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

My protest, as a domestic violence survivor (1990s) myself in the same area, is that the opportunity for some of US to provide intelligent feedback against overwhelming built-in infrastructure funds from both private AND federal sources has become like spitting in the wind.

Perhaps that’s where this blog fits in, I am tacking against the wind in public/private partnerships and am certainly no cheerleader for all this (financially) coerced “collaboration” in a vaccuum of financial transparency among the nonprofit sector, …

This post is: 

Currently about 9,000 12,200 words [@Oct24].  Moved here Sept. 21, 2017 from page “How and When Collaborative Justice (Problem-Solving) Courts…” (etc.**)..  There is considerable overlap of content. Most images are “click image to enlarge” so I won’t say this for each one (some more touch-based viewing devices, like many cell phones, tablets or I-pads, won’t need to “click to enlarge”; desktop or laptop computers more dependent on keyboards probably will). Some images may be linked to a larger website, but typically most are linked just to the screenprint image.  Added “SF” to the title (“SF Bay Area”) Oct24.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 20, 2017, I also posted:

Smoking Cessation/Tobacco Control Litigation I See Is By Design Guaranteed, (Like Domestic Violence Prevention and Services) To Continue Incessantly. Meanwhile, a Wide Swath of Northern Cali fornia Is Smoke-Filled and Lit Up, But Not by Tobacco. (October Local News and Blog Updates) (case-sensitive short-link ending “-7Lp”). 

Click image (this time) to access full newsltr., 16pp

That post features a 2008 NCJFCJ “Synergy” newsletter literally narrating (not 100% accurately, but at least naming the component parts) and timing of some networked family violence institutes and resource centers (NRCs and SIRCs for “National” and “Special Issue”) which I’d already identified at the TAGGS.hhs.gov level, and flagged at the time (on this blog). … The same “Synergy” newsletter also referenced NCJFCJ’s 2007 “Wingspread” conference with AFCC and self-congratulated the NCJFCJ Family Violence Department for mending fences with AFCC (although it seems they started out on or near on the same page anyhow, with probably major membership overlap and viewpoints.).  This newsletter itself was public-funded by HHS, as its final page showed:  

To clarify, the NCJFCJ gets paid to do this newsletter, by the public (HHS Grant# shown)

It also claims the “National Resource Center on DV: Child Abuse and Custody” which the newsletter appears in part to represent, dated back only about five years to 2003). The key feature, however, is that NCJFCJ is the sponsoring entity; who they are as an organization. The public (HHS) funded this project (see nearby image).  NCJFCJ years earlier was deeply involved with the Greenbook Initiative also, opposite or with the then-“Family Violence Prevention Fund” (namechange to “Futures without Violence” occurred ca. 2010).    

Brief reminder of NCJFCJ conference and training activity, and with whom, and promoted by whom, funded in part by whom (if you’re working and registered with the IRS in the US, pull out a mirror)…(Section added post-publication, Oct. 23)  ADDED section about 1,000 words with images.

NCJFCJ 81st Annual Conference in Denver

Factoids:  NCJFCJ’s 79th annual conference in Monterey, CA was Summer 2016. In other words, they claim to pre-date World War II.   They do regular conferences and trainings:   Summer 2018 in Denver (see image), December 2017, now regularly training it seems with Futures without Violence (and the USDOJ), in Santa Fe, NM, “Enhancing Judicial Skills in DV Cases.” This one is open only to certain kinds of people and limited to 50 participants, and designed to inculcate certain understandings and behaviors, I see:

… an essential foundation for new and experienced state, tribal and territorial judges and judicial officers to enhance their skills in handling civil and criminal domestic violence cases. Judicial participants will leave the workshop with greater knowledge and skills for handling cases involving domestic violence. …

A long list of points follows, incl. one that sounds in part like a CYA protection for intended judicial and judicial officer participation in local leadership councils (etc.) regarding DV):

• Identify administrative and community barriers to accessing/achieving justice in DV cases
• Devise methods of overcoming barriers to justice, become motivated to work to remove barriers, and use information regarding available community resources to assist in removing barriers.
• Recognize and apply ethics rules that govern participation in extrajudicial activities, e.g., domestic violence councils, legislative proposals, local court rulemaking, and education programs of non-judge providers. …

“There is no charge for the educational portion** of the workshop. Participants are responsible for their own lodging, travel arrangements, and costs.”

