The Co-occurrence of Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment (Greenbook Initiatives)
ASR works with counties and communities to improve the way they respond to families that suffer from both domestic violence and child maltreatment in the same home. These projects are often referred to as Greenbook Initiatives because the federal government published a book with a green cover that provided recommendations to improve how communities respond to families that suffer both domestic violence and child abuse or neglect under the same roof.
- ASR was the local evaluator of the federally funded Greenbook Initiative in Santa Clara County over the course of five years.
- The focus of Greenbook efforts are to improve interventions and coordination between child protective services (CPS), domestic violence agencies, the juvenile dependency court, and law enforcement.
- ASR used its expertise in the Greenbook Project in Santa Clara County to help surrounding counties implement their own versions of the Greenbook Initiative (including San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Contra Costa counties).
Results of the Greenbook Initiative in Santa Clara County may be found in:
Domestic Violence Initiatives
In addition to the initiatives about co-occurrence of domestic violence and child maltreatment, ASR does extensive work with domestic violence agencies, county agencies that help to implement domestic violence projects and domestic violence prevention projects.
Some of our recent projects included:
- A Needs Assessment for Women's Crisis Support-Defensa de Mujeres in Watsonville
- Hands are not for Hitting Domestic Violence Prevention Project in Santa Cruz County
- San Mateo County Family Court Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan
- Safe Havens for Supervised Visitation in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties
- Teens Regional Needs Assessment: Relationship Abuse in Nine California Counties: Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare Counties
Domestic Violence Court
Some counties create special courts for domestic violence cases and ASR evaluated one such court system in Contra Costa County.
- The Zero Tolerance Initiative in Contra Costa County was designed to intervene swiftly and effectively in misdemeanor domestic violence cases and send perpetrators to jail or to batterer treatment so that it prevents batterers from committing further acts of domestic violence or more violent forms of abuse.
Child Abuse and Neglect
ASR has extensive expertise in:
- Assessing and evaluating child abuse and prevention programs.
- Helping communities to reform child welfare systems in order to better support families that experience both child abuse and domestic violence (see the Greenbook Initiatives above).
ASR recently helped one county to assess their child welfare system and the impact of the system on those touched by the system: families, children and caregivers.
- In 2007, ASR designed a unique study of parents, youth, caregivers, former foster youth, and Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs) in Santa Cruz County in order to assess their needs and the quality of services they were receiving.
- The study was one of the first of its kind in the nation.
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