CAFC News

Update: California Parental Alienation Bill, AB 612

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:43:00 +0000

We want to apologize for this late update on AB 612, the California bill that was carried by Assemblyman Beall that would have prevented a court from considering evidence that a parent had deliberately engaged in tactics and behavior that intentionally estranges a Childs bond with their other parent.

Before we continue we want to pay special tribute to: The Family Law Executive Committee of the California State Bar (FLEXCOM) and The California Psychologist Association (CPA) for their outstanding work and help this year on making sure committee staff and members were better informed and educated on Parental Alienation.

As a result of all of the hard work that went into this bill, it was defeated in the Senate Judiciary Committee and because of the way the rules work the issue will not be able to be heard again until June 2010.

We want to encourage you to read both the Assembly Judiciary Committee Analysis and the Senate Judiciary Committee Analysis on the bill. After reading these analysis’s you will plainly see that the education that was done made a big impact. We are hopeful that legislators and staff have been well enough educated on the issue this time around that no reasonable person would even considering carrying another piece of legislation that would attempt to do what this was trying to do.

This was the third year in a row now that CAFC has had to deal with this issue and bill. You can read more about our past involvement here.

This year after early discussions with the lead persons for FLEXCOM and CPA handling the bill, it was agreed early on that stronger educating efforts for committee staff and members was need. Although our combined past efforts had included educating committee staff and members, this years efforts pulled out all stop to make sure that staff had the best and most accurate information on the issue. Some of this was covered in our earlier post here.

Additionally in our discussions with FLEXCOM and the CPA we all shared the concerns that this bill could have had the potential to turn into a debate about gender and take the focus off the merits and facts of the issue. As a result CAFC was asked to contact one of the prominent advocates for men and fathers, Glenn Sacks of Fathers & Family and making the difficult request that they not get involved or engage in the bill.

Too this end we want to thank both Glenn Sacks and Fathers & Family for not only agreeing to the request, but also understanding and honoring it. This is a very emotionally charged issue and we know how difficult it is to stay quit and not act sometimes. And we want to applaud Glenn and the folks at Fathers & Families for showing some real disciplined and mature restraint. We hope that if any of their members and readers who may have been upset understands that Glenn and Fathers and Families acted in your best interest. More importantly they acted in the best interest of children. The final results are proof of this.

We also want to acknowledge that some of the complaints that the sponsors of the bill have some merits also. Namely, the use of parental alienation being used as a tactical weapon in child custody cases. As we have stated before that this has and is occurring in some cases, and is being exploited in the same way some use restraining orders to gain a tactical advantage in a child custody case. Parents who intentional exploited either should be sanctioned heavily for using these tactics because of the harm it causes children.

It is of our opinion that the way forward to address everyone’s concern is through better education on the issue. And we are hoping that cool heads will prevail and any future debate and discussion on this and other family law matters can be done in a respectful way that produces sound policy that serves the best interest of 21st century children and future generations.

While we know that the current economy is making it hard for all of you, we ask that everyone do what they can to donate to help assure our continued operations. And we can not thank those of you who are already contributing enough. Also please tell friends and family about us.

We are all in this together and together we can fix the problems children and families are currently facing. We thank you in advance for your continued support and donations.

From Ideology to Inclusion 2009: Post Conference Follow Up

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:59:00 +0000

As some of you are aware CAFC recently held our third conference on Domestic Violence on June 26-28, 2009 in Los Angles, California. The title of this year’s conference, “From Ideology to Inclusion 2009: New Directions in Domestic Violence Research and Intervention” – was as equally as successful as our historic; “From Ideology to Inclusion: Evidence-Based Policy and Intervention in Domestic Violence." February 15-16, 2008, Sacramento, California.

While our first conference that we held in 2007 did not receive the international attention that these last two have produced, it did get all of this started. Read about it here.

Some of the reviews from the 2009 conference can be read here, and the Post Conference Brochure can be seen here. You can also read more about our 2008 conference here, and information about our DVDs from the 2008 conference here. The DVDs from our 2009 conference will also bee available soon so keep check back for the 2009 catalog as well.

Most of the presenters who presented at this years conference serve on the editorial board of the new peer-reviewed journal, Partner Abuse, published quarterly by Springer publishing. For more information, go to http://www.springerpub.com/journal.aspx?jid=1946-6560 .

While our first conference that we held in 2007 did not receive the international attention that these last two have produce it did get all of this started.

CAFC also wants to give a special thanks to the Family Violence Treatment and Education Association (FAVTEA) for their Co-Sponsorship and help with volunteers at the conference.

In addition we also want to thank The Saxton Family Foundation for a grant that made our 2008 conference and DVDs possible.

To give you an idea of just a few major impacts that our conferences have already had, we have been working with judicial officers who attended our 2008 conference and as a result Idaho is close to a major overhaul of their domestic violence policy. A treatment provider in Utah received from their states licensing division the approval to use our DVD materials for training staff. Several Universities have purchased the DVD set for their Libraries and as result of some attendees of our 2008 conference Taiwan even changed their laws and policies as seen here.

CAFC is the only non-profit organization nationally on this side of the debate on policy issues affecting families and children that is fully approved as a Continuing Education Provider for CEUs for Mental Health Practitioners, Batter Intervention Providers, Family Court Mediator & Evaluators, and Attorneys. Read more about this here.

We have even had a major impact on shelters through our educational process that can bee seen in this recent paper by a program developer for one of California’s oldest shelters that can be seen here. We want to also thank John Hamel, LCSW and Dr. Linda Mills for their help that played a heavy role with this transformation.

While we know that the current economy is making it hard for all of you, we ask that everyone do what they can to donate to help assure our continued operations. And we can not thank those of you who are already contributing enough. Also please tell friends and family about us.

We are all in this together and together we can fix the problems children and families are currently facing. We thank you in advance for your continued support and donations.

CAFC Becomes Approved Continuing Education Units Provider:

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:37:00 +0000

Yes folks you read that right, CAFC is now the only non-profit organization nationally on this side of the debate on policy issues affecting families and children that is fully approved as a Continuing Education Provider for CEUs for Mental Health Practitioners, Batter Intervention Providers, Family Court Mediators & Evaluators, and Attorneys.

Our approval status as Continuing Education Units Course Providers was obtained a few months back and covers approvals from the California Psychologist Association for psychologists, the California Judicial Council, Administrative Office of the Courts, Children & Families Division, for mediators and evaluators and The State Bar of California for attorneys.

Also because of our affiliation with The Family Violence Treatment and Education Association (FAVTEA) and their Co-Sponsorship of our conferences we have been able to offer CEUs to MFTs &LCSWs, and Batterer Interventions Providers. CAFC is in the works of obtaining CEU provider status in this area as well under our own name.

What all of this mean to you is we can do training that no other group is, or can do, to meet the mandated ongoing annual education requirements that practitioners and treatment providers are require to do.

