Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History

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For example, National Children’s Alliance, Alabama-based (legal domicile) and its network of CACs and Statewide CAC Coalitions (FY2014 Grantees) (Published New Year’s Day +1, 2018; case-sensitive shortlink ends “-8iP”). (about 3,600 words).

This page provides supporting material to a post I’m working on …

• “Chasing Down Corporate & Charitable Registrations for Court-Connected Nonprofits” (Such as Kids’ Turn SD, SVN, and others) and Their Donors) [Revisiting-viewing-formatting my Aug. 31, 2011 post @ Jan. 2018]. [with case-sensitive shortlink ending: “-7Ia”] [where the middle digit is a capital “i” not number “1” or lower-case “L”].

…but also has relevance beyond.   It illustrates an organizing principle common to the nonprofit sector involved in public/private partnerships (or otherwise as providing government services), I felt it worth its own page for later reference.

By contrasting it first with an earlier, but similar “Prevent Child Abuse America” membership organization (just enough basic documents on PCAA to make the comparison), I also show that competing solutions for the same cause, with similar goals of establishing “evidence-based policies” can result in separate system of nationwide chapters.

Two obvious differences (other than start-dates) between NCA and PCAA are that the former subsists “90%” (primarily) on government grants, while the other, at least now, does not and that NCA’s primary activity is grantmaking, although it also earns some through training fees and other “program service activities.”   Sizewise — as to total gross assets (compare the two tables shown below) they are similar.  PCAA, at least in 2016, took ZERO government grants, its main source of revenues is membership fees, and it does NOT make any grants, per tax returns.

If you look more closely, also NCA’s revenues (contributions) in a similar year are about triple those of PCAA.  So, as far as annual gross receipts, or even contributions / “Total revenues,” NCA is much larger.  But for either one, to in any way assess “national impact” in a budgetary way, with supporting detail from 990s, one would have to also look at chapter activities — which is where the “network” for standardization, accreditation (and privatization) becomes instead, just your basic maze.  The chapters are fiscally independent (legally speaking) from the parent ship in both cases. And in both NCA and PCAA cases, there are plenty of them!

I did not review any PCAA chapters or other members to see whether they take government grants for this post.  Anyone is welcome to do so.  Repeat a name search, or choose from this list, to locate a few:

My lead-in material on National Children’s Alliance (from the originating post, “Chasing Down Corporate & Charitable Registrations for Court-Connected Nonprofits“ (pt. 1 of 2), is followed by images of ALL grants reported in this entity’s tax return for just a single year. This material also explains its relevance to a family court trade association central to this blog’s expose of the family court systems (and their “unique” response to domestic violence), the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

Without an awareness of that association’s members’ tendency to form subsidiary, spin-off “leagues” (sic) of nonprofits to service the court-connected professions AFCC helped create (with assistance from other nonprofit friends over time), one might continue “dissociative” about that which is intricately interwoven into a “centralized, coordinated, and where possible, standardized” system of control which pretends to be anything BUT the same.

Corporate filings confirm that an AFCC-related (though unofficially of course) “Kid’s Turn” (located in San Francisco, i.e., Northern California) in 2014 voluntarily merged into a child abuse prevention nonprofit part of the NCA system — “San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Council” or “SFCAPC.”  So that’s how and why the NCA came up in the current context.

While this umbrella nonprofit, “National Children’s Alliance,” formed in 1992 is still relatively small (in terms of assets), it is regularly moving most of its receipts — which are by far labeled “government grants” — to its own memberships or chapters, apparently, showing common naming conventions, and organized even further by nonprofits collectively representing a single state.

The accounting services for this Alabama-based, DC-located 501©3 this year are reflected in the sole contractor paid anything over $100K, which is an LLC in Colorado.

I do not remember when, but during these years of “drill-downs” on various organizations for this blog, I remember a time when I realized that one major “child abuse prevention” circle was around curriculum, trademarks and training by “National Children’s Alliance” here, which as you’ll soon see, was created after the startup of a national movement of local “CAPC” (Child Abuse Prevention Councils) dating, says the SF source I’m quoting, back to the 1970s.

That is, the umbrella organizations sometimes show up later.  Here, make that, about 20 years later (1973 – 1992).

Another one was, as I recall, arranged around the “parent” nonprofit: Prevent Child Abuse tracking back to a different doctor (Eli Newberger?) who helped make news in reporting a Connecticut GAL being nominated for judge. Newberger testified as a doctor in opposition based on this particular GAL’s suppression of medical evidence of child abuse of a young boy by his father.   For more of his (and his wife Carolyn’s ) mixture of medicine and music for a lifetime, see “Of Art and Medicine”  

From of Art and Medicine re: a dynamic married couple’s shared interests..

