FVLC PROGRAMS

Legal Services
Criminal Justice Program
Medical Sites Program
Community Outreach
CalWORKS

Legal Assistance for Victims (L.A.V.)
Mobile Response Team (MRT)
Relationship Abuse Prevention (R.A.P.) Program
Domestic Violence Peer Support Groups
Safe at Home Confidential Address Program


Legal Services

FVLC provides family law attorney service in English and Spanish for domestic violence victims in Alameda County and can provide referrals for legal services in other jurisdictions. We can assist victims who speak any language through our confidential interpreter program. We assist domestic violence victims who are seeking the following services:

Civil Restraining Orders

FVLC attorneys and legal staff help clients file for civil restraining orders if they are being abused by a current or former spouse or partner, or by another family member.

Child Custody, Visitation, Support

FVLC will assist clients with custody, visitation, and child support issues if the client is a victim of domestic violence and has or is seeking a restraining order.

Divorce

FVLC attorneys offer paperwork assistance and limited representation in divorce cases that involve an abusive spouse.

All FVLC legal services are offered on a sliding scale, based on a client’s income. No one will be turned away for a lack of funds.

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Legal Assistance for Victims (L.A.V.) Program

The L.A.V. Program provides on-site legal services to victims of family violence at places where victims are most likely to access emergency services, including local hospitals, community health clinics and battered women’s shelters. This program is funded by the federal Violence Against Women Grants Office.

Successful collaboration among L.A.V. partners has resulted in broadening the net of safety services for all victims of family violence within our community, as well as heightening awareness of domestic violence among staff at area hospitals.

Collaborative partners include:


Criminal Justice Program

FVLC participates in collaborative programs with both the Berkeley and Oakland police departments in order to enhance victim safety and improve law enforcement response to family violence. These services are available free of charge to victims/survivors of domestic violence.

FVLC advocates who work within the police departments provide:

  • Crisis intervention services
  • Safety planning
  • Information on restraining orders
  • Assistance with law enforcement response
  • Criminal prosecution
  • Court accompaniment
  • Referrals to other social service agencies

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Medical Sites Program

The goal of this program is to make FVLC’s services easily and immediately accessible to victims of domestic violence who visit local medical facilities for reasons related and unrelated to domestic violence.

In addition to working directly with domestic violence victims at hospital facilities, FVLC provides domestic violence intake training to medical staff. FVLC staff educate doctors, nurses and social workers about how to recognize the signs of family violence and how to offer appropriate referrals without causing further distress to the victim.

Participating hospitals include:


Mobile Response Team (MRT)

The ONERT program provides overnight and weekend support to domestic violence victims in Alameda County. In collaboration with Tri-Valley Haven for Women, A Safe Place, Building Futures with Women and Children and S.A.V.E. (Shelter Against Violent Environments), ONERT provides emergency assistance and advocacy to women and children in immediate danger of violence.

The services available in this program include:

  • 24-hour telephone crisis counseling, including safety planning
  • Coordination with collaborative shelters to facilitate immediate shelter placement when possible
  • Transportation to shelters, local motels, or other safe locations
  • Motel and food vouchers when necessary
  • Police-assisted relocation where available
  • Next day follow-up to facilitate shelter placement or relocation
  • Six-month follow-up to track client progress toward attaining self-sufficiency

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Relationship Abuse Prevention (R.A.P.) Program

The R.A.P. program is a violence prevention program that educates middle and high school youth as well as parents, educators, adolescent health care providers and youth service workers about the dynamics of domestic and dating violence. It explores the interrelated nature of violence in the home, in schools, in society and in the media. Youth are taught how to recognize the warning signs of an abusive relationship, how racism and sexism are linked to violent behavior, and how to resolve conflicts in a peaceful manner. Parents and educators learn how to become allies to youth as they increase their understanding on this issue. Health care providers learn ways to address this problem with their adolescent clients and how to provide support and assistance.

The RAP Program was one of eleven programs out of more than 500 applicants selected in 2008 to help implement the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s national “Start Strong” initiative. FVLC received a four-year, $1 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to lead a collaborative to expand the RAP Program and its youth-led JANE Campaign.

For more detailed information see FVLC's R.A.P. Website and the I AM JANE Website>

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Domestic Violence Peer Support Groups

FVLC offers weekly peer support groups with a structured curriculum in English and Spanish for domestic violence survivors. Each group follows our curriculum, and gives women the opportunities to share their stories.

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Safe at Home Confidential Address Program

FVLC is a participating agency in the Safe at Home program. Safe at Home is a project of the California Secretary of State. The program is designed to protect women by providing a confidential address in the form of a P.O. Box to use when filling out any correspondence and/or applications that are public information. This will help keep the victim’s physical location as confidential as possible. FVLC has staff that are trained and certified to enroll victims of domestic violence in this program free of charge.

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Community Outreach

Staff at FVLC are available to do presentations in the community for any size group. Topics of discussion may include:

  • Domestic violence law in Alameda County
  • The restraining order process
  • Teen dating violence
  • Domestic violence and the criminal justice system
  • Domestic violence and health care
  • The effect of domestic violence on children
  • Defining domestic violence
  • Crisis intervention techniques

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CalWORKS

FVLC, along with five other community agencies, created a CalWORKS Domestic Violence Collaborative. The collaborative’s objective is to provide complete domestic violence services to CalWORKS recipients or CalWORKS-eligible clients in Alameda County, including emergency shelter, legal services, and job-readiness training.

The collaborative consists of the following agencies:

 

 


FVLC Programs
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Thank you to Kaiser Permanente for supporting FVLC.