Domestic Violence Child Welfare Program

This initiative  focuses on enhancing the community partnerships using the Safe & Together model to reduce the number of children removed from rural migrant farm worker and other survivors of domestic violence who are involved in child abuse investigations.  The over arching goals are to:

• Reduce the number of children removed from the homes of survivors of domestic violence involved in child abuse investigations by establishing and enhancing partnerships between The Shelter for Abused Women & Children’s Immokalee Outreach Office,  the regional and local Department of Children & Families (DCF) child protection teams.
• Increase the competence of domestic violence advocates and child welfare workers who assist Immokalee farm workers and other survivors of domestic violence in the child welfare system.
• Increase and enhance domestic violence advocacy provided to domestic violence survivors with children involved in open child welfare investigations.
• Increase awareness about domestic violence in the community.

Critical Program Components

• Co-location of the Immokalee DVCW Advocate at the Immokalee and Naples DCF offices to work closely with them to ensure survivors are supported and perpetrators are held accountable

• Creating a coordinated community response that supports survivors in Immokalee and Naples

• Participating in child welfare agency case staffings to provide consultation and feedback for open child welfare cases

• Providing training for child welfare workers on domestic violence and safety planning

• Maintaining a resource Library that includes linguistically and culturally specific materials for use by survivors from the Immokalee migrant farm worker community