During their careers, Eli and Carolyn Newberger have collaborated on both music and medicine. The two disciplines have been such an integral part of their individual lives, and are so in­tertwined that it is difficult to choose one starting point. But, if nothing else this article is about choice, so the writer might as well join the fray.

How about areas where they collaborate? Their joint work in­cludes research, writing various articles both for professionals and consumers, on subjects having to do with many issues con­cerning families: the effects of poverty on family life, malnutri­tion and its impact on children and their development, the causes of malnutrition from both a social/political sense, as well as a medical/physiological sense. What they may be best-known for, over their years of clinical work, may be the issues that affect children and their families: such difficult problems as child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, where Eli is often an expert witness.

The Connecticut GAL in question was confirmed as a judge anyhow (and still we wonder why custody of children is going to abusive men, still…, or batterers?)….  But I seem to recall that he was also involved in founding “Prevent Child Abuse America” (legal domicile, IL with a Chicago address) or one of its chapters…

IRS Search results for MCC (MassKids) shows it’s fairly small.

[Double-checking that statement, without posting all the evidence, “Massachusetts Citizens for Children, Inc.” aka apparently “MassKids” — which is the official “PCA chapter for Massachusetts since 1986, per its website — claimed Eli Newberger, M.D. as “Advisory Board” and “President Emeritus” on a FY2003 tax return list.

Checking back at the corporate (Massachusetts state) level, the very earliest image (1960) is not viewable, however a 1982 amendment lists Newberger as President at that time. In other words, my recall from about five years ago, is fairly accurate…

Articles of Amendment, 1982 for what is now “MassKids” (Mass. Citizens for Children, Inc.). notice the President.

Excerpt (Advisory Board listed after Board of Directors) from Form 990, FY2003 showing (see bottom row) Dr. Newberger’s association with Harvard Medical School…Lecturer in Maternal and Child Health.

Excerpt (Program service activities and expenses described) from Mass Citizens for Children FY2003 Form 990.

Total results: 3. Search Again.   Prevent Child Abuse America, EIN# 237235671, formed 1972, Domicile IL, Fiscal Year = Calendar Year. Website:  “preventchildabuse.org”

Here’s a snapshot of some apparent chapters, nationwide, and the “parent” org. also.  There was even one in Alabama, legal home to National Children’s Alliance, also dedicated towards prevention, intervention, and treatment of child abuse… (though formed much later).

Form 990 (“990finder”) search results for “Prevent Child Abuse” entities. Click to enlarge, or repeat the name search for more results)….

Timeline at “PreventChildAbuse.org” makes it clear that a 1992ff change (about the time National Children’s Alliance was formed, per its Form 990s), with help from Ronald McDonald House Charities, the “Healthy Families America” program (not nonprofit, but “program”) model focusing on home visitations sprang into action. Targeting single-parent, low-income, or previously abused households, or those with “domestic violence,” it recommends once a week home visitation in a child’s first six months, and continuing thereafter until about age five.

It also acknowledges that some “HFA” sites are also working to increase “father involvement.”

Not even the “donate to HFA” page, however, recognizes HFA as a separate nonprofit, although it’s characterized as providing training and certifying affiliate status also.. See next images:

This “PCAA” About Page image is followed by timeline (in two sections), and then descriptions from “HFA” (HealthyFamiliesAmerica.org) website revealing more about the nature of PCAA’s core program — home visitation, control of accreditation, and the timing of CDC & HHS approvals of PCAA, who finally changed its name to this in 1999…

PCAA Timeline, #1 of 2

PCAA Timeline, #2 of 2 (with some overlap). Notice spinoff entity.

Healthy Families America Strategy (its website).

Healthy Families America Strategy (its website) (description, cont’d.)

Linguistic anomalies abound when PCAA attempts to characterize its own signature program, to this day… Classic transformational grammar helps start out (mis)characterizing HFA as a “Partner/Actor/Doer/Feeler” [which it isn’t…] then deftly switch to admitting it’s actually a “program” launched — all within one paragraph — and in the fine print (following paragraphs) HFA is now a “national program model” for home visitation, complete with an accreditation requirements and the blessing of the United States HHS in 2011… Readers are thus encouraged to believe that both are simultaneously true, i.e., engage in some serious “poetic license” and then “Donate” — with its own donate page not even identifying any payee..

