Staten Island Family Justice Center sees increase in new clients during coronavirus outbreak – silive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As the coronavirus (COVID-19) tore through New York City, Family Justice Centers (FJC) across all five boroughs saw increases of new clients, data provided to the Advance/SILive.com shows.

The centers, which provide comprehensive criminal justice, civil, legal and social services free of charge to victims of domestic violence, elder abuse and sex trafficking, closed in-person assistance as a result of the virus in mid-March moving to a virtual and remote model.

Between April 1 and July 24, new client visits to the citys five FJCs increased 14.3%, rising from 2,924 new clients during that period in 2019 to 3,344 this year.

On Staten Island, the last borough to receive a FJC after the facility opened in St. George in 2016, new client visits increased by 11.6% from 301 new clients in 2019 to 336 in 2020.

Survivors need us now more than ever in these extraordinary times, and our top priority remains to ensure continuity of services and unwavering support, said Cecile Noel, the commissioner of the Mayors Office to End Domestic and Gender Based Violence (ENDGBV). Our centers continue to provide crucial crisis support and advocacy by connecting survivors to immediate safety planning, shelter assistance, legal consultations, and more.

COVID-19 puts into sharp focus the vulnerabilities that many people in our city face every day, especially gender-based violence survivors; and it highlights the barriers and challenges that we know keep people from seeking help and finding safety. The city is here for survivors during this crisis and beyond, and will continue to work to identify best practices and innovative approaches to enhance its services, Noel said.

When the facilities shut down to in-person consultations, experts were concerned that quarantine could force survivors of domestic violence one of the groups served by the centers to spend more time confined with their abusers.

The majority of the five FJCs visits in 2019 were connected to safety planning, city data showed, which involves individualized preparation of physical and emotional needs for clients of the centers.

During an initial meeting (which was in person prior to the coronavirus outbreak), clients are screened for their immediate needs before they are connected to one of the service providers at the FJC.

All of them are expected and need to do what we call safety planning, which is really talking to the survivor about their physical and emotional safety, said ENDGBV Assistant Commissioner of Family Justice Center Operations & Programming Jennifer DeCarli, who oversees the citys five FJCs.

That planning can range from placement in an emergency shelter to being connected to a counselor, DeCarli said, but the coronavirus has caused that planning to be altered significantly.

Its a lot of creative safety planning, she said of the way organizations like Safe Horizon have had to adjust their services. Weve been doing a lot of training with advocates on safety planning and providing services virtually because, as you can imagine, its different to provide services over the phone than to do that in person.

Because of quarantine measures put in place during the early weeks of the pandemic, survivors had to find intuitive ways to reach out to the services provided by the citys FJCs going in the bathroom and turning on the water during a conversation, or taking their dog for a walk to have a safe space to speak to advocates, DeCarli said.

By early April, Safe Horizon also created a safe chat feature that enabled domestic violence survivors to discretely text chat with the organization over the phone or on a computer.

While the virus wrought challenges against providing survivors with services, DeCarli said the outbreak challenged us to think about ways that we can provide these services that are even more survivor-centered, adding that some of the virtual services which appear to have been effective could be carried over after restrictions are eased.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON STATEN ISLAND

A report by the Citizens Committee for Children (CCC) of New York published in 2018 showed that the intimate partner domestic violence rate on the North Shore of Staten Island where the boroughs FJC is located is twice the citywide rate and seventh highest in the city.

The rate of child abuse or neglect is higher than the citywide rate; and though the foster care placement rate has decreased slightly since 2015, when it was the highest in the city, it is still twice the citywide rate, the report said.

NYPD data from 2019 showed the jurisdiction of the NYPDs 120th Precinct in St. George had 57 chronic domestic violence offenders, the third highest in all of New York City, though down from 66 in 2018.

The NYPD defines a chronic domestic violence offender as someone who is arrested for a domestic violence offense three times within an 18-month span.

The CCC report recommended a series of measures to curtail the higher-than-average domestic violence rates, including hiring community advocates who live in North Shore neighborhoods to provide information, make referrals and help residents navigate issues to their resolution.

Additionally, the CCC suggested programs and workshops for both caregivers and young people to strengthen family relationships and communication be created, along with preventive services aimed at reducing domestic violence and outreach to victims of domestic violence that prioritize safety and anonymity.

During an interview with the Advance/SILive.com in February, Awali Samara, the director of Safe Horizon, said that while Staten Island had heightened domestic violence numbers on the North Shore, she did not think the issue was unique to Staten Island, bur rather reflective of under-resourced areas in New York City.

Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during the groundbreaking ceremony of the Family Justice Center in St. George in this 2015 file photo. (Staten Island Advance/Anthony DePrimo)Staff-Shot

When asked what additional resources could provide, Samara said that more counseling programs, more ability to do outreach could help curtail the higher-than-normal levels of domestic violence.

Safe Horizon does not receive all of its funding from the Mayors Office to ENDGBV, but rather also from other sources, including fundraising, agency financial records show.

The Mayors Office to ENDGBV said it does not anticipate any programmatic cuts to the citys FJCs during the 2021 fiscal year.

Amy, a Staten Islander who utilizes the boroughs FJC and wished to omit her last name for privacy concerns, said she receives domestic violence counseling from the center but says the services offered are very limited.

Amy said that counseling survivors of domestic violence is helpful; however, believes that if you dont address the source of the problem youre not going to get far, adding that services should place a far-firmer focus on the abuser.

Youre at the mercy of your abuser, Amy said. They have all the power.

While saying that the counseling she received has been more effective since the FJC opened, her experience of abuse which has stretched into legal litigation has spanned for nearly a decade and has been extremely difficult.

Ive learned nobodys going to help you besides yourself, she told the Advance/SILive.com, saying that the process of taking the legal route against her abuser has been both fiscally and emotionally draining.

Things will get better, she said, but it just takes too long.

Overall, the Mayors Office to ENDGBV said its client feedback through its FJC client satisfaction survey has been overwhelmingly positive. Out of 43 survey responses, 97% respondents would recommend using Staten Island FJC services, the agency said.

EVE PROGRAM SEES SUCCESS ON ISLAND

District Attorney Michael E. McMahon has been a fervent supporter of Staten Island receiving a community justice center, which would feature a problem-solving court, offering alternatives to incarceration and a chance for those with low-level criminal cases to get their lives on track.

While a community justice center is not yet slated for Staten Island, the Staten Island FJC which is located in the same building as McMahons office works closely with the district attorney through ENDGBVs Early Victim Engagement (EVE) program.

The EVE program provides information to survivors of intimate partner violence at the time of a defendants arraignment, providing victims with information about the case, the defendants release status the existence of an order of protection and advising about services and safety planning, according to the New York City Criminal Justice Agency.

Established on Staten Island in July 2018, the EVE program has successfully contacted 1,408 unique clients in order to inform them of the next steps in the criminal justice process and connect them to the community-based services provided at the Staten Island FJC, according to data provided to the Advance/SILive.com.

A 2013 evaluation by the NYC Mayors Office of Criminal Justice found that the implementation of the EVE Program increased the conviction rate in cases of intimate partner violence prosecuted in Brooklyn by nine percentage points (23.6% vs. 32.6%), attributing the increase to a a higher rate of witness participation in the prosecution among EVE clients.