What this means is we are providing evidence-based educational materials to those who are possible decision makers that you may be affected by. In the end, the outcomes of you’re or future cases stand a better chance of producing better outcomes for you, your family and children if the education of the professionals is based on evidence-based research and treatment model rather than ideology.

While we know that the current economy is making it hard for all of you, we ask that everyone do what they can to donate to help assure our continued operations. And we can not thank those of you who are already contributing enough. Also please tell friends and family about us.

We are all in this together and together we can fix the problems children and families are currently facing. We thank you in advance for your continued support and donations.

Update: AB 612 Beall, Custody and visitation: nonscientific theories.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:30:00 +0000

This is the third year in a row now that CAFC has had to deal with this issue and bill. You can read more about our past involvement here.

AB 612 was heard on 4/28/09 before the Assembly Judiciary Committee and contrary to other reports regarding the outcome of the bill passing as amended here, the bill was drastically amended in committee.

The amendments that were passed were not those of the authors, but rather the recommendations of the committee. The current amendments have yet to be posted on the legislature’s website, but you can see the markup of the bill here. (Update: The committee amendments were posted on 5/5/09 and can bee seen here)

Prior to the committee hearing the author of the bill, Assemblyman Beall had submitted yet other amendments just prior to the hearing on 4/18/09 and was received by the committee on 4/18/09. You can read the authors proposed amendments here or on the states website here. Again, these were not the amendments that were passed. Those in the markup were.

After reading the committee analysis its no wonder this bill was drastically amended. The sponsors of the bill and the bill’s author were asking the legislature to go way beyond reasonable common sense policy to protect children from abuse. They wanted the legislature to do something that has not been done in any state in the nation. And in fact, contrary to other states policy that recognize parental alienation and its serious life long damaging effects that harm children.

CAFC believes the markup of the bill does help children by re-instating the states policy to protect children from abusive parents, but still allows the court to consider all the evidence, including evidence that may show that a parent engaged in deliberate acts to sabotage or alienate a child’s bond and relationship with their other parent. The bill also provides for increased training for mental health professionals on the issue and we see this as a positive step as well.

CAFC does not disagree that in some parental alienations cases that mistakes may have occurred and a parent may have been erroneously labeled an alienating parent, and a child was given over to the custody of an abusive parent.

No matter how hard we try we can not expect to produce a perfect policy that works 100 percent of the time, but this cannot keep us from creating sound policy that does the greatest good for the majority of cases.

It is important to note that parental alienation cases represent a small percentage of the overall number of child custody cases moving through our courts. Also just because one parent is making a parental alienation claim does not mean that the courts always rule that alienation has occurred. Many parental alienation claims cases are denied by the courts because the evidence showed otherwise. Even with our family law court calendars overloaded we believe the experts and courts get it right in these cases far more often than an occasional error.

The sponsors and author of the bill want us all to believe that alienation is junk science and that it does not exist because it has not been recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or DSM IV.

Over the years there have been many syndromes or disorders that had existed long before they were recognized in the DSM, such as Turrets Syndrome or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Still mental health experts recognized that those affected by Turrets or PTSD all had certain symptoms and displayed patterns of behavior that were consistent with the syndrome or disorder.

CAFC firmly believes that Parental Alienation and its harmful effects on children will also be recognized in the DSM one day, perhaps even in the next release of the DSM V. The recent longitudinal research and studies that have been coming out using the soundest scientific models for doing research are doing more to shore up the science of parental alienation existing than it not.

The research clearly shows that both mothers and fathers engage in alienating tactics and behavior, either intentional or as a result of a personality disorder. One of the most recent exhaustive studies was undertaken by Janet R. Johnson Ph.D, San Jose State University, along with Marjorie G. Walters Ph.D. and Nancy W. Olesen Ph.D.: “Is it Alienating Parenting, Role Reversal, or Child Abuse? A Study of Childrens Rejection of a Parent in Child Custody Disputes” (published in Journal of Emotional Abuse, (2005) Vol 4, No 4, 191-218). CAFC's position is that children need to be protected from the harmful effects of parental alienation, whether the offending parent is the mother or father, and the courts should have the discretion to examine all the evidence.

Ironically the sponsors and the author of the bill claim that they have creditable research to prove otherwise yet it has been withheld from the opposition or even given to the committee. What has been given over can hardly be considered creditable scientific research by even the lowest of standards.

Also over the last ten years or so many major network programs such as NBC DateLine and others have done documentaries on some high profile parental kidnapping cases where a child or children had been severely alienated and brainwashed into believing that the alienated parent did not love or care for them or that they were abusive. All of these cases had involved a high conflict custody battle. In some cases the kidnapping parent told the child[ren] that their other parent had died. The level of damage to these children in some cases took years to undo and only time will tell how it will impact their lives as adults when they get older.

Another relevant point that is rarely discussed or considered as a comparison to this issue it that of POW’s who have been brainwashed, and these are trained adult soldiers. Then think about how much more fragile the mind of a child is.

During 2001 we received a Canadian case review by Dr. Reena Sommer, Ph.D. You can read the case here. This case took many months to vet and over $50,000.00 in costs for investigation and therapy.

We will continue to keep you informed on this bill and we want to thank the Family Law Section of the State Bar, the California Psychologists Association, and others who have been working very hard to assure that any legislation passed on this issue is sound, and truly in the best interest of children.

CAFC also want to express our acknowledgment and thanks for the great display of courage that Assemblyman Mike Feuer, the committee chair, and his staff have shown. They have honorably shown that they will not be bullied with baseless political attacks, grandstanding or smear tactic claims of not caring about children’s safety and welfare. What Assemblyman Feuer and his committee staff have shown by the committees actions is that they truly care about the safety, health and care of all children, and it is evidenced in the committee bill language that was passed.

In closing we want to thank those of you who have donated to CAFC and those who make ongoing donations. Without your help we could not continue to be as effective as we are. Please spread the word about our work to others and encourage them to making a donation.

Update: SB 285 Wright Veterans Disability benefits: attachment. Plus a new Published Appeals Court Decision on SSI/SSDI Child Support Cases.

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:25:00 +0000

SB 285 passed out of the Senate Judiciary committee and was place on the Senate consent calendar where it quickly passed out of the Senate. The bill has now moved to the Assembly where its first scheduled committee hearing will be in the Assembly Judiciary. Read: CAFC Helps Disabled Veterans with Family Law Reform for more details about the bill.

There is only one family law code 4504 that even mentions disabled veterans benefits regarding their application in support cases. This same code also applies to SSI/SSDI cases yet other code sections that cover SSI/SSDI fail to cover disabled veterans benefits. The other family law codes are: FC 5246, FC 17400.5 and FC 17450. Read the codes here. The problem is the courts have routinely treated Veterans Disability Benefits differently than a disabled person on SSI/SSDI causing disabled veterans serious hardships.