“But if it has a website, and it’s characterized as a “doer” — surely it must be one!”…  “I’m confused — but I think children shouldn’t be abused, and someone should prevent it — what a good cause so I’ll donate …”

…is the apparent desired response, by-passing basic fact-check.. and responsible gift-giving.

“MIECHV” – Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting”

Notice — the Home page of “Healthy Families America” now has a very large photo with a single yellow banner saying “Get Congress to Reauthorize “MIECHV.” (and no more detail unless one clicks).  I clicked and so got a definition of “MIECHV” as a $1.5 Billion (for five years) extension by Pres. Obama of Pres. Bush’s earlier (2008) “EBPV” initial funding for home visitation.

This information was kindly provided by “Home Visiting Visitation Coalition” of many organizations. I noticed that famous “Futures without Violence” (itself already an HHS and USDOJ grantee of many years), Ounce of Prevention Fund, First 5 LA, Children’s Defense Fund, “HFA/PCA” (this dynamic duo is listed as one –another clue that “HFA” isn’t its own entity), and others are all behind state funding for visitation for ALL possible mothers. I’ll let the images do the talking:

Dec. 25, 2019, link added when I noticed no link (and couldn’t readily find on the HFA website) originally shown here to that “Home Visiting Coalition.”  Check out the list (of about 31 links in 3 columns) shown here: https://nationalhomevisitingcoalition.org/about/  Recommended:  in that list, click on “First Five Years Fund” (which is a website featuring BIG bright colors, photographs, friendly thumbnail photos of “our staff” etc.  That’s fine, but get to the bottom of the page and see (less obvious) the list of “Our Partners” shown in another table-layout of other big-bucks logos, with “Buffet Early Childhood Fund” at the top left.  I recognized all names but one foundation and of course the one labeled “Anonymous Donor” I have no idea who it is.  

Going to the bottom of that FFYF.org website will also show a Washington, D.C., address, which is good to be aware of…I’ve posted a length (a few years ago) on my struggles to actually locate the identity of this fund…//LGH 12/25/2019 update (end)

“Tell Congress to Reauthorize MIECHV before it expires!” says the yellow banner… (also a link)

MIECHV explained, and a click from website “HealthyFamiliesAmerica.org” immediately leads to a “Home Visitation Coalition” website instead…

More description (or, visit the website yourself….):

“States have successfully implemented home visiting since the 1980s…” $1.5B /5 years = $300M/year (2010 – 2014). ….”before Sept. 2017, MIECHV must be re-authorized with a long-term extension and expansion of funding…”

(Image from “Home Visitation Coalition” website provided to show some of the right sidebar entries also)…

Back on the “HealthyFamiliesAmerica.org” website we can learn more about the costs and process of “affiliation” with this program model ($500 non-refundable application fee, payable to Prevent Child Abuse America, with continuing annual fees, size not specified here…). Once a (site? organization?) is committed to the tune of  ½ thousand $$, then others can move in with the technical assistance and training how to implement….

This ENDs, page section (probably about 50% of entire page) on “PREVENT CHILD ABUSE AMERICA” and its programming.  I think you get the general idea!

Next, we’ll be looking more closely at the National Children’s Alliance as an organization, and take excerpts from one of its recent Form 990s, keeping (I hope) in mind that its chapters started about twenty years before the national organization which arrived just in time” for welfare reform…

Again, this page provides supporting material to a post I’m working on …

• “Chasing Down Corporate & Charitable Registrations for Court-Connected Nonprofits” (Such as Kids’ Turn SD, SVN, and others) and Their Donors) [Revisiting-viewing-formatting my Aug. 31, 2011 post @ Jan. 2018]. [with case-sensitive shortlink ending: “-7Ia”] [where the middle digit is a capital “i” not number “1” or lower-case “L”].

This begins overlap section with the originating post.  BELOW that section are the many images of FY2015 NCA grantees referenced in the title of this page.

WHY FOCUS NOW ON AN OLDER POST, EARLIER COURT-CREATED PROFESSION (PARENT EDUCATION) AND SMALL NONPROFIT I ALREADY DID A SERIES ON (KID’S TURN) AT THE TIME?

(That post was) a “makeover” of a previous post, which reflects how early in my blog (if not two years earlier, ca. 2009) I was focused on and sounding the alarm to emphasize “looking it up” meaning, at a minimum corporate registrations.