**What other portions of an “enhancing judicial skills” workshop besides educational would there be?  Practice sessions, role-playing to solidify concepts? (Eating, socializing…etc.)

Here’s the 79th Annual (2016 in Monterey, CA, conference) advertised at “NationalHealthyMarriageAndFamilies.org,” itself an HHS-funded project (incl. website) with a focus on “HMRE” (Healthy Marriage Relationship Education) training with an “underpinning of family safety,” presided over by their “Family Violence Advisory Committee” of three men and two women.*

One of the men comes up around (as board member on) an organization (Nat’l Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence) on the post below referenced as a multi-cultural institute for violence prevention, which is not mentioned here, although his other fatherhood connections are (Fernando Mederos of Boston MA).

And two of the three men on the “Family Violence Advisory Committee are from MenStoppingViolence.org in Atlanta Georgia. One woman is from a Rutgers University (NJ) Center on Violence against Women and Children,  and the other, the only listed attorney in the mix, from Los Angeles, at an LGBT center. I saved it to pdf, in case of future broken link above, with some comments at the top, however some right-margin text is lost and content harder to read: Family Violence Prevention Advisory Panel | National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families (5 people viewed Oct 23, 2017~>this NRCHMF is HHS-funded, says footer info) its Goal? Apparently ~Integrating HMRE educ into the Safety Net~5pp

Men Stopping Violence Inc. (EIN#581618891, since1982ff, GA, running BIP, 90% gov’t supported (ProgrRevs and-or grants), year after year, is primarily government sponsored, whether through grants or through government fees and contracts under “program service revenues.”  Unfortunately, after 2008, IRS Form 990 doesn’t break down (have a printed line-item designation for) “government fees and contracts,” which pre-2008 shows that most of its Program Service Revenues were so classified. It’s maintained a moderate size. I annotated two tax returns, one from 2005 and one from 2008:

• MenStoppingViolence EIN#581618891 FY2005 (24pp (990) showing 311K of 537K (of which 391K Prog service) revs are GOVT FEES+CONTRACTS (PtVII Ln93g) (and its budget deficit)
• MSV Men Stopping Violence EIN#581618891 (since 1982, DecaturGA) FY2008 (25pp) Note IRS form change now conceals which PSRev was govt fees=contracts Also 52K Split-Interest Agreemt with ?

Detail from IRS Form 990 FY2005 of Men Stopping Violence reveals that most of its “program service revenues” come from (Line 93g), gov’t fees and contracts, regardless of whether most of its direct grants (contributions) for a given year did or did not. Over the years, Schedules of support show increasing revenue from “services provided” — but those services apparently were provided mostly under gov’t contracts and fees. Even so, it’s still managed to overspend and deplete standing assets.

I should do follow up, however, please note the connection of board member with “Georgia Commission on Family Violence” which was set in place by the legislature in 1992, and that (I just saw from its website) apparently the same “Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases“** workshop was brought to Georgia, co-sponsored by (its) Judicial Council/AOC (Administrative Office of the Courts) and the Family Violence Council, with NCJFCJ, and help from the “Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.” This is going on as I write, Sunday – Wednesday this week! (FYI, NCJFCJ’s home base is, mostly, Nevada).

Current look at GA Commission on Family Violence Pls. notice “Enhancing Judicial Skills” at bottom right. This is taking place (as I write)  Oct. 22 – 25th, 2017! Below (but not visible in image) a Sept. one was for DV advocates.

** Through a grant from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is bringing its workshop entitled “Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases Workshop for the State of Georgia” to metro Atlanta in October of 2017.  Specifically, the training will take place from Sunday, October 22, 2017 (beginning at noon) and will continue through Wednesday, October 25, 2017 (ending at noon), at Mansour Center in Marietta.