We have to ask ourselves what is the difference between a civilian who has been disabled from a car accident, or a fall off a ladder, and permanently disabled compared to a military service person that is blown up by an IED, or was exposed to Agent Orange, or suffers from severe PTSD from combat related experiences? There is no difference except one federal program, the Social Security Administration (SSA), which covers the civilian, and another federal program, the Veterans Administration (VA), which covers the disabled veteran. In some cases a veteran may be entitled to both.

Bottom line is both are disabled as a result of a permanent injury or injuries, and have a partial or 100 percent disability that caused the disabled person the loss of future earnings. And in many cases are totally disabled and can’t even work a part time job at all.

Both federal programs have provisions for separate allotments or apportionments for dependent children. This means either the SSA or the VA send one check to the disabled person or veteran and another for the dependent children.

Here also disabled veterans and their dependents are treated differently. SSA pays substantially more for dependent children. Example; if the disabled person, based on their percentage of disability is receiving $800.00 a month, then a child dependent would receive half that amount and the SSA would then send an additional check for the dependent child to the custodial parent for $400.00. This does not include medical benefits children may also be entitled to as an additional benefit.

Here is an excellent paper on SSI for family law attorneys.

Unfortunately the VA only pays $71.00 max per child. Our question is why do we continue to penalize a disabled veteran due to discrimination between two federal programs? The children of disabled veterans should be entitled to the same amount that a child of a disabled person on SSI/SSDI would receive. Children of disabled vets do have VA medical benefits available to them also.

CAFC intends to push this at the federal level and get this discrimination stopped so that children of disabled vets are taken care of and treated the same as children receiving SSI/SSDI benefits.

Still, even thought California laws are clear on SSI/SSDI child support cases, courts have routinely allowed the Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) to double dip by not applying the amount of SSI/SSDI that is paid directly to the custodial parent for a child towards the court ordered amount -- let alone applying any over payments towards any arrears if there are any. In many if not most cases the amount the SSA pays for the children is higher than the child support order.

CAFC has received many calls from disabled persons on SSI/SSDI that have encountered these problems. One of the most glaring injustices on this problem is that of the Ray Askins. His case was being handled by the San Bernardino County DCSS office.

Ray is 100 percent disabled with severe diabetes and other serious heath problems. As with most disabled people, including disabled veterans, they cannot afford the costs of an attorney let alone the cost of an appeal. Ray did as good of a job as any family law specialist could have done but the Department and the court denied him justice. He has not been able to afford even minimal cost for an appeal.

CAFC is pleased to announce that finally a trial court in Kern County finally followed the law and held the Department accountable for their injustice against a disabled person in the case of: In re the Marriage of DANNY C. and SHANNON HOPKINS, 5th DCA F055130. This case was just published on April 24, 2009.

This case brings great hope for anyone who is disabled with a child support order, including Ray Askins. When we emailed the case to him he said it brought tears to his eyes.

We have most of Ray’s case documents which we assisted him with in part. Here is just one document that shows his case is almost identical to the Hopkins case. Ray’s Bank account was also levied as was Daniel Hopkins and as result Ray was not able to get the medical attention he needed weekly because he could not afford the travel cost. It almost cost Ray his life.

Because this is a published opinion and new case law, many will have the right to have their cases readdressed. If you are a disabled person or you know of a disable person who has been wronged by this injustice in California then please let them know about this case. Some cases may even be entitled to a refund for over payment.

As blistering as the appeals court opinion is we would be extremely surprised if a Petition for Review is granted. The case can be tracked here.

In closing we want to thank those of you who have donated to CAFC and those who make ongoing donations. Without your help we could not continue to be as effective as we are. Please spread the word about our work to others and encourage them to making a donation.

CAFC Helps Disabled Veterans with Family Law Reform:

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:24:00 +0000

The California Alliance for Families and Children is thrilled that nearly 10 months of work have resulted in getting a bill introduced in the California Legislature that will uphold existing federal law -- USC, Title 38, Section 5301, governing third party disbursement of disabled veterans' benefits compensation.

The bill, SB 285, is being carried by California Senator Rod Wright, and even though CAFC spearheaded the issue here in California, we have asked one of the veterans groups that we have had a long association with, the American Retirees Association (ARA), to make a formal request to Senator Wright’s office to be the bill's official sponsor.

Although United States Code, Title 38, Section 5301 is very clear in its wording and intent, civil court judges nationwide have routinely ignored the U.S. Code and calculated veterans’ disability compensation into divorce settlements as a divisible asset or income.

And it's just not men; it's also disabled female veterans experiencing these problems when they get divorced or declare bankruptcy.

CAFC’s Executive Director, Michael Robinson, first became aware of the problem mid-year in 2008, after hearing from other vet groups about the problem. See CAFC Fact Sheet Here or SB 285 author Rod Wright's Fact Sheet Here.

SB 285 was originally for another family law code, but the author, Senator Wright, amended the bill to correct this problem on April 2, 2009.

The same day, CAFC’s Michael Robinson was already scheduled to attend the California State Commanders Veterans Council (CSCVC) meeting. His attendance was requested by Dennis Egge, President of the ARA. The CSCVC is made up of representatives from 19 vet groups and meets every 6 months. The purpose of the April 2, 2009 meeting was for going over general business and reviewing current California legislation affecting veterans. Robinson left the meeting with unanimous support from all 19 veterans groups, and is organizing support letters and witnesses to testify for the committee hearings.

Additionally a news story on the issue broke on the same day out of Iowa on KWQC-TV6. Read the news story or watch the video from KWQC-TV6.

Los Angeles Conference Shatters Myths About Domestic Violence

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:36:00 +0000

Contact: John Hamel, LCSW
Phone: (415) 472-3275
Fax: (415) 472-3285
Email: johnmhamel@comcast.net

SACRAMENTO, CA: The recent media attention to the Chris Brown-Rihanna allegations of domestic violence has led to national interest again for this serious problem. It has also, unfortunately, reignited many common misperceptions concerning domestic violence. The world's leading experts in the field will address these misperceptions, and present the latest, most cutting-edge research findings at what has been billed as the "Domestic Violence Conference of the Decade," From Ideology to Inclusion 2009: New Directions in Domestic Violence Research and Intervention, June 26-28 at the Airport Marriot Hotel, Los Angeles, California.

The electronic media tend to simplify and distort domestic violence causes and consequences and perpetuate unexamined half-truths. Stanley Katz on the Larry King show claimed that while women could be aggressive, only men could be "abusive" and that, if a man hits his wife, he will hit his children. Looking with intense certainty into the camera, Oprah Winfrey told her audience "if he hits you once he will hit you again." Denise Brown, sister of Nicole Brown- Simpson, stated "if he threatens to kill you, he will." These claims, which have a risk of being inflammatory and fear inducing, have all been contradicted by a large body of rigorous and methodologically sophisticated research.

