A reception and workshop this week will mark the first steps in establishing the Family Justice Center of Northwest Louisiana.

A Kickoff Reception will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in room 1051 of the Willis-Knighton Bossier Auditorium at 2400 Hospital Dr. A strategic planning workshop will be held Thursday at 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the same location.

Family Justice Center Development Experts Casey Gwinn and Judi Adams will meet with community members to determine support for the center. They will also preside over the workshop.

"Gwinn and Adams started the first one and were appointed to the U.S. Justice Department's committee that oversees grants for all the other family justice centers across the United States. Their purpose is to make sure the community supports it. They want to make sure your mayors, your police jurors and council members are all in support of it because in the long term, when your grants run out, you've got to find another funding source,"said Schuyler J. Marvin, district attorney.

"The second purpose is for training our partners — the church associations, doctors, dentists, law enforcement — on what is needed from them, the requirements they have to meet and what they will have to do," said Marvin.
The Family Justice Center of Northwest Louisiana is a joint effort between the Bossier Parish District Attorney's Office and Willis-Knighton Health System. The center is being designed as one-stop shop to assist victims of domestic abuse in northwest Louisiana.

"We're not trying to create an enclave or long-term shelter. We've got to find a way to get them to and from their job and give them a place to stay so they can get on their feet," said Marvin.

The center will provide counseling for victims, spiritual support, legal assistance, help with medical and dental care, advice for substance abuse treatment and resources for housing issues.

"There will be access to a social worker and counselor, there will be someone there with knowledge of the court system, there will be someone with direct access to the energy and gas companies, someone will help with medical treatment and there will be someone who has access to the department of labor. It's set up so that when you walk out of there, you have a short and long term plan" said Marvin.

The center will be housed in a building at 1513 Doctors Drive. The property was donated by Willis-Knighton Health System and formerly occupied by Bossier Parish Community College's physical therapy program.

It will be modeled after the Family Justice Center in Monroe, which is one of only two in the state.

"The one in Monroe got our attention and got started the same way ours did. We had our building donated by Willis-Knighton and that gets your groundwork done and gives you an infrastructure to work out of," said Marvin.
In order to help fund the center, Marvin's office has applied for a grant from the U.S. Justice Department and Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. Marvin expects to find out the fate of the grants by early 2009 and hopes to be in operation by that Spring.

"This could literally be a life saver. Domestic violence exists at every financial strata and every level of our society.

Until it's talked about, admitted and acknowledged in the churches, there's not going to be anything done about it. It has to be something that people acknowledge and seek a solution for," said Rev. Charlie Davis, district attorney's faith based committee chairman.

Marvin says domestic violence is not only a problem for Bossier Parish residents but society at large.

"Domestic abuse is a problem, it's a problem for society, it's a problem for me. Every Monday morning you'll have four or five women in my office saying their husband was arrested and they didn't hit anyone and I need to get their husband out so he can go to work," said Marvin.

"Our justice system has to find a way to deal with that. Is it the right thing to do to thrown a man in jail for a year where he loses his job, his kids don't have any means of support, the family loses their house and can't pay their car note?" Marvin said.

Once funding is secured, the center will expand the types of services offered through collaborative effort with area law enforcement, healthcare providers and various community organizations.

However, a community organization will have to step up to run the center and the community will have to give their support if the center is to survive.

"The community is going to be very much involved. That's the only hope you have in surviving. Three years is the longest grant you can hope for and when that grant runs out, if you don't have community involvement then you just had a three-year day in the sun," said Marvin.

"You can throw money at a lot of stuff, but this is one government program that has been tried and tested all over the country. We've got some horrible domestic cases that have made the headlines and a bunch that haven't. We hope the community will step up and say that it sounds like a good project," said Marvin.

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