(1) To be honest, I’d hoped re-posting this relevant, and already complete, 2011 post might buy me some time with a quick clean-up and repost, while I continued working on more current, but related, themes around “Reunification Camps,” especially the trend of involving horses (equine therapy).  On closer look, it didn’t, but I’m still following through to re-post….

(2) Previous behaviors by AFCC-spinoff nonprofits such as Kid’s Turn (and replicas, like “Kids First,”) and ongoing associations (SVN – Supervised Visitation Network) reveal their founders and founder-associations character and habits. For example, on KT (San Francisco) I posted on the organization, it merged out of existence into “SFCAPC”, which I then reported, and now SFCAPC changed its name and brand again to “Safe & Sound.” (next image):

Note. 2015 entry — KT merges into it. (But KT San Diego, separately, remains outside). For “children undergoing the trauma of parental separation and divorce.”

Viewed 2018. Sec. of State records says name change was only last September.

SFCAPC (before “Center” it was “Council”), was started in the 1970s by a UCSF/SF General Hospital Chief of Piediatrics, Dr.  Moses Grossman, says the website (and other sources support) as “part of a national movement” (See image).

From Safe & Sound website “About us” timeline.

That national organization is in DC, but its legal domicile isn’t.  ALWAYS look for the Form 990 where one may exist for more information!

Total results: 3. Search Again. EIN# 631044781  Formed only in 1992

This is both interesting and revealing (not my first time looking):  NCA is legal domicile Alabama, was formed just a few years before passage of the Violence Against Women Act (1994), in a U.S. Presidential Election Year (Clinton’s first win), and four years before passage of welfare reform (1996), a time when as I continue to point out, fathers’ rights groups calling themselves children’s rights groups were flourishing (the National Fatherhood Initiative, Inc. formed in 1994).

Total assets are typically less than revenues moving through a group, so remember to take a look…

NCA is following standard “nationalize, set up chapters, get gov’t grants, redistribute to private chapters to standardize (w (and privatize) handling of core identified cause  — here, child abuse prevention and treatment models.  It’s mostly government supported.

Example:  FYE2015 (middle row) $11M out of $12M grants were “govt” and nearly $2M in Program Service Revenues. Gross Receipts (pg.1 header) were $14M.  Redistribution:  $9M granted out to Child Advocacy Centers (or state coalitions of the same).  Basic redistribution of wealth (federal funding), and anyone wishing to track it can painstakingly go look up each individual grantee***…  Meanwhile only a few NCA employees (23) and Part VIIA employees show Teresa Huizar being paid a nice $266K salary. (Look for yourself!).

• ***I believe this is worth a separate page to illustrate.  [YOU ARE NOW ON THAT PAGE..] FY2014 (middle row above) grants were reported only 3/page.  The year before, I see it was ONE per page only(!). Alpha by grantee, with any grantee whose name begins with “The” all listed alpha under “T”… Link coming soon…
• Page 2, as well as where the money is being spent primarily, makes it clear that this umbrella group’s primary activity is grantmaking to their its own members or centers, year after year.

NAMI and some other mental health organizations follow the same pattern.  So do groups like Focus on the Family and its “Family Councils” with the exception, not taking primarily government grants.  Instead, with “Focus” private contributions sponsored multiple look-alike and often “named-alike” entities at the state level, geared to initiate state-wide healthy marriage initiatives, typically also in nonprofit form, which nonprofits were then encouraged to go after the HMRF funding.  Eventually Focus on the Family then spun off the “related entity” which coordinated the family councils nationally.   [I believe I posted on this a few years ago…]

So did some of the education transformation nonprofits I’ve posted on:  there’s a central umbrella entity, and chapters named after it at the state,or sometimes even regional level (Coalition of Essential Schools, “Communities in Schools,” etc.)

So, the National Children’s Alliance showing the same organization tactics is not new.

However, all of these forms of nationwide “saturation” of causes + curricula + Technical Training & Consultation support (logos, branding, etc.) still leverage public media and represent the ideas of the few, through that leverage, being imposed upon the many, for profit and for control. It’s a “rapid mobilization” tactic reaching into the government arena where possible to add momentum and power.  Once a brand, curricula, infrastructure, and network is established, any “to the contrary” or dissident voices, however, legitimate, face an uphill PR campaign of their own to even be heard. This includes “to-the-contrary” voices which might be the voices of experience and from the street level.