The Judicial Council/Administrative Office of the Courts and Georgia Commission on Family Violence will be sponsoring the training.  The class size is limited to 50 judges, one judge from each of Georgia’s judicial circuits. The registration website is set up so that one judge from each circuit may sign up.  After that, your circuit will show as “sold out,” but the names of any other judges from that circuit who wish to attend will be put on a waitlist.  If we do not have one judge from each circuit sign up, we can then register judges from that list.

There is no fee to attend.  Some meals will be provided by ICJE and the Judicial Council/AOC.

Click to enlarge, or here for the website (the MSV Bd of Directors shows powerful connections still.

Kirsten Rambo, Ph.D., I see, in Dec. 2016,  was reported as becoming the new Executive Director in a domestic violence shelter on the opposite coast (California), San Luis Obispo County, after a leadership pair (Exec. and Deputy Exec. Director) resigned suddenly, complaining about work conditions and a “climate of chaos and distrust.”  I felt this was odd enough to report, especially if she’s Exec Dir. of a California entity while on the board of a batterers-interventions-services provider on the opposite coast (i.e., Georgia) and with a background under HHS, that is the CDC (which has a major foundation supporting it, by the same name, in Georgia).  If she is still at the California shelter AND “men stopping violence” board member, this should be made known on the shelter website.  IS IT?

“Kirsten Rambo, who was recently hired as executive director of the Women’s Shelter Program of San Luis Obispo County. Courtesy of Kirsten Rambo” LOCAL Read more: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/ local/article118738393.html#storylink=cpy]
Dec. 3, 2016 by BY LINDSEY HOLDEN under “LOCAL.” Kirsten Rambo, Ph.D., CDC Violence Prevention Center and MSV (Men Stopping Violence) Board of Directors, assigned to a California (not Georgia) shelter Exec. Directorship (San Luis Obispo County, CA) in Dec. 2016. Still there? I didn’t check, yet.

Women’s Shelter Program of SLO Hires New Exec Director Dec. 3, 2016, Lynn Holden, in the “NewsTribune” LOCAL:

The Women’s Shelter Program of San Luis Obispo County has hired a new executive director after its longtime former head suddenly resigned in June.

Kirsten Rambo, formerly of the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in Atlanta, will assume her new position on Dec. 12. [2016] Adrienne Harris was contracted to serve as interim director after Marianne Kennedy’s departure, according to Robin Mitchell Hee, president of the shelter’s board of directors. …

Kennedy and Deputy Director Jason Reed resigned during a third-party investigation into undisclosed employee concerns about work conditions. The nature of the concerns remains unclear, although Reed told The Tribune in June the organization’s board of directors had “created a climate of chaos and distrust within the organization.” Read more here:

(This Women’s Shelter Program was decent enough to post its EIN#, 95-3370729, in fine print on a web page, at least…)

SLO County (CA) Women’s Shelter Program detail posts its EIN#95-3370729 in small print (but the financials are not uploaded on the website).

I see from the “resigned” article (or main one) that the leadership duo had been there for 30 (Marianne Kennedy) and 11 (Jason Reed) years, respectively, and that from now on there won’t be a “Deputy Director” but the new Exec. Dir. (Rambo) “and other staff members” will take over those duties — mostly grantwriting.  (So, the shelter had had a man as primary grant-writer those 11 years, sounds like).

Mitchell Hee said the shelter isn’t planning to hire a new deputy director, a position primarily devoted to grant writing. Instead, Rambo and other staff members will assume those duties

As for any problems the shelter may have faced at the time of Kennedy’s resignation, Mitchell Hee said the organization has since moved on.  [Read more here: …/article118738393.html#storylink=cpy]

Last 3 tax returns shown on 990finder website (EIN# 953370729 search results):

Total results: 3. Search Again.