A national survey that assessed chronic, controlling, fear-inducing violence in Canada revealed that 4.2% of women and 2.6% of men reported being so victimized; and studies in community populations reveal that only 6% of men who abuse their wives will also abuse their children. A study done at the University of New Hampshire by Dr. Murray Straus, one of the Los Angeles Conference's featured speakers, examined the inevitability of repeat domestic violence. In a group of husbands identified in a national survey as using severe violence repeatedly toward their wives, one year later follow-ups revealed that 57% were still using severe violence, 33% were non-violent, and 10% had reduced their violence to a minor level. These men, however, had changed their behavior on their own. Moreover, if men seek cognitive-behavioral treatment and complete it, only one in five repeats the violence.

It is important, of course, that a once-violent client complete their treatment and honor their promises, but it is simply not true that everyone who is violent once will repeat. As for the claim that threats of homicide lead to homicide, the evidence again says something else. In a national study of adults in the age group of Chris Brown, credible threats to kill were made by males at 500 times the homicide rate, and by females at 2000 times the actual homicide rate. People often say things they will never carry out. Unfortunately our ability to predict who will carry out the threat is imperfect. While no one wants to minimize the risk for domestic violence, it is important to keep things in perspective and not misstate that risk. No one is well-served by alarmist and inaccurate rhetoric.

This rhetoric persists because for many years the field of domestic violence has been politicized, rendering discussion of significant issues such as male victims, female perpetrators, mutual abuse and alternative, evidence-based policies difficult at best. In the media, for instance, one rarely hears about male victims, even though men suffer one-third of all domestic violence related injuries. (Scant coverage has been given to Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Geno Hayes, who on March 7 was stabbed in the head and neck by his girlfriend.)

Once again co-sponsored by the California Alliance for Families and Children (www.cafcusa.org) and the Family Violence Treatment and Education Association (www.favtea.com), and featuring editorial board members from the new peer-reviewed journal, Partner Abuse (www.springerpub.com/pa), this year's program seeks to build on the themes explored at the historic 2008 event, with a total of 20 exciting presentations examining domestic violence from a research-based, rather than an ideological perspective. In addition to Dr. Straus, presenters will include:

Deborah Capaldi, PhD — on Gender and the Dynamics of Partner Violence
Daniel K. O'Leary, PhD — on Multivariate Models of Partner Aggression
Don Dutton, PhD — on Gender Bias in the Family Court System
Denise Hines, PhD, Jan Brown and Carol Crabsen, LCSW — on Providing Services to All Victims Regardless of Gender
Richard Gelles, PhD — on Partner Violence and Children
Lynette Feder, PhD — on the Need for More Vigorous Research Methods
Christopher Maxwell, PhD and Joel Garner PhD — on Public Policy and Improving Our Responses to Domestic Violence
Daniel Sonkin, PhD — on Domestic Violence and the Neurobiology of Attachment
Richard Felson, PhD — on Partner Violence and Criminality
Ken Corvo, PhD, Christopher Eckhardt, PhD, Lonnie Hazelwood and Michelle Carney, PhD — on Recent Research on Batterer Intervention Programs
Ellen Bowen, LCSW and Kimberly Flemke, PhD — on Working with Abusive Women
Sandra Stith, PhD, Eric McCollum, PhD, John Hamel, LCSW, Jodi Klugman-Rabb, MFT, Wendy Bunston, and Arlene Vetere, LCSW — on Systemic, Couples and Family Interventions
Carolyn West, PhD — on Treating Partner Violence in African-American Families
And Special Guest Erin Pizzey, founder of the battered women's shelter movement, answering questions in a special Q&A.

The conference schedule, with presentation abstracts and bios, and registration information, are available at www.cafcusa.org.

Donald Dutton, PhD
Ken Corvo, PhD
John Hamel, LCSW, Conference Co-Chair
Michael Robinson, Conference Co-Chair

Donald Dutton, Ph.D., was the expert for the prosecution in the OJ Simpson spousal homicide case. He has written over 100 peer reviewed articles and four books on domestic violence. He is Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.
Kenneth Corvo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Syracuse University and has worked, taught, and written extensively in the field of domestic violence.
John Hamel, LCSW, is a certified Batterer Intervention Provider in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also a researcher, with three published books, and Editor-in-Chief of Partner Abuse, a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by Springer Publishing.
Michael Robinson is the Executive Director for the California Alliance for Families and Children (CAFC) and a Policy Consultant in the area of Family and Juvenile Law, Foster Care and Youth Services, and Domestic Violence.

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Texas Senator Pushing for Military Parents Protection

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Robinson) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:30:00 +0000

For Immediate Release: March 2, 2009

Sacramento, CA- Texas State Senator Jane Nelson is pushing Texas to join a list of other states amending the states' family law statutes to provide reasonable protection for military parents in child custody cases.

CAFC wants to sincerely thank and applaud Senator Nelson for her dedication to the issues facing deployed military parents and her willingness to stand up for reasonable judicial equity for them in our family law courts. We would also like the thank Travis Broussard, the Policy Analyst on the bill for Senator Nelson, for his thoroughness in handling the details of the bill.

This is not the first time Senator Nelson has taken on the issue. She had originally introduced legislation in 2007 in Senate Bill SB 43. This bill did make its way through the Texas Legislature passing out of all committees but died at the end due to other non related issues that the legislature was faced with, preventing many bills from the final floor vote.

The current bill, SB 279 was introduced in November 2008. As with the first bill, CAFC was contacted by Senator Nelson’s office seeking our assistance with research and witnesses to testify before committees.

CAFC is pleased to announce that the witnesses CAFC helped to provide for SB 43 did an outstanding job and that the bill passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote in support of the bill by all committee members and appears to be on its way of eventually passing on the floor of the senate.

There is also a companion bill in the House, HB 63 that was introduced by House Member Aycock. HB 63 has been referred to the house judiciary committee and is awaiting a hearing date to be set.

While there are some differences in language between the two bills, we expect that the differences will be worked out in a conference committee for a final floor vote towards the end of their legislative session.

So far CAFC has assisted 8 other states with similar legislation after spearheading the first successful bill in the nation in, SB 1082 Morrow/Ducheny, in California in 2005. Additionally CAFC assisted US Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio) in his successful effort to amend the Service Members Civil Relief Act (SCRA) to add some limited family law protection for military parents in H.R. 4986 . Congressman Turner had introduced another bill in 2008 H.R. 6048 which passed out of the house but was never heard in the senate because of the housing and banking problems facing the country. We hope that Mr. Turner’s efforts in Washington continue.

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For more information contact: Michael Robinson @ 916-749-4033 or info@cafcusa.org

CAFC Continued Operations Update and more

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:04:00 +0000

Greetings to All!

We are pleased to announce that we are able to continue our operations for 2009. Some of you may remember that in our 2008 Mid-Year Report we announced that we would have to suspend just about all of our activities due to lack of funding.

The worst news from the report was that Michael Robinson, our Executive Director was going to have to take full time employment that would have left him little to no time for CAFC. Not only is Michael the Co- Founder of CAFC, he has been the driving force behind CAFC. His vision, experience, contacts and ability to collaborate and maneuver with decision makers has been key to our unparalleled success.

