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Receive a presentation from Solano Partnership Against Violence (SPAV) on its 2019 Action Plan for improving local prevention and intervention efforts amongst victim service providers
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Published Notice Required? Yes _____ No _ X__
Public Hearing Required? Yes _____ No _ X___
DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION:
The District Attorney’s Office (DA) recommends the Board receive a presentation from Solano Partnership Against Violence (SPAV) on its 2019 Action Plan for improving local prevention and intervention efforts amongst victim service providers.
SUMMARY:
The Solano Partnership Against Violence (SPAV) is an advisory board to the County Board of Supervisors and as such, its members are appointed by the Board. SPAV was created in 1991 as a group of concerned professionals who convened monthly brown bag lunch meetings to discuss improving service delivery by public and private agencies to those affected by domestic violence. In 1995, it became the County’s domestic violence task force planning body and was designated an independent entity operating as a Countywide task force on family and domestic violence by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) in April 1996. It was further designated as the Solano County Domestic Violence Prevention Council by the Board in August 1999, becoming eligible for County staff assistance, and thus began its relationship with the County’s Office of Family Violence Prevention (OFVP). In August 2007, SPAV underwent a significant change in its membership, and this group established SPAV’s first Strategic Plan, which was presented to the Board in June 2008.
Today, SPAV’s purpose is to develop a more comprehensive and systemic approach to ending family violence in Solano County by: A) Providing a forum for interagency cooperation and coordination in the prevention, detection, treatment and legal processing of family violence cases; B) Promoting public awareness of family violence and resources available for intervention and treatment; C) Providing the Board of Supervisors with policy, legislative and funding recommendations; D) Fostering training of professionals in detection, treatment, and prevention of family violence; E) Recommending improvements in services to families and children; and F) Facilitating better integration of family violence prevention services within Solano County.
A community roundtable forum was held in Vallejo on September 18, 2018 with support from the Office of Family Violence Prevention, and with key-note speakers County Supervisor Erin Hannigan and District Attorney Krishna Abrams. A total of 98 participants, community partners and agencies from different sectors of the community attended, including Senator Bill Dodd, and representatives from the offices of Congressman Mike Thompson and John Garamendi, Vallejo Mayor Bob Sampayan, and Solano County Health and Social Services Director Gerald Huber. With the help of facilitators from Sonoma State University, an assessment was conducted on the current gaps and needs in the community as it pertains to access to services. Additionally, opportunity was provided to receive community input on how to best address prevention of violence in the areas of Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Teen Dating Violence, and Elder Abuse. The results of the forum are included as Appendix A of the Action Plan.
The forum was a collaborative effort to gather information from county agencies, organizations, and residents to develop new strategies and objectives for helping victims of violence that would serve as a basis for the development of SPAV’s 2020 Strategic Plan update. Five key objectives were established: 1) Develop strategies for reducing systems access barriers for victims of family violence who encounter cultural, language, and other logistical obstacles to securing support services; 2) Encourage local public/private agencies involved in family violence prevention/intervention services to work together to assure Solano County’s responses to these issues are based upon evidence-based best practices; 3) Assure that Solano County’s local housing development plan reflects the necessity for additional “Safe Housing” options for survivors of family violence using the “Housing First” approach; 4) Promote the implementation and publishing of Client Satisfaction surveys from local agencies involved in family violence services; and 5) Invite an independent facilitator to convene a conversation among local family violence prevention and intervention agencies regarding collaborative responses to emerging public and private sector resource opportunities.
Based on the findings, SPAV requests the Solano County Board of Supervisors receive the presentation of the proposed 2019 Action Plan that will guide its development of a 2020 Strategic Plan revision for improving local efforts to address these issues.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with developing the SPAV 2019 Action Plan. The costs associated with preparing the agenda item and clerical support to SPAV are nominal and absorbed by The Office of Family Violence Prevention as written in the SPAV By-Laws.
ALTERNATIVES:
The Board could choose not to receive the presentation; however, this alternative is not recommended as the Board has appointed members to the SPAV Advisory Board for the purpose of education and outreach and to conduct a community needs assessment to bring recommendations to the Board of Supervisors on issues of violence.
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
None.
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
APPROVE DEPARTMENTAL RECOMMENDATION