Among other things, the latest return here is only FY2014 (Marianne Kennedy still shown as Exec. Director, and Robin Mitchell Hee shown, but not as President). In other words, despite the negative/positive publicity in 2016 and 2017, it doesn’t seem to have generated an updated tax return with the IRS (990finder gets them from the IRS…).  Fiscal Year end is June 30.  So in October 2017, at least FY2015 (YE 6/30/2016) should’ve been uploaded — but seemingly it isn’t. FY2016’s would be (if timely) due soon, but what’s shown above does not represent the transition which took place almost a year ago, per the news articles.

EIN#95-3370729 under a different org. name, FY2003 (see footer & header on image). Simpler program service description back then..

EIN#95-3370729 under a different org. name, FY2003 (see header on image). Ms. Kennedy and two other women were paid officers, total pay for all three only $155.7K. This is ODD: The org. name GLINDA SErVICES, INC., bears NO resemblance to the website shown on the return, womensshelterSLO.org. Why? [2003 return from “990finder” HERE

EIN#95-3370729, WomensShelterSLO.org (bd of director excerpt, site viewed Oct. 2017). An Exec Director =/= a Board Member; the website may not be current; last available tax returns aren’t either, it seems.

As Deputy Executive Director, I guess Jason Reed wouldn’t have shown on the Part VIIA listings of “Bd of Directors, Officers, Directors, Key Employees, Highest Paid Employees” and he doesn’t.

I looked back at returns for several years (Here’s for FY2005), and saw it was formerly called “Glinda Services, Inc.” and has (at least now) an endowment controlled separately (from a related entity trust), with income fr om it varying radically (but never really that high) and in some prior years, the controlling board members were men.   And that their main program service (versus all kinds of revenues including grants/contributions) revenues seems to be counseling fees required of DV victims.

I also note that on their website, currently under volunteer “Board of Directors”, the Secretary (a woman) shown is also “Chief Deputy District Attorney” for the county, i.e., on city payroll.  Interesting…I realize this happens, but question how this would benefit conflict-of interest free operations.

Of interest:  http://www.slocity.org/home/showdocument?id=2530

As late as FY2008, tax returns retain the name Glinda Services, Inc. but have deleted the reference on header to any website.  Tax information it says, is offered on “Another’s website, “but whose is not shown.  However, by 2010, based on letterhead of a supporting letter to the City Planning Commission for permit to allow a “Homeless Services Campus” on surplus city property adjacent to Social Services.  This would combine two operations (daytime core services + night time shelter) by other organizations, and (says a letter of support from, by now it’s called “Women’s Shelter Program of SLO”) within walking distance of the Women’s Shelter.  I found this reference looking for board of directors “Willo Cather” to find out (after noticing board tended to be run by men) whether this is a man or a woman. They were planning for a 24-hour building with a central courtyard to be set up.

Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County (CAPSLO) has submitted an application for a Planning Commission Use Permit to allow a Homeless Services Center (HSC) to be developed on the vacant property adjacent to the Department of Social Services at 3451 and 3511 South Higuera Street. CAPSLO is the operator of the Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter and the Prado Day Center. The new HSC would combine the functions of these two facilities and would provide comprehensive services to the area’s homeless population. The HSC would be a regional facility and is a key implementation measure of the 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.

These are FY 2008 returns (4 images).  By June 23, 2010 (above letter of support for Planning Commission permitted development of surplus city land for centralized / “regional” homeless services center with beds, courtyard, a kennel for pets, and more) the entity had changed its name to better match its website held for years previously.

Image 1 of 4, IRS, FY2008, EIN# 953370729, Pg.1 top, Glinda Services, Inc.

Image 2 of 4, IRS, FY2008, Pg1 BOTTOM, Glinda Services, Inc.

Image 3 of 4, IRS, FY2008 top Glinda Services, Inc., Form 1023 available on another’s website (but “website” marked N/A on this return….)

Image 4 of 4, IRS, FY2008 top Glinda Services, Inc., (now “Women’s Shelter Programs of SLO, Inc.” under the same EIN# 95-3370729;) Just pointing out, sometimes public interface for a “Woman’s Shelter” may be female, but the power structure (board) still male-dominated. As of 2008, seems to hold, here…8 yrs later, the Exec Director who signed this return (but is NOT listed on this page, Marianne Kennedy) made headlines by, with another man (also not listed on returns, as “deputy” exec. director, mostly a grantwriting position said the news article, Jason Reed)

Back to “National Healthy Marriage and Family” (“NHM&F”) website promoting an NCJFCJ 79th annual conference, remembering NCJFCJ’s prominent role in the “DV network” at least as to federal funding, and its relevance to FAMILY COURTs and proceedings under STATE (not Federal) control.