Very few know that Michael was willing to walk away from his very successful business and high income in early 2004 to devote his full time efforts to start CAFC. He even poured all of the assets that he had built up from his business into CAFC to keep us going in the first two years or so.

We are also pleased to announce that Michael is going to be able to remain with us for a couple reasons. First, only because of the selfless generousity of a few who have provided some recent financial support and second, Michael is taking a part time position that will allow him the ability to make sure he can take care of his family while we work on bringing about change that will help you.

We also want to inform you that very little will be done in the California Legislature this year. Members and others are going to wait until the years end to see what kind of legislative recommendations are made by the Elkins Task Force. Also due to California’s budget woes, bills that have appropriations to them would most likely die in the appropriations committees even if they get introduced. We will update you on bills and also a couple that we are getting introduced.

We know that the economy has hit everyone very hard and, in addition to working towards improving policy for you and your children, we will also have all of you in our thoughts and prayers. Please pray for us also.

We would encourage you to spread the word about our work to everyone you know and, if possible, make a small donation if and when you can.

There are other ways you can help, even if you are totally broke: by spreading the word about our Domestic Violence Training DVDs from last year’s conference for starters. We also have a short video clip that you can use to get the word out, and an online catalog. But it gets even better! Eleven of the presenters featured in the DVDs – considered to be “Titans in the Field” – are from the peer-reviewed journal Partner Abuse, published by Springer Publishing Company. These DVDs are a very powerful way of educating practitioners in the field, law enforcement, judges and decision makers; in your state or country, please encourage any of these decision makers to buy the DVDs.

Another major event that needs to be spread to the four corners of the world is our next conference, From Ideology to Inclusion 2009: New Directions in Domestic Violence Research and Intervention. This conference is going to be the “Domestic Violence Conference of the Decade.” We will start to take registrations for the conference on March 11, 2009, with a full brochure, a schedule with course abstracts, and the price. Additionally, we ask that you help us get the word out to businesses, corporations, private practitioners, foundations and organizations about our Special Contributors Registration packages. This will substantially help us offset our conference costs.

Most of the presenters for this conference are from the peer-reviewed journal, Partner Abuse, published by Springer Publishing Company. Also at the conference there will be a special guest appearance by Erin Pizzey, founder of the domestic violence shelter movement. Springer Publishing Company advertised the conference a little over a week ago, along with their announcement about the creation of the journal. Springer will be doing several more ads. We also will be doing several more e-mail notices, sent to our large database of judges, DAs, law enforcement, government agencies, service and treatment providers, and others.

This will be the third conference that we have done starting with our first conference in 2007. The Family Violence Treatment and Education Association (FAVTEA) has been our cosponsor for all three, and we want to express our gratitude and appreciation for their help with volunteers and their assistance as experts in the field.

While we certainly welcome advocates to register and attend the 2009 conference, the best audience that we could hope for is government agencies, treatment providers, court personnel, law enforcement and decision makers. This is because this kind of conference helps to better educate such decision makers about the realities of domestic violence through evidence-based research, rather than the ideology that has been taught to them now for over 25 years.

To give you an idea of just a few major impacts that our conferences have already had, especially our last one, we are working with two states that had judicial officers attend. As a result, they went back to their states with what they learned, equipped with all of the presentation materials, and are in the process of radically changing some of their state’s policies. They are both currently in the drafting stage, and one state is now only weeks away from a final draft and closing in on an approved version.

On top of that, eight people from Taiwan attended our last conference. Three of them were university professors, one of which is with the Department and Graduate Institute of Criminology. Three of these attendees are from Taiwanese government agencies, such as Social Works and Domestic Violence in Kaoshign County, and Sexual Assault Prevention in Taipei. They were all very impressed with the accuracy of the evidence-based presentations and materials. They were also some of the very first attendees to download the conference presentation materials, which were made available online to all attendees shortly after the conference. As a result of that 2008 conference, we received an e-mail on February 5, 2009 from one of them letting us know that being at our conference, and using the materials from it, helped them to return back to their country and help change Taiwan's policy to be gender inclusive. They also let us know that they are planning to attend our June 2009 conference in Los Angeles.

Some here in the U.S. have already reported this story. Among those who reported it, some also attended the 2008 conference knowing that we had attendees from Taiwan. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they also failed to mention CAFC and the impact that our conference had on changing policy in Taiwan.

These conferences cost us a tremendous amount of money to produce. They end up helping you, your family, your children and friends who are affected by these issues. So please do everything you can – in any way you can – to help us keep improving our fundraising abilities and continue these successes. Promoting the DVDs and the 2009 Conference will help us increase funding, leading to continued positive cultural and policy changes.

If you support our efforts, please sign up for a free CAFC membership here, through which donations can also be made:
http://www.cafcusa.org/members/

Best Wishes to all,

Paul Stroub
Vice President and Co-Founder

The domestic violence conference of the decade! Plus training DVDs!

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:45:00 +0000

2 Major Announcements

Please forward this post to
colleagues and friends

#1: Domestic Violence Training DVDs Now Available!

See the founders, the pioneers, and today's most respected experts together at the one-of-a-kind, historic conference, "From Ideology to Inclusion: Evidence-Based Policy and Intervention in Domestic Violence." The conference was held February 15-16, 2008, in Sacramento, California.

Mail or fax in your order today!

#2: The Domestic Violence Conference of the Decade!

From Ideology to Inclusion 2009:
New Directions in Domestic Violence Research and Intervention

With Featured Presentations By:

Murray Straus, PhD	Deborah Capaldi, PhD	Don Dutton, PhD
K. Daniel O'Leary, PhD	Sandra Stith, PhD	Richard Gelles, PhD

Also Featuring:

Sarah Avery-Leaf, PhD
Mohammed Boabaid, PhD
Ellen Bowen, LCSW
Jan Brown
Wendy Bunston, MFT
Michelle Carney, PhD
Ken Corvo, PhD
Carol Crabsen, LCSW
Christopher Eckhardt, PhD
Lynette Feder, PhD
Richard Felson, PhD

Kimberly Flemke, PhD
Joel Garner, PhD
Lonnie Hazelwood, MSHP, LCDC
Denise Hines, PhD
Jodi Klugman-Rabb, MFT
Christopher Maxwell, PhD
Eric McCollum, PhD
Daniel Sonkin, PhD
Arlene Vetere, PhD
Carolyn West, PhD

DATE:
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
June 26-28, 2009

PLACE:
Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel
Los Angeles, CA

MORE INFO:
2009 Conference Flier

Most presenters serve on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Partner Abuse, published quarterly by Springer publishing.

For more information, go to:
http://www.springerpub.com/pa

Sponsored by:
California Alliance for Families and Children
and
Family Violence Treatment & Education Association

To learn more or sign up, go to:
www.cafcusa.org

CAFC Update

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:30:00 +0000

California Safe at Homes Program Website Made Gender Neutral

Over a month ago, the California Secretary of State changed their Safe at Homes Program Web site for domestic violence victims and made it gender neutral. This was a direct result of one of their state's representatives attending CAFC's Domestic violence conference that was held in Sacramento last February 2008. (Read more about the conference here).

