Domestic Violence Specialists On-site at Child Welfare Offices
This fact sheet summarizes the experiences of communities that are piloting a novel practice; at child welfare agencies, some communities are placing battered women's advocates and domestic violence specialists on site. This fact sheet discusses roles and responsibilities of the advocates and specialists, presents new ways of working and new challenges, and concludes with a summary.
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The practice of "out-stationing" or placing battered women's advocates and domestic violence specialists on site at child welfare agencies holds promise for improving services to abused women and their children. This fact sheet summarizes the experiences of communities that are piloting this approach.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The roles and responsibilities of battered women's advocates and domestic violence specialists who are out-stationed to, or placed on-site at, child welfare agencies vary widely depending upon the individual community's and agency's needs. Their roles and responsibilities include the following.
Interagency relations. DV specialists serve as:
- Liaisons between agencies ("good will" ambassadors)
- Role models for collaboration/coordination, encouraging mutual civility between agencies and workers
- Liaisons to other agencies (e.g., law enforcement domestic violence units, courts, prosecuting attorneys).
Education/training. DV specialists serve as:
- Trainers for child welfare staff/administrators, providing expertise in domestic violence, developing safety plans and working with the courts to increase perpetrator accountability
- Consultants to child welfare and domestic violence workers on individual cases, supplying a "model" for child welfare workers working with abused mothers
- Educators and outreach workers, providing prevention education and outreach services to community.
Direct practice. DV specialists serve as:
- Partners with child welfare caseworker on home visits to families in which domestic violence is present or suspected
- Facilitators of support/education groups for battered women with active cases in the child welfare system.
Advocacy. DV specialists serve as:
- Advocates for battered women
- Activists working for system and societal change, holding perpetrators responsible for abuse, and fighting societal victimization of women.
NEW WAYS OF WORKING
Agencies devise different ways of involving domestic violence specialists in cases, as the following examples illustrate:
- Efforts to collaborate are directed at the screening stage; cases involving domestic violence are "flagged" and domestic violence specialists are involved with the case during intake and investigation.
- Domestic violence specialists are called upon by battered women's advocates to work with the caseworker already involved with the family. Advocates can voice their own and the victims' concerns to the domestic violence specialist, who then contacts the caseworker. (Without the assistance of the DV specialists, advocates sometimes hesitated to contact the worker directly and may not obtain feedback from the child welfare agency. This lack of communication often leads to misperceptions between agencies.)
NEW CHALLENGES
Along with enabling agencies to work together in new ways, posting domestic violence specialists in child welfare offices creates challenges. Below are lessons learned by agencies about how to address these challenges.
| Challenge |
Lessons Learned |
| DV specialists feel like, and may be treated as, "outsiders" at the child welfare offices |
Manager/administrator must "set the tone" for supervisors and workers in an agency |
| DV specialists are not viewed as "professional" with valuable experience serving violent families |
Workers at both child welfare and domestic violence agencies must be treated with respect and valued for their own specialties |
| DV specialists find it difficult to obtain necessary tools (i.e., computer, telephone, office space) |
Child welfare agencies need to designate one staff person with sufficient "clout" to ensure that DV specialists secure the resources they need to do their jobs |
| Some child welfare workers are not receptive to incorporating a domestic violence approach |
Change takes time. If receptive workers and supervisors serve as good examples, over time they will encourage non-receptive workers to work with DV specialists |
SUMMARY
Overall, sites with domestic violence specialists at child welfare offices experience noticeable changes in the relationship between the child welfare agency and domestic violence programs as well as relationships between individual workers at both agencies. Communities trying this approach are overwhelmingly satisfied with the outcomes. While this configuration takes time to establish, the results appear worthwhile. This approach:
- Enables child welfare workers to get more training on, and gain more knowledge of, domestic violence
- Strengthens child welfare workers' ability to assess, intervene, and develop appropriate case plans for mothers and their children
- Allows child welfare workers to better incorporate assessment of domestic violence and develop appropriate case plans for safety of the mother and the children
- Allows child welfare workers to better incorporate assessment of domestic violence and develop appropriate case plans for safety of the mother and the children
- Increases domestic violence workers' knowledge of the potential and limits of the child welfare system, its requirements and mandates
- Decreases interagency criticism and blaming and refocuses energy on helping families
- Improves agencies' ability to identify, assess, and provide services to abused women and their children.
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Updated by the webmaster on January 28, 2000.