How to Start a Family Justice Center

Across the country and around the world community leaders, advocates, law- enforcement agencies, service providers, shelters, and concerned community leaders are exploring the possibility of starting a Family Justice Center in their own community. A Family Justice Center is a co-located, multi-disciplinary approach to services for victims of family violence and their children.  The goal is simple:  To provide one safe place where victims and their children can go to get all their services under one roof.  The model seeks to wrap victims in support and services and end the frustrating journey for victims of having to go from agency to agency, telling their story over the over again in order to get the help they need.

Today, there are over 70 operating Family Justice Centers or similar models and there are over 100 communities in some stage of planning for a Family Justice Center or similar co-located, multi-disciplinary approach across the country and around the world. Family Justice Centers have developed through a variety of funding sources, both private and public. Each model is different and has unique characteristics depending on the needs of a local community.

The first step for interested communities is to attend the International Family Justice Center Conference and buy “Dream Big: A Simple, Complicated Idea to Stop Family Violence” (Wheatmark 2010) and the Alliance’s “how to” manual entitled “How To Start A Family Justice Center in Your Community”, both authored by Casey Gwinn and Gael Strack.  Then, communities generally reach out to the Alliance to help them design a planning process for their community.  Most communities seek out a grant from public or private funders to assist with the costs of the planning process.

Prior to starting the formal planning process in a community, the Alliance has developed an Orientation Process to help communities get ready to start a Family Justice Center. The Orientation includes a welcome packet of key information and resources on how to get started as a member, how to access our resource library, how to attend our free monthly on-line webinar trainings and how to participate in our monthly calls with other developing sites.   The Alliance frequently schedules an informational conference call with Casey Gwinn and/or Gael Strack to answer questions, assist in determining a community’s level of readiness and carefully explain the technical assistance and training our team can provide before starting the formal planning process.  We strongly encourage interested communities to also join the Alliance and spend time becoming familiar with the FJC movement through the free online Resource Library.  Membership in the Alliance is completed at www.familyjusticecenter.org and is free.

The formal planning process includes three distinct phases of planning and development when starting a Family Justice Center. The Alliance is often invited by a local community, using public or private grant funds, to participate in all three phases described below.

Phase I – Phase I assesses a community’s readiness for creating a Family Justice Center. Each community has its own level of readiness. Some communities are ready to get started: They have a long history of working together, years of specialization, long-standing protocols, strong champions, key stakeholders on and off-site partners who are ready to participate, community buy-in for a Family Justice Center and secured local funding to begin the planning process. . 
In other communities there are a few key people who are just beginning to explore the feasibility of what it would take to get people to talk about starting a Family Justice Center. They see the vision but are not sure how to start. .

The Alliance has worked with communities in all stages of development including communities that have some buy in, some support, some hesitancy, and lots of questions about what it would mean to start a Family Justice Center in their community.  The Alliance is often invited by a local community to conduct a Community Assessment prior to the beginning of a formal planning process for a Center.

The Community Assessment conducted by the Alliance includes meeting with all stakeholders, hosting a community forum, conducting  focus groups with survivors and professionals, meeting with elected officials and policy makers, learning about the community’s response to domestic violence, assessing level of collaboration and readiness for collocation and ultimately providing recommendations for next steps.  Based on the discussions with the Planning Team, the Alliance will either recommend a 2-day Study Tour Community Assessment or a 4-day Snapshot Community Assessment.

In all cases, the Alliance has been able to help communities work through their questions and come to a decision about whether or not they are ready to move forward. For those that are ready, the Alliance provides a customized strategic planning process that creates a road map for implementation. For those that are not yet ready for co-located, multi-disciplinary services, the Alliance is able to help identify the next steps necessary for moving forward.

Phase II – Phase II involves the creation of the actual Strategic Plan and the implementation process for the plan. The Planning Process takes a great deal of preparation and stakeholder outreach, involves 2-3 days of actual planning meetings, and produces a written plan with the Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategic Activities necessary to create a successful Center.  The Alliance is often invited by a local community to oversee the planning process.  Local communities are always encouraged to work with a Project Coordinator that can manage the process locally and work closely with the Alliance.  The period from the strategic planning process to opening day depends upon a community’s readiness. The Alliance provides individual and team coaching along with regular progress reviews,  access to a resource library which contains best practices,  policies and procedures,  manuals and job descriptions,  teambuilding exercises, board development, sustainability planning, and capacity building, and much more.

Phase III – Phase III occurs after the Center has opened.  The Alliance often conducts a Family Justice Center Snapshot Evaluation.  The Snapshot is an evaluation tool, with weighted scoring mechanisms, designed to evaluate the operational effectiveness of a Center and identify needed areas of improvement.  Three to four members of the Alliance Team generally conduct the Snapshot during a three day site visit.  The Snapshot includes a comprehensive report with recommendations for key steps to address any significant issues or strengthen weaker areas of the collaborative model. Either, Alliance Chief Executive Officer Gael Strack or Directors from other Centers will provide onsite support for the new Director.  The Alliance also hosts a FJC Directors’ Leadership Training Institute for new Directors and new Directors are strongly encouraged to participate in this Institute.  For more information and a description of the services available to help you start a Family Justice Center in your community, contact the Assistant Director of Technical Assistance at (888) 511-3522 or email the Alliance at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .