Thank you.

We have two items on our agenda today.

We've got the Family Justice Center here to talk with us about their strategic planning.

And then we do have an item from Councilman Elliott revisiting the potential of a council policy position.

So I'd like to welcome up the Family Justice Center and y'all take it away.

All right.

Where do you want us to be?

Do you have a presentation you want to show on the computer or what are we doing?

Just to talk.

Come sit at the table with us.

Or you can stand at the front, whatever makes you most comfortable.

Okay.

Well, um, I just wanted to um say thank you guys for allowing us to come.

Some of you were at our breakfast this morning and got a chance to hear at Casey.

We are very honored to have a national, international leader in the family justice movement.

In fact, the founder, he doesn't like to be called the founder, but the founder of the Family Justice Center movement and the first family justice center in San Diego.

And we we are very honored to have him here this week to help us with strategic planning and to talk through some areas that we really need to take it up to the next level.

And so there's a lot of opportunity in our community.

We had about probably 75 to 80 people at our breakfast this morning lab, somewhere around that tomorrow in our strategic planning.

And you know, what Family Justice Center is doing is is connecting the dots for victims and pulling law enforcement district attorneys victim services together, and we we've had a day full of meetings.

We were at the district attorney's office and met with Mayor Wamp and uh General Wamp and the Sheriff's Office, and then uh of course we're gonna have an opportunity to meet with some city leadership as well and you guys, and so it's just an honor.

I wanted you to hear from Casey because Casey can explain the Family Justice Center and what that looks like in a way that um you know better than me.

So um I wanted him to kind of share a little bit about the movement and what he sees and what he's doing, and so with that, I'm just gonna turn it over to Casey.

Well, Casey, why don't you join us at the table or come to the head of the table and talk?

If you want to stand up there, it's fine.

Send and join us.

There we go.

Great.

Well, thank you all.

Uh it's an honor to be with you all.

Uh I'm a municipal government guy, uh born and raised.

So I was the elected city attorney of San Diego for eight years.

In California, we have 11 elected city attorneys who do criminal prosecution and civil legal work.

So uh I grew up in municipal government, ran on the same cycle as the mayor, and uh built really close relationships with our city council, and the family justice center movement came out of city government in the city of San Diego.

And so for me, uh it's an honor to be here because the leadership of the city of Chattanooga is the reason that this family justice center exists right now here.

And if it wasn't for you all and the leadership of the city, I don't think this center would be here.

Um I was in Hamilton County more than more than uh 20 years ago uh in this journey uh when we were first trying to develop a collaborative model here.

Hamilton County was running about 15 domestic violence homicides a year at that time, and Hamilton County had gotten an office on violence against women grant, and it put together a collaborative, so everybody's trying to work together to intervene in families before people died.

And uh once that collaborative got going in the early 2000s, domestic violence homicides in Hamilton County went like this.

In fact, they went from 15 to zero in four years.

Um and then there were a series of issues related to egos and politics in Hamilton County, and that grant was not renewed, and domestic violence homicides went from zero right back up to 15 within three years.

Um you're running uh uh eight to ten homicides or so a year right now in Hamilton County, so you're not at that zero number.

Uh but I really believe that uh you all in Chattanooga have an ability uh to really set a state standard for Tennessee.

I said this this morning at the breakfast.

Uh we worked in Memphis, the model did not survive in Memphis.

Uh the director in Knoxville just resigned, and the Knoxville Center is not healthy.

Collaboratives are really complicated.

Uh when you get government agencies and non-government agencies having to come together and figure out how to share information, what information can be shared, what can't, the culture of law enforcement, the culture of prosecution, the culture of social services, mental health services.

It's all complicated.

And if it doesn't work well, it falls apart.

And you are in a good place right now, I feel like here.

You have the right director, you have a healthy set of partnerships, you have a lot of good things going on.

Um we've been involved here for when did you get the you got the polyvictimization grant?

2019.

So Chattanooga was chosen as one of our six national demonstration sites in a national initiative called the National Polyvictimization Initiative in 2019.

And that was federal money from the Office for Victims of Crime in the U.S.

Department of Justice.

The focus of that initiative was really trying to address trauma and trauma symptomology in people that have experienced violence and abuse.

So some of you may have heard of what's called the adverse childhood experiences study, which has to do with those that grow up in a home with violence and abuse, drugs and alcohol, and what happens if those issues don't get addressed in their life.

I've written two books on the adverse childhood experiences study.