THE SFCAPC not only links back to national curriculum-running nonprofits, and periodically forms more, but it functions as lead agency in a regional (SF) “CAPC” a public/private partnership.  Next quote (in blue borders) is a description from their latest (FY2015) tax return.  Oddly, audited financial statements through 2016 are made available on the website, but not simple tax returns for 2016:

THE PREVENTION CENTER’S ROLE AS THE STATE-MANDATED CHILD ABUSE
COUNCIL PUTS US IN A UNIQUE POSITION TO PARTNER WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE AGENCIES TO IDENTIFY GAPS AND IMPROVE THE ABUSE RESPONSE SYSTEM, WHILE AT THE SAME TIME PROVIDING ON-THE-GROUND SUPPORT TO CHILDREN WHO HAVE DISCLOSED ABUSE. OUR STAFF SERVE ON OR ADVISE TASK FORCES AND COMMITTEES INCLUDING: THE BAY AREA COALITION OF CHILD ABUSE COUNCILS,** CHILD DEATH REVIEW, THE FAMILY VIOLENCE COUNCIL, AND THE TASK FORCE ON THE COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN (CSEC). || BASED ON THIS HISTORY AND EXPERTISE, THE PREVENTION CENTER SERVES AS THE LEAD AGENCY FOR THE CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO (CAC) WHICH IS A PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN WHICH MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAMS RESPOND TO INCIDENTS OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, PHYSICAL ABUSE, AND EXPOSURE TO VIOLENCE IN A MODERN, CHILD-FRIENDLY FACILITY. THE CAC PROVIDES FORENSIC INTERVIEWS AND CARE TO CHILDREN WHO DISCLOSE ABUSE IN SAN FRANCISCO. IT ALSO SERVES AS THE BASE FOR OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AND COMMUNITY EDUCATION PROGRAMS.

I did not find any “Bay Area Coalition of Child Abuse Councils.”  Probably because it’s now the “Greater Bay Area” and has the word “prevention” added before “councils”:   http://www.bayareapreventchildabuse.org (see nearby images).  However, I found no corp or charitable registrations under this name either.  Possibly they are government functions, as I have noticed some “Family Violence Councils” are set in place also…

The theme is always, it seems, “Strengthening families…”

The similar acronyms with different meanings for the letters CAC can get confusing.  One is “Child Abuse [Prevention] Council,” the other “Children’s Advocacy Centers.”  One reads “Child” the other “Children’s”….

BELOW HERE ARE THE PIECEMEAL (3/PAGE) FORM 990, SCHED. I EXCERPTS, AFTER THE FIRST FEW SHOWING Pg1 (Summary), Pg.2 (reporting of Program Service Activities showing the $$), and Pt. VIII (p.9), Statement of Revenues for the NCA (and one detail from Sched O).  

Each Sched. I excerpt only shows the left half of the page to allow for magnification.  The right side has little to offer (but to view, see tax table above if you want).

Different categories of membership affect who can vote…

The normal, large title is omitted here just to squeeze the “meat” of the Pt. I Summary onto a single page — the font provided was so small to start with. I forgot to annotate (but Pt. VIII below shows) some of the Line 9 “program service revenues” were in fact membership dues, which are normally counted as Line 8 (Or Pt. VIII Ln1)”contributions.”

NCA EIN#631044781 (1992ff, AL domicile, DC addr) FY2014 **Pt. VIII showing Gov’t Grants + ProgrService Revs (Lns 1,2)

These next 45 images are in “Gallery Format” (3 entries per image, 3-images per row) and I hope they retained an “alphabetical” listing.  I tried to be complete without duplicates, but do not guarantee this.

Click any image (as needed, dep. on your viewing device) to enlarge and read the names clearly, which is central to the whole point of this page in the first place (!).

Finally, a reminder of which post this came from and supplements.  As it turns out, the Page is being published about a day before the post, however!  Submit any feedback as comments (I THINK you can comment on a page … if not, use originating post once it’s published and specify your interest….  “Love” for 2018, //LGH Jan. 2, 2018…

“This page provides supporting material to a post I’m working on …”

• “Chasing Down Corporate & Charitable Registrations for Court-Connected Nonprofits” (Such as Kids’ Turn SD, SVN, and others) and Their Donors) [Revisiting-viewing-formatting my Aug. 31, 2011 post @ Jan. 2018]. [with case-sensitive shortlink ending: “-7Ia”] [where the middle digit is a capital “i” not number “1” or lower-case “L”].

…but also has relevance beyond.   It illustrates an organizing principle common to the nonprofit sector when going “national” with any cause.