One of the most notable changes to the Safe at Homes Program Web site was on their home page, in the first paragraph, which read:

"As you may know, domestic violence crosses ethnic, racial, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, religious and socioeconomic lines. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that one million women are abused every year."

See PDF of the archived page here, or this at link:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070609203505/www.ss.ca.gov/safeathome/

The last sentence in the paragraph has been changed by eliminating the word "women" and now reads:

"Domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault cross ethnic, racial, age, gender, religious, national origin, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic lines to affect millions of Americans each year."

A Victory In The California Third District Court of Appeals

CAFC's efforts and help have really been producing a lot of substantial progress, including the area of domestic violence reforms and training. CAFC also assisted in the recent California appeals court case, Woods. v. Shewry; 3rd Dist. C056072, in which the court said; excluding men from domestic violence programs is unconstitutional. (Read the decision here).

Marc Angelucci, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the case had contacted Michael Robinson, Executive Director for CAFC several months before the case was filed in October of 2005. Angelucci wanted to discuss strategy and also the need for a plaintiff in the Third District Court jurisdiction because of that courts prior published opinion, Connerly v. State Personnel Bd. (2001) 92 Cal.App.4th 16, that strongly supported the legal arguments in the Woods case.

Robinson, who knows David Woods and his family -- the lead plaintiff in the case, arranged for Angelucci to make contact and meet with David. David Woods was the perfect plaintiff for this case, and Angelucci did an outstanding job in representing the case throughout.

In addition to providing the lead plaintiff in the Woods case, CAFC also assisted Angelucci with securing several of the key declarations from highly respected domestic violence experts and researchers. CAFC helped to personally serve some of the government agencies with the lawsuit complaint, and also got major TV and press media coverage on the case.

CAFC also papered the entire California Legislature in 2006 with copies of the lawsuit. This was at the same time that we waged a battle against AB 2051: Cohn; Domestic Violence, to reform Health and Safety Code 124250 which the court found unconstitutional. AB 2051 was an attempt to end run the impact of the pending class action lawsuit. The Woods case was originally filed in David's daughters' name, Meagan Black vs. California. (See more about our AB 2051 here and here).

CAFC also drafted the Amicus Curiae Brief for the experts with the National Family Violence Legislative Resource Center, for submission in the Woods case. Our first submission was denied because there was not an attorney's name on the brief representing the group. CAFC did, however, find a local family law attorney to go on the Amicus Brief, and we re-submitted it. However, due to a change in the rules of the court that went into effect on January 1, 2008 -- changing the filing deadline for Amicus Briefs from 30 days to 14 days after the final briefs had been filed by the plaintiffs -- we were two days late because we were unaware of the rules change, and the brief was denied. Nevertheless, we can't help but feel that the Amicus Brief did have an impact. (See Amicus Brief here).

David Woods acknowledges the role of CAFC in Woods v. Shewry ruling

David Woods recently sent an e-mail to the reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who wrote about the Woods case and the court's ruling. In his e-mail, Woods wrote in part:

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Woods"
To:
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:43 PM
Subject: Woods v. CA, et al

Five years ago, there were no services to men. What (limited) services that are available to men currently came about directly as a result of Woods v. CA. Michael Robinson, of CAFC, spent years lobbying for those services and, after the lawsuit was filed, was able to make progress because he was able to point to the case, and use it as a sort of landmark for legislators and service administrators. He pointed out that there were no services for men, that the language that (specifically and exclusively) defined victims of domestic violence as women was probably unconstitutional, and that the state should start modifying its service policies before the case received a court date.

CAFC sincerely thanks David, his wife Ruth, and his daughter Meagan for all they did to help make the Woods case a success. We also want to thank them for hanging in for the duration. At times, emotions ran high for them as it would be for anyone. CAFC's only regret is that this victory and the other reforms CAFC has been working on were all too late to save the Woods family from the pain they suffered due to the denial of services and counseling that they all needed many years ago. We hope that this win in court and other reforms give them some sort of solace.

In closing, CAFC will soon be announcing an explosive update regarding some more major domestic violence reform that is currently in the works. If you were impressed with the change in language for the Safe at Homes Program Web site and our success in the Woods case, then you will be left breathless over what we promise will be a groundbreaking development. We cannot release any specifics yet, but we can say that it is a direct result of our historic domestic violence conference that we held in Sacramento last February 2008. Many representatives from various states' judiciary branches and criminal justice departments attended the conference. As a result, one state representative was so impressed with all of the evidence-based data and presentations, that they have completely redrafted their policy regarding domestic violence treatment programs, and the way domestic violence is viewed by all. We have seen the drafts for the reforms, and to say that they are a radical positive change is an understatement.

All of our work takes financial support, so please donate whatever you can, and as often as you can.

Best Regards,
Paul Stroub
CAFC President

CAFC ALERT: Fox Network will not air “Bad Dads” TV show

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:28:00 +0000

As many of you know, this last April, The California Alliance for Families and Children had been in direct contact with Fox Network executives regarding their reported plans to air a reality TV show entitled "Bad Dads," produced by 3Ball Productions. Our actions consisted of a quiet effort to educate high level Fox Network officials. See the letter we sent to Fox, or read more on our home page.

We have continued to monitor this with Fox, and CAFC is proud to let you know that we have just been informed -- off the record -- by a senior network official that Fox has decided not to buy the pilot program. There may not be any official announcement by Fox of the decision; the program simply will not be aired. We were told part of the reason behind this decision was the information CAFC provided as well as the outrage the network received with calls and faxes from around the country.

CAFC was happy to join with Glenn Sacks, and Ned Holstein from Massachusetts, in this effort to impact Fox. We believe that once again, CAFC's general strategy of combining public outrage with quiet education and working directly with decision makers has proven its effectiveness.
The lesson learned again is that by working together, and picking the right issues at the right time, reformers can successfully impact decision makers -- whether political or media -- to create a level playing field. Much work is left to do, but each small victory is one step forward.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to contact the Fox Network. Without you these campaigns would not be effective.

Michael Robinson discusses parental alienation on Marc Rudov radio show

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:00:00 +0000

On May 29, 2008, CAFC Executive Director Michael Robinson spoke about combating parental alienation on the Marc Rudov radio program.

Listen to the show here.

Ohio father released following CAFC's national protest

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:00:00 +0000

See the full story here.

In a dramatic turnaround on Friday, Butler County, Ohio, Judge David Niehaus reversed his earlier decision and released Brian Gegner from a six-month jail sentence for his daughter's failure to get a GED diploma. The new order requires Brittany Gegner, the daughter, to enroll in a GED prep class by the next court date and to attend the class 4 days a week. Newspaper columnist and blogger Glenn Sacks reported Brian’s release early Friday morning:

"Good News! Judge Backs Down in Case Where Dad was Jailed Because His Adult Daughter Didn't Get Her GED"
http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=2187

Michael Robinson, Executive Director for the California Alliance for Families and Children, spoke Friday evening with Stephanie Gegner after Brian's release. Stephanie told Robinson that the family can't thank CAFC enough for all of the support they received in gaining Brian's release. It goes without saying that this family has been under a great deal of stress.

