A SAFeR Approach to Domestic Abuse-Related Cases

105 South Central Avenue,Clayton MO 63105

03 March, 2023

Description

Course Description Research confirms what experienced practitioners know: child custody and parenting time decisions often happen without adequate regard for peoples’ real-life experience of domestic violence. Many factors contribute to this problem, including lack of awareness about domestic violence; confusion about professional roles and responsibilities around domestic violence; inconsistent screening and assessment protocols; misapplication of assumptions, biases, and beliefs; ill-informed decision making around domestic violence; and disconnected outcomes, interventions, and services to address domestic violence. This training will introduce legal practitioners to a structured approach to decision making in domestic violence-related custody cases that centralizes the experience of battered parents and their children. The training will also acquaint participants with a suite of tools designed to enhance screening, assessment, and informed decision making in domestic violence related child custody matters, with a special emphasis on parenting and co-parenting. SESSION I: FOR LEGAL PRACTITIONERS, GUARDIANS AD LITEM AND JUDGES Agenda 8-8:30 Registration 8:30-8:40 Introduction and training objectives 8:40-8:45 Legal considerations of DV across practice areas (Custody, CPOs, ADR, CPS, CSE): This session will address the legal relevance of domestic violence across practice settings. It will explore how domestic violence factors into participants’ cases and how those factors shift in different legal contexts. 8:45-8:55 Common challenges and dilemmas for family law attorneys in DV cases: Through a series of practical exercises drawn from their own experiences, participants will grapple with real-life challenges and dilemmas that family law attorneys commonly encounter in their everyday work. This session will illustrate the need for and utility of applying a systematic approach to domestic violence like SAFeR. 8:55-9:05 Overview of the SAFeR approach: This session will introduce participants to the SAFeR approach and the various tools that have been created to support its use by family law practitioners. 9:05-9:50 Screening and How to use SAFeR in client interviews and counseling sessions: In this session, participants will learn how to use SAFeR screening and assessment tools to optimize interview and counseling sessions with their clients. 9:50-10:05 15-Minute Break 10:05-11:20 How SAFeR applies to child custody disputes: In this session, participants will learn about the nature and context of abuse, the implications of the violence for the victim and their children, and how to effectively respond to the IPV by applying the SAFeR approach to various aspects of a hypothetical child custody dispute. 11:20-11:30 10-Minute Break 11:30-11:45 How SAFeR applies to CPO proceedings: In this session, participants will apply the SAFeR approach to various aspects of a hypothetical CPO case. 11:45-12:05 How SAFeR applies in ADR settings: This session will explore how domestic violence can inform decision-making around dispute resolution processes. It will introduce a SAFeR tool designed to help family law attorneys discuss ADR options and strategies with their clients and determine which ADR processes are most likely to achieve safe and workable outcomes for children and their battered and battering parents. 12:05-12:20 Safety Planning and Referrals: Participants will learn about basic safety planning and effective referral processes. 12:20-12:30 Questions & Closing Remarks SESSION II: FOR ADVOCATES, MEDIATORS, COURT PERSONNEL AND OTHER STAKEHOLDERS Agenda 1:30-2:00 Registration 2:00-2:05 Introduction and training objectives 2:05-2:15 Legal considerations of DV across practice areas: This session will address the legal relevance of domestic violence across practice settings. It will explore how domestic violence factors into participants’ cases and how those factors shift in different legal contexts. 2:15-2:25 Overview of the SAFeR Approach: This session will introduce participants to the SAFeR approach and the various tools that have been created to support its use by practitioners. 2:25-2:45 Screening for Intimate Partner Violence: In this session, participants will learn how to use SAFeR screening and assessment tools to optimize interview and counseling sessions with their clients – whether those clients have been victims, perpetrators, neither, or both. 2:45-3:05 Assessing the Nature and Context of the IPV: This session will address the contexts of IPV, multiple forms of abuse and coercive control. Participants will learn about the nature and context worksheets that focus on the victim, perpetrator, and child. 3:05-3:25 Focusing on the Effects of the IPV: This session will address the implications of IPV for the victim and the child. 3:25-3:45 Responding to the Nature, Context, and Effects of the IPV: This session will address how to effectively respond to IPV by considering the nature, context, and effects of IPV. 3:45-3:55 Safety Planning and Referrals: Participants will learn about basic safety planning and effective referral processes. 3:55-4:00 Questions & Closing Remarks Speakers Tracy Shoberg is the Deputy Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence with the Battered Women’s Justice Project. She has trained thousands of legal practitioners on enhancing their domestic violence practice, including the SAFeR approach. Before joining BWJP, Tracy was a family law staff attorney at Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services serving low-income clients. She worked under the Office of Justice Programs grant representing victim-survivors in civil matters, including orders for protection, harassment restraining orders, custody, and divorce cases. While at SMRLS, Tracy also assisted Goodhue County in drafting their first Safe Harbor Protocol as part of the countywide effort to respond to the needs of human trafficking victim-survivors. Tracy attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving BAs in English and Gender Studies, and the University of Minnesota Law School. She has committed herself to this work since 2012 when she began working at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin. Anadelle M. Martinez-Mullen, JD, Director of the National Legal Center on Children and Domestic Violence, at the Battered Women’s Justice Project. Ms. Martinez-Mullen has held direct services and management roles in the gender-based violence field for over 20 years. Ana began her work to educate, empower and promote change as a victim advocate and later, upon graduating law school and her admission to the Florida Bar she went into the private practice of family law representing clients in dissolution of marriage actions, custody, paternity cases, and child support actions. She also served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Domestic Violence Law and Mediation. Ms. Martinez-Mullen is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator. Prior to joining BWJP, she was Senior Attorney for the Injunction for Protection Project at Hubbard House, Inc., where she represented survivors in civil protection order actions. Robert Boedeker, J.D., Co-Manager/Attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri joined Legal Services in 2015 and has been practicing family law since graduating from SLU Law in 2011. Prior to law school he worked in non-profits in St. Louis and abroad focusing on humanitarian work and homelessness issues. He is currently active in the Missouri Chapter of AFCC and the St. Louis County Domestic Violence and Family Court Council. Accessibility We are committed to access for participants with disabilities and Deaf participants. We encourage our colleagues with disabilities and Deaf colleagues to attend. If you have a question regarding access, please contact Taylor Ikemeier at [email protected]. If you are requesting accommodations, please make your request no later than 2/27/23. Thank you for your participation. We look forward to seeing you! Morning and afternoon refreshments provided by Missouri Chapter of AFCC. This project was supported by Grant No's. 15JOVW-21-GG-00223-JFFX and 2020-TA-AX-K015 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.