RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT/ANNUAL REPORT COMMITTEE

MINUTES

Meeting Date: September 18, 2002 11 AM– 1 PM

Location: Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women (CPVAW)

915 Cedar Street

Santa Cruz, CA 95060

Call to Order
Committee Chair Laurie McWhorter called the meeting to order at 11:10AM. Present were David Rabow and Kim Austin. Alan Hiromura arrived later.

Additions or Deletions to the Agenda
An update on What Works!, a program seeing statistics on children witnessing domestic violence, was added to item #5.

Oral Communications from the Community
None.

Approval of the September 18, 2002 minutes.
Approved: Hiromura/McWhorter/unanimous with Austin and Rabow abstaining because they were not present at the 9/18 meeting.

Discuss findings in United Way report.
Recommendation: Agree on how to use their data, or not. Decide collaboration strategy if we decide to do so.
McWhorter reported that the United Way report, a CAPP project, is a 10- year grant that will have its final year in 2004. It is not certain that grant will be refunded. McWhorter noted that the CAPP report does not include Parks/Harbor/or UCSC in its law enforcement stats, that it only reports on # of cases and cases with weapons; and that the child witness information from their sources is not available every year nor every month. The committee decided to not use the United Way report.

McWhorter reported on What Works! Investing in Children and Families:What Works! is a program under the United Way that is also working with ASR. Their mission is to gather statistics on child witnesses to Domestic Violence. Their committee has defined child witnesses as children who live in the home where the violence occurred. This 18 month project is funded by Packard Foundation with less than 100 hours staff time and $15,000 in incentive stipends, originally planned to encourage law enforcement participation. Rabow suggested that money be used to develop the computer program necessary for inputting survey tool responses. It was noted that the Packard Foundation should approve this because this Annual Report Committee, because it is a part of the County Domestic Violence Commission, has powerful backing and therefore greater ability to illicit agency cooperation. Further, the data founded by the additional questions from the Annual Report Committee will only enhance the ability of the What Works! group to accomplish their ultimate goal which is, based on their findings, to increase needed services for children who witness domestic violence. McWhorter will bring this issue to Nancy Goodman, consultant to the What Works! project. In the event the money cannot be spent that way, Austin will speak at the Chief’s Association meeting to ask members to share the stipends with not only law enforcement But also all the other agencies participating in our annual report project.

We will plan a joint meeting with What Works! after the survey tool is completed, October 9, in order to access the potential for What Works! and this Annual Report Committee to further merge and/or collaborate. Members of the What Works! committee will review our survey tool as soon as we can get a draft to them, especially looking at the effectiveness of the child witness questions, so that the data also fulfills their project needs.

Continue review of each question in the Overview Report with the Screening Questions.
Recommendation: Complete Task 2. C, D, E, I, and finalize answers to questions from the last meeting regarding recidivism as noted in the 9/11/02 minutes.
Task 2. E. (Batterers) clarified: We want:
1.number of new batterers
2. # of continuing batterers
3. # of batterers who successfully completed program
4. # who terminated
5. length of time between conviction and enrollment (maybe we took this out?) (yes, we took this out)
6. maximum capacity of the agency that month
7. we will not ask for geographical location nor children witnesses in the statistical information. Month will stand for the month of the report from the batterer’s program.
Task 2. A. (law enforcement) clarified:
1. ask for number of EPO’s issued.
2. DV incident refers to: anything the officers mark as DV (as per the law enforcement protocol), including restraining order violations.
3. Incidents will be divided into misdemeanor, felony, and incidents (are we recording incidents? Or just arrests?) (we are recording both incidents and arrests)
4. Arrests will be categorized as misdemeanor, felony, and warrants sought

Plan of action. How to create the evaluation tool by October 9
Recommendation: list tasks to complete, delegate, set meetings.
1. Finish creating the questions as a group

2. Write each question in a complete sentence in categories of agencies
3. Put those questions into a format that would match the structure of the agency’s current statistical report
4. Identify computer application and/or create a program and template for data entry of the questions. Insure that the data gathered from the survey tool can be implemented, organized, pulled from a system.

5. Send survey tool out for review, What Works!, including ASR.
6. Make final changes, print and copy

7. Distribute at October 9 meeting

8. Identify central information center to be responsible for collecting/receiving (and compiling?) monthly stats.

9.Create cover letter which explains the overall project; explains that an agency will have a chance to review the data and give the committee an explanation for the numbers should they raise questions…the committee will summarize and include in the final report of year 2003 data; explains where to send data; any other details.
Delegation:
#1 The Committee will complete at its next meeting
#2 The questions from Task 2. of the overview sheet will be written by: Hiromura E&H, Austin A, Rabow, B&C, McWhorter D&F, Starn, J (hospitals). G and I will be addressed at the next meeting. All members will email their questions to McWhorter by Monday night. McWhorter will cut and paste information and email out Tuesday for Committee review. All members should review and have revisions ready for the meeting the following day.
#4 Hiromura will talk to the County Director of Information Services. McWhorter will talk with ASR about the program, and if they do it, insure that they use a program that exists within the resources of the DV Commission or can be purchased inexpensively as ASR won’t be entering the data.

Announcements

None.

Schedule next meeting

Next meeting is Wednesday, September 25, noon-2, at Watsonville PD, Administration Conference Room. Meetings will be planned for Wednesdays, October 2 and 9, times and place to be determined by committee members.

Closing
Accomplished.

Official adjournment
McWhorter adjourned the meeting at 1:10 PM.