CAFC started a campaign for Gegner's release by sending out a press release to all the major media at 3:00 PM on Monday, May 12, 2008, after learning about the case from FOX News and Glenn Sacks. As some of you know, the following morning CAFC and Glenn Sacks moved quickly to mobilize a national protest:

"Protest Ohio Outrage: Father Jailed Because His Daughter Didn't Get Her GED!"
http://glennsacks.com/blog/?p=2179

CAFC wants to thank all its members, supporters and friends who took the time to respond to our call for a national protest in support of Brian Gegner. A special thanks also goes to Glenn Sacks and the readers of his newsletter, who also joined in the protest.

The impact of our protest was widespread:

According to the Ohio Governor's office, they received over 700 phone calls. We can only assume a similar number hit the judge's office.

More than 300 media stories were carried around the country following our national media press release.

Local media reporters have told CAFC they plan to follow-up with additional questions and investigations of the judge.

At the recommendation of CAFC, the Ohio Governor's office is exploring the expanded use of The Parent Project® as a useful strategy to help parents in other counties. You can see the communication CAFC sent to the Ohio Governor's office here:

We believe that our efforts will make Judges in Ohio much more careful in the future before they unfairly jail a parent trying to do the best they can for their kids. When we pick our issues wisely, men and women united behind a fair and just cause can make a difference. We must build on our successes, one victory at a time.

Please take the time to sign up for membership or make a donation here.
As always, our success depends upon your help and participation.

Robinson's e-mail, sent to governor's office and other elected officials

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:29:00 +0000

(Below is an e-mail sent by CAFC to the office of Ohio's Governor, Ted Strickland, as well as other elected officials, regarding the campaign to release Brian Gegner from jail for his daughter's inability to pass a test for her GED diploma:)

Regarding the following story:

"Man jailed after father fails to get GED to appear in court"
Friday, May 16, 2008
Hamilton Journal News

From the above story (italics added):

Rob Clevenger, Butler County court administrator, said:
In 2007, 196 parents were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor for not compelling their children to attend school. He said other parents who did not comply have gone to jail, although he could not specify how many."

Before I continue, I have also seen the blistering report regarding the Butler County Juvenile Court, written by former County Commissioner Michael Fox: "A Culture of Secrecy, Fear and Judicial Abuse"

Remember, Brittany's parents kept taking her to school; she would take off after being dropped off. Were these parents supposed to quit their jobs, and handcuff themselves to Brittany? Did Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus expect the parents to beat the crap out of her to get her to comply, so then the court would convict them for child abuse?

Mr. Rob Clevenger sounds like he is the political spin doctor for the out-of-control Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus, and his spin is not working well here because there is no way they can justify parents being jailed because the parents don't have the needed skill to control an out-of-control, strong-willed teen. According to the following and other sources (Fairfield County), the Ohio Attorney General strongly urged counties to start using the The Parent Project® after an impact study of the program's success in helping parents learn how to deal with strong-willed teens.

When Rob Clevenger received the memo from the attorney general's office recommending The Parent Project®, did he just throw it in the trash? Was this because the Niehaus court would rather jail parents, rather than solve the problems parents experience with strong-willed, out-of-control kids? He can make all of the excuses he wants, but there is no way they can justify the Orwellian tactics being employed by this court and by Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus.

The Parent Project® (2004-2005)
Funding Agency: Office of the Ohio Attorney General

"Project Description: With support from the Office of the Ohio Attorney General, ISPV staff conducted an evaluation of Parent Project, a training curriculum for the parents of adolescents who engage in various forms of destructive behavior. Data were collected from both parents and their children, as well as from juvenile courts in Cuyahoga, Mahoning and Stark Counties: http://dept.kent.edu/ispv/pastProj.html

"Fairfield County has been using the program for 2 years with great success after they received information from the attorney general's office urging them to use it:
http://www.facfc.org/

Toni Ashton, Coalition Director

I guess Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus would rather jail parents and cause them to lose their jobs instead of getting productive results like these:

The following statistics illustrate what happened in Minidoka County, Idaho, from August 1997 (when full implementation of The Parent Project® began) through December 1999:

The number of petitions filed for juvenile offenses fell 33%.

The number of minors on probation for any cause fell by more than 30%.

The number of drug-related probation violations was down by 20%.

The number of days spent by youth in detention fell by 24%.

School dropouts and expulsions dropped by 95%.

So it costs the county taxpayers approximately $30K a year to house an inmate. In the instant case of a 6-month sentence for Brian Gegner, would mean it could cost the taxpayers $15k. His sentence -- or that of the other parents whom Rob Clevenger says they have jailed -- didn't change the teenagers' destructive behavior. The Parent Project® costs parents at most $240, and in some places as low as $150. Mind you this is paid by the parents, not the tax payers. According to my math, Butler County could have helped 63 parents change their kids' destructive behavior, including improving their academic achievement levels for the $15,000 that it will cost taxpayers to jail Brian Gegner. The taxpayers of Butler county have been robbed by the actions of Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus, and he should be recalled or removed from the bench.

Michael Robinson
www.cafcusa.org

Judge Orders Man to Jail After Adult Daughter Fails to Get a GED; Sparks Call for National Protest by Both Men and Women

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Mon, 12 May 2008 22:17:00 +0000

The California Alliance for Families and Children (“CAFC”) today called for a national protest by both men and woman over an Ohio judge’s order to jail a father for 180 days, because his daughter did not get her General Equivalency Diploma (GED).

Michael Robinson, Executive Director of CAFC, said, “This is one of the most outrageous court rulings we have seen in a long time – and that’s saying something. Under the judge's logic, more than a million men and woman alike -- who are parents of high school dropouts -- should all be put in jail. This judge is out of control, and should be immediately removed from this case.”

Butler County Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus ordered Brian Gegner to jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor by not following a court order, an order which required Gegner to be sure that his daughter got her GED. While the father had technical custody, the daughter actually lived with her mother while she was truant from school.

ABC station WPCO reported that the daughter, Brittany Gegner -- who is now 18 -- says the order is “ridiculously wrong,” adding that if anyone should go to jail, she should and not her dad. Brittany was quoted: "I'm about to be 19 and my Dad's being punished for something I did when I was 16," she said. "I would way rather me go to jail than my Dad."

Her mother also volunteered to go to jail. "They probably should have punished me if they were going to punish anybody," said Brittany's mother, Shana Roach. "Because she did live with me at the time, but because he had the custody, that's why he's being punished." "But I don't understand the punishment all together, because she's going to school, she's been going for four months," said Roach. "The only thing that's holding her back is she can't pass her math test."

