a photo of Nancy O'Malley

Putting an End to Domestic Violence


LaToya (not her real name) is bipolar, has lost custody of her daughters and lives in a domestic violence shelter. She was recently hospitalized after her partner attacked her. It wasn't the first time he abused her--he has repeatedly physically and sexually assaulted LaToya.

"Why do I continue to choose men who abuse me? I want to be at peace," she says in a spring interview at the Alameda County Family Justice Center. "This situation has made me get serious about life."

After a previous attack, LaToya came close to filing a restraining order against her partner but didn't. Today, thanks to the ACFJC, she's got all the support she needs to follow through under one roof. The center, which sits just west of Oakland's busy Auto Row, brings services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and elder abuse and their family members to one convenient location. Before its opening in July 2005, victims had to seek help from a fragmented array of county agencies and nonprofits that offered related but uncoordinated services.

The federal government recognized a need for domestic violence services to be in one place, so, in 2003, the Department of Justice created The President's Family Justice Center Initiative grant program. In 2004, Alameda was one of 15 counties in the country selected to receive the award, a $1.3 million grant that provided the funds to open ACFJC.

The driving force behind the center is Nancy O'Malley, Alameda County's chief assistant district attorney. A 21-year employee of the DA's office and a former head of its Sexual Assault Unit, she saw a need for a comprehensive, centralized center for victims and their families. "I figured out that a victim of domestic violence might have to go to as many as 25 different agencies to access services. To me, that meant we were making the victims do all the work," she says, citing a number of recent success stories. In one case, O'Malley says, a mother brought her child in for a sexual abuse complaint. While the child was being examined, the mother broke down and said she herself was a victim of domestic violence. She was able to receive treatment at the same time as her daughter.

The center is a welcoming and quiet place with a lobby, reception area, interview rooms, telephones, computers for job retraining, kids' areas, childcare options and a medical clinic. Once victims are screened, they can access all services for free. Kim Hunter, the new deputy district attorney in charge of the Domestic Violence Unit at the center, believes the victim-centered culture is helping her clients and making her job of prosecuting offenders easier.

"When victims set foot inside a courtroom or a police station, the accused is the focus of attention. But at ACFJC, the focus is on the victim and what their needs are. You can feel it when you walk in the door," says Hunter, who points to the Oakland Police Department's relocation of its entire 38-officer Special Victims Unit to ACFJC as another reason she can do her job more efficiently and thoroughly.

Between August 2005 and March 2006, ACFJC served nearly 1,400 clients, 600 visitors and family members and more than 200 children. Of these, 87 percent were women, 13 percent were men and 79 percent were people of color. Each year in Alameda County, there are about 2,200 criminal domestic violence cases and about 2,500 requests for civil domestic violence restraining orders. In 2005, there were seven domestic violence deaths in the county. It is ACFJC's goal to eliminate them entirely. Sixty-five government and community organizations collaborated to help create ACFJC, and many of them now offer services onsite, including Children's Hospital Oakland, Family Violence Law Center, Bay Area Women Against Rape, Alameda County Social Services Agency and Adult and Child Protective Services. Because of the center's initial success, more agencies and organizations are asking for space in the building.

Support from donors also helped make ACFJC a reality. Chevron donated four truckloads of furniture, ClearChannel donated billboard ads and Alameda County Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker paid for bus shelter ads to publicize the center. The Golden State Warriors cozied up a corner in the kids' area, and Kelly-Moore donated the bright gold and red paint that covers the walls.