The DVAC then discussed diverse strategies that can be used to help survivors. The Full Frame Initiative Report is one tool and it should be used carefully. The report isn’t identifying gaps, but is helping to reframe the conversation around domestic violence. Members discussed how the DVAC can inform Cal OES on gaps in services in framing the Request for Application for the Domestic Violence Assistance Program.
When discussing gaps in services DVAC members mentioned that there were no Deaf or Hard of Hearing service providers, waiting lists, shortages, having the capacity to respond to gaps in services, and that there was not enough funding for prevention work. Ms. Norvell Allison stated that perhaps BlueShield could fund agencies for things that aren’t being funded, instead of creating new programs. Agencies could create a list of what they are doing that is not currently funded.
Ms. Bills provided an overview of what the funds from the VOCA increase for the Domestic Violence Assistance Program were being used for and will send out this information electronically to the DVAC members. She provided the following information on the use of the VOCA funds:
· 35% Increased Staffing
· 23% Other (Including Training)
· 18-19% Salary Increase
· 1% Access to Victims with Disabilities
· 3.3% Clinical Therapy
Ms. Bills asked DVAC members if they thought there was anything in the Full Frame Initiative Report that could be used to change the Domestic Violence Assistance Program. The DVAC members said they will reach out to members in their community to see what the gaps in services are. The DVAC members see this as an exciting opportunity to shift conservations with survivors to help their general “whole well-being.” A member of the public has had training by one of the Full Frame Initiative authors of the report at her agency and she found it very useful to receive the training.
The Partnership will launch a listening tour this summer and will ask what is needed in communities, if there was a clean slate to address domestic violence. They will ask if core services are still needed and what is being done that is not currently funded. Ms. Bills stated that this may help better define core services. DVAC members like this approach. At the next DVAC Meeting The Partnership will report on conversations from the Statewide Domestic Violence Conference and progress on the listening tour.
Gaps in services will be a permanent agenda item. Ms. Allison will need information sent to her from the other DVAC members. The DVAC will have an evolving conversation about gaps in services and build on a baseline of information. All DVAC members need to provide input on gaps in services and services they provide without funding.
VI. LANGUAGE ACCESS PLANS
a. Create Language for the RFA
Subrecipients receive federal funds; therefore, agencies must meaningfully address language access within their programs. There was confusion on what the DVAC’s role in creating the language for the RFA was. The DVAC thought there would be draft language to review. Cal OES will create the language for the DV RFA adding the federal language. In the RFA it will ask agencies to submit their agency’s language access plan within the first six months of the 2016-2017 grant period. Agencies must describe how they implement the plan and how they support the expenses for the language access plan. The plan will include meeting the language access needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing survivors. Once developed Cal OES will send the language access plan to the DVAC members for feedback before it is added to the Domestic Violence Assistance Program RFA.
b. Possible Next Steps
The Partnership is currently creating a toolkit for the field on language access plans. Agencies can reach out the Partnership for additional support/help with creating or enhancing their language access plans.
c. Public Comment
The public expressed support of the additional language to address the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community within the DV RFA.
VII. STRATEGIES FOR ADVERTISING PROGRAMS
Sheri Farinha, DVAC Member, stated that events like the Superbowl are a good opportunity to spread awareness. Ms. Bills stated that Cal OES doesn’t do public service announcements, but could. Cal OES is different than
CalVCP. This topic was tabled for next meeting because it was a topic raised by Nancy O’Malley, DVAC Member. She left the meeting early and the DVAC would like her to speak to this. Ms. Norvell Allison will connect with Ms. O’Malley about this agenda item.
VIII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
The following topics were identified:
a. Reporting on the status of the 2015 grants and spending down funds
b. VOCA updates
c. Information from The Partnership on the Statewide Domestic Violence Conference and their listening tour status and updates
d. Gaps in Services Update:
o DVAC members will provide gaps in services they’ve discovered through outreach within their communities
o Cal OES will bring statistics on services from the last three to five years
o National Network to End Domestic Violence 2015 Census
e. Update on Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) funds from Cal OES
IX. MISCELLANEOUS
The VOCA allocation plan presentation was revisited by Anastacia L. Snyder, DVAC Member. She wanted to talk about how the Sexual Assault Response Team (XS) Program didn’t receive enough proposals and it was suggested that perhaps Cal OES open up the eligibility to include other agencies besides the Rape Crisis Centers to take the lead. The majority of the DVAC stated this could be a slippery slope and it is best to leave things as is. It was also suggested that this would be an opportunity to build collaboration between agencies.
Jacquie Marroquin, Capacity-Building Program Manager for The Partnership, shared that The Partnership is currently working on an emergency response toolkit. The toolkit will include how to prepare for an emergency and respond. The Partnership has also been working with Blue Shield of California and jdcPartnerships to develop a Cultural Responsiveness Organizational Assessment Tool. This provides a snapshot of how culturally responsive an organization is and steps that can be taken to become more culturally responsive. This is currently being tested by certain agencies and will launch to the public in May. A report is issued and is exclusive and private to the organization. It consists of aggregate data rather than individual data. The Partnership will be able to obtain data for the whole field.
X. ADJOURNMENT
Ms. Norvell Allison adjourned the meeting at 2:02pm.