A copy of the full story can be found at: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=28d2acca-9947-44cc-8831-9859f1f6137e

Contact: Michael Robinson
(916)749-4033

This press release is also available in PDF format:
http://www.cafcusa.org/pressreleases/2008/05/12/2008-05-12--CAFC-Press-Release.pdf

###

Positive Feedback From Daddy Hunger Screening

noreply@blogger.com (Adam) — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:48:00 +0000

On April 18, 2008, Ray Upchurch, producer of “Daddy Hunger,” held a special screening of his powerful film in Sacramento. CAFC was extremely honored to be asked to sponsor the screening, and CAFC’s Michael Robinson was asked to do the opening presentation and remarks.

The Daddy Hunger screening has product some very positive results. CAFC had invited an attendee of our February 2008 Domestic Violence Conference to attend the screening. That person is a representative of the California Department of Social Services. The CDSS representative was very impressed with the film and the research materials presented during CAFC’s opening remarks. As a result a copy of the DVD and the presentation materials were passed onto another senior official within CDSS’s children's issues division. You too can view these materials at CAFC’s website.

We are please to announce that CAFC was contacted by that senior official informing us that CDSS wants to use the materials for a pilot fatherhood program. The program will teach responsible fatherhood and develop policies that encourage fathers to take part in their children’s daily lives, not just provide financial support. It is our understanding the program will also encourage mothers to be more supportive of the father’s involvement in the daily lives of their children. Furthermore, it appears that CDSS will support a resolution that CAFC plans to introduce next year to promote the importance of a father’s involvement to the overall well-being of their children.

For more information, please visit the CAFC website.

Barbara Kay: On domestic violence, no one wants to hear the truth

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 23:07:00 +0000

From the National Post:

In a just world, Englishwoman Erin Pizzey, who founded the world's first shelter for battered wives in 1971, would be a sought-after speaker on the subject of domestic violence. In the real world, however, Pizzey's name is a byword for politically incorrect apostasy.

Pizzey's crime? A humanist, she challenged the belief system dictated by radical feminists, who colonized her shelter and made her presence untenable. Their ideological mantra, still alive and kicking, insists that men are the default perpetrators in domestic violence (also known as "intimate partner violence," or IPV, in the jargon) while women are invariably innocent victims who inflict violence only in self-defence. But Pizzey knew from her own experience (her wealthy, socially elite parents were mutually abusive, and her mother violent to Erin), and from what the women in her shelter told her, that most partner violence is reciprocal.

Holding women responsible for their violence was so at odds with the received wisdom of the movement's activists that, for her whistle-blowing pains, Pizzey's dog was killed and her entire family received death threats. Undaunted, she pursued her equal-responsibility crusade in the United States for many years in a fusillade of articles and books.

While dramatically extreme, Pizzey's story is nevertheless emblematic of the hostility truth-tellers confront in the domestic violence industry.

Another outlier, University of British Columbia psychology professor Don Dutton, is acknowledged by his peers as a world expert on IPV. He has proven, over and over again -- most recently in his definitive 2006 book, Rethinking Domestic Violence -- that the tendency to violence in intimate relationships is bilateral and rooted in individual dysfunction: Men and women with personality disorders and/or family histories of violence are equally likely to be violent themselves, or seek violent partners.

But Dutton's scientific credentials and extensive 25-year archive of peer-reviewed research cut no ice with Canadian policymakers, none of whom has ever solicited his advice.

Instead, pseudo-science absolving women of violent impulses, delivered on demand to interest groups by the same tiny, incestuous coterie of ideologically sympathetic professionals, is routinely applied in training police, family law judges, social workers and women's shelter personnel.

A lazy, politically correct media dutifully spreads the party line by reporting uncritically on bogus selection-biased "studies" by non-accredited stakeholders, who extrapolate to the general population data that are based on testimonials from men in court-mandated therapy programs or women in shelters.

Ah, women's shelters! Southern Ontario resident Mariel Davison offers up a rather damning story of what happens when naively impartial volunteerism collides with women's shelter groupthink.

Davison has an honours degree in psychology. A few years ago, considering herself an "equal opportunity feminist," she volunteered to serve at a local women's shelter. During eight weeks' "training," Davison was subjected to relentless male-bashing and junk science. That, and the puzzling incongruity of the female-as-victim message with the battered lesbians who also sought refuge -- lesbian violence was a taboo subject amongst trainees -- led to further intellectual inquiry.

Davison thought her trove of cutting-edge findings would prove welcome, but instead they got her turfed by her peers: "I was told I had too much education to volunteer at the shelter."

Incredulous, Davison dogged the shelter's supervising and financing government ministries with demands that they review objective literature, but was stonewalled at every turn. Nothing came of her campaign.

And nothing will for the foreseeable future, because the domestic-violence industry is a closed shop, from Women's Studies courses (don't look for Pizzey's or Dutton's research there, or in Men's Studies, since there are none), to women-only shelters, to Status of Women, to the National Judicial Council, to the Supreme Court of Canada. They're all reading from the same myth-riddled hymnbook.

Erin Pizzey and Don Dutton were both keynote speakers at a recent Sacramento, Calif. conference sponsored by the California Alliance for Families and Children. Pizzey accepted a lifetime achievement award to a prolonged ovation.

Pizzey told her standing-room-only audience that for gender politics "Canada is the scariest country on the planet." Scary to men who suffer because of it, certainly, but apparently not to most other Canadians, who remain curiously indifferent to the demonstrable misandry permeating the institutions that define and shape our culture.

bkay@videotron.ca

Erin Pizzey on KFBK talk radio (Sacramento, California)

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:43:00 +0000

Erin Pizzey, who founded the shelter movement for domestic violence victims in 1971, discusses the February 15, 2008 conference, "From Ideology to Inclusion" (sponsored by the CAFC) and the need to recognize research rather than ideology on just who is perpetrating and victimized by domestic violence.

Listen: Streaming audio (faster), or file download (slower)

CAFC Co-sponsors "Faces of Success" Event for Sacramento's At-Risk Kids and Youth

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 20:47:00 +0000

The CAFC teamed up with the local Hard Rock Cafe, the NAACP, and other state and community leaders at the event attended by over 100 people.

The event was held to raise awareness of the greater Sacramento area's need to do better and improve on meeting challenges and outreach for at risk youth.

See photos and summary (PDF)

Good Morning America: "AWOL Mom Chose Her Daughter Over Her Country"

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:54:00 +0000

Watch the video (features explanation/interview from Army Specialist Lisa Hayes)
Read the article

ABC World News: "Single Parents Who Serve in Uniform Say They Are Losing Custody of Their Kids"

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:58:00 +0000

Read the article

Good Morning America: "An Army Mother's Tug of War"

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 21:06:00 +0000

Watch the video
Read the article

CAFC Guides Students At State Capitol

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Tue, 29 May 2007 21:12:00 +0000

Full story (PDF)

Bill to Protect Custody for Deployed

noreply@blogger.com (CAFC Admin) — Sun, 27 May 2007 21:16:00 +0000

Full story (PDF)

(Via Military.com)