April 21, 2008

Contacts:

Family Justice Center Alliance
Gael B. Strack, Co-Founder & CEO
760.445.3559
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

International Family Justice Center Conference Announced

San Diego – The Family Justice Center Alliance today announced the 8th Annual International Family Justice Center Conference.  International and national attendees will gather at the downtown Westin Hotel at Horton Plaza in an effort to stop the violence.  The conference begins at 8:00 AM on Tuesday, April 22nd in the Westin Hotel in the Grand Ballroom and continues through Thursday, April 24th.  The Conference is being sponsored by the Family Justice Center Alliance (www.familyjusticecenter.org) and will feature domestic violence experts from around the world, stories from survivors,  proclamation from City Council, International Flag Ceremony and Portraits of Courage – a photo display of survivors and former clients of the San Diego Family Justice Center.

Media are invited to attend the opening session on Tuesday, April 22nd from

8:00AM – 9:30 AM in the Grand Ball room at The Westin Horton Plaza Hotel, 910 Broadway Circle, San Diego.  Media should plan to arrive no later than 8:00 AM to register.

Director Cindy Dyer from the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice,  District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis, Council President Scott Peters, Councilmember Jim Madaffer and Mike Mason will welcome over 400 professionals to the three-day conference.

The goal of the conference is to provide an exchange of information, best practices and expertise on issues related to responding to domestic violence based on the Family Justice Center model of co-located services for victims.   The faculty of the conference includes some of the most well-known experts and trainers in the country on family violence including Sarah Buel, Cindy Dyer, Mark Wynn, Gael Strack, Esta Soler, Sue Else, Paul Greenwood, Casey Gwinn, and Ellen Pence.  The conference is co-sponsored by each of the national family violence organizations in the country.

Casey Gwinn (former San Diego City Attorney) and Gael Strack (former Director of the San Diego Family Justice Center) have already shaped the national discussion about the development of these unique Centers. They are the co-authors of “Hope for Hurting Families: Creating Family Justice Centers Across America” and their newest book “hope for Hurting Families II: How to Start a Family Justice Center.”

In October 2003, President George W. Bush created the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative which created 15 Family Justice Centers across the country all modeled after the San Diego Family Justice Center.  In 2005, Congress created a special Family Justice Center purpose area in the Violence Against Women Act to allow more communities to seek federal money for developing such Centers.  Today there are over 30 family justice centers across the nation, with another 30 in the planning stages.

Today, the City of San Diego has the lowest domestic violence homicide rate of any major City in America due to San Diego’s response to domestic violence beginning with the formation of specialized domestic violence units in the City Attorney’s Office (1988), the District Attorney’s Office (1990) and the San Diego Police Department (1992), Domestic Violence Courts (1994) and Domestic Violence Response Teams (1999), and the formation of the San Diego Family Justice Center in 2002. 

As early as 2006, the City of San Diego, in partnership with the San Diego Family Justice Center Foundation, began developing sister-city alliances with Family Justice Centers in Croydon, England, Waterloo, Canada and Monterrey, Mexico for the purpose of joint support, training, and an exchange of information and expertise to mutually benefit our respective cities and strengthen the efforts to break the cycle of family violence.

Most recently, Verizon announced a $1,000,000 investment in the Family Justice Center movement to help the National Family Justice Center Alliance develop the Family Justice Center Institute to focus on innovative technology-based initiatives to help Centers increase safety and decrease violence through special new projects and on-line training efforts operated out of the Verizon-sponsored Family Justice Center Institute.

The Office on Violence Against Women is sponsoring a special eight hours of workshops (called the FJC Symposium) at the conference this year focusing on helping communities seeking to develop new Family Justice Centers across America.  The sessions will be practical “how to” sessions drawing on the lessons learned from the first 16 federally funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

Additional information about the Family Justice Center Alliance can be found at www.familyjusticecenter.org.  Additional information about the Office on Violence Against Women can be found at www.ovw.usdoj.gov.