The funding disclaimer on the “NHM&F” (NOT “Men Stopping Violence”) website footer, in fine print, is a grant I’ve talked about before on this post (long ago) (See “Disclaimer” quote with dark-teal background):

Disclaimer: Funding for this project was provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant: [90FH0003]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

An HHS-funded website advertising nonprofit (that also takes significant HHS funds) NCJFCJ’s annual 2016 conference in California.

Pushing Marriage and Relationship Education AND responsible fatherhood year after year (a PRWORA 1996 welfare reform “special feature”) requires at least token lip-service to the existence of domestic violence. So they have an advisory council of, it says, four people.

Incidentally, where I said I remembered that grant “90FH0003” above, I did.  Link to a saved “TAGGS.HHS.gov” search to show it was granted to “I C F, Inc” which is an improper spelling of the name — there are no spaces between), three years in a row for $1.5M/year to, probably, set up and maintain this website, a grant to a multi-national GLOBAL, FOR-PROFIT corporation (financials not readily traceable because it’s for-profit), to help other nonprofits continue taking TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) funding away from families, and diverting it through “CFDA 93086,” as the image says, to run people through curricula, endlessly, sponsored by nonprofits also, often, taking more 93086 grants, and/or other ones (Compassion capital funding) etc. to get themselves set up to run the curricula, and make sure America remains properly patriarchal according to the protocol.

Click on image to repeat the search (results will change if data changes meanwhile at “TAGGS”  Recipient name is 3rd column from the right; notice this happened, it’s saying, 2015-2017…

Before 90FH0003, ICF got also 90FH0002 (also $1.5M/year for three out of four years, starting in 2011), purpose: ”

but the only other entity getting a “90FH00##” grant raked in even more and was also a for-profit PR firm — in Oklahoma.  Public Strategies, Inc., deeply involved from the start with the “Oklahoma Marriage Initiative.”   (Saved Search) showing all three and that Public Strategies, Inc. got first $2M, then (4 yrs in a row, “noncompeting continuation) $3.25M ANNUALLY for “developing materials.”  This is an advanced search (I picked the columns displayed.  Above was a basic “Award”search, so picking columns wasn’t an option.

Click on image to see the saved search, which includes grants 90FH0001 and “0003” as well. This just shows the predecessor grant to “I C F Inc.”

Does it sound like, perhaps, running periodic domestic violence prevention trainings serves as a “heat shield” to facilitate and continue (silently when the headlines around DV roadkill surface, year after year) running VERY profitable — to those running them — private practice HMRE “professions“?

And the public pays for both sides of the argument — that’s genius policy design, if you ask me!  Not ethical, but definitely brilliant foresight of just how much the public doesn’t investigate things they aren’t prodded to from mainstream media, or political Left/right debates on a particular set of causes as defined by each political party, for the most part.  All kinds of protests and women’s rights organizations can continue going on, year after year, so long as this business agenda utilizing public institutions, goes on.

Anyhow, I have just shown you that so-called “I C F Inc.” as legitimized by the HHS appropriations (and during Bush AND Obama White Houses/Presidential Administrations, two four-year terms each) was fine with advertising the NCJFCJ annual conference. So we must get to know both financing and specific nonprofits, as a general rule, in the power plays of the nation…

The Smoking Cessation/Tobacco Control Litigation. Guaranteed..(Like Domestic Violence Prevention and Services) To Continue Incessantly. post is Recommended reading if you haven’t yet!  Look for section around the above-left (“Synergy” Page 1) image (shown larger on the post,  and unlike here, with more caption and commentary). FYI so is that newsletter, even though it’s nine years old now.

Continuing some commentary still on that Oct. 20 post……
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