What is a Family Justice Center?
A Family Justice Center (FJC) is a collaborative resource hub where multiple community agencies provide co-located services in a welcoming environment for victims of interpersonal violence, including domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder or dependent adult abuse, and human trafficking.
Trained Navigators work one-on-one with families to help plan, access, and coordinate the services they need. FJCs aim to reduce the number of times survivors must tell their story, minimize the number of places victims must go for help, and increase access to services that support long-term safety and healing for victims and their children.
Partner agencies at an FJC may include community-based rape crisis, domestic violence, and human trafficking advocates, medical personnel, mental health counselors, Family Justice lawyers, victim-witness program staff, social service agency staff, public assistance workers, law enforcement personnel, and more.
Why a Family Justice Center?
When survivors seeks services for domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, elder abuse, or human trafficking, they are often bombarded with referrals to many resources in different places depending on their needs: food, shelter, medical treatment, counseling, legal services, law enforcement, employment support, etc. In Solano County, one survivor may need to visit over 22 locations for services! Added to the stress of multiple appointments, consider recent physical and mental trauma, the need to retell that trauma again and again, and the likelihood of young children in tow and no car. For survivors with limited resources, the challenge of accessing dispersed services can be a huge barrier to leaving abusive situations.
Our community builds change together
Collaborative community partnerships are key to the success of the FJC model. Partner agencies have flexible connections with the FJC, ranging from making referrals to coordinating programming to basing staff onsite at the FJC. We’re grateful to the many agencies that are already working with us at every level to serve survivors in Solano County.
Read the 2023 Strategic Planning Report to learn more about our community’s shared vision for the Family Justice Center in Solano County.
Family Justice Centers: One Door, Safer Futures
The Family Justice Center (FJC) is an all-in-one resource hub that supports survivors of violence. It aims to improve survivor safety, reduce domestic violence, increase community support, and streamline services. Survivors connect with a trained Navigator who helps create safety plans, set goals, and link to resources such as legal aid, law enforcement, healthcare, employment training, and basic needs—many available onsite.
In Solano, the FJC also hosts a Supervised Visitation and Exchange Center to support safe, healthy parent-child relationships.
Does it work? Yes!
Family Justice Centers serve 30+ communities in the US and beyond. Documented outcomes include reduced homicides; increased survivor safety and empowerment; reduced fear and anxiety in survivors and their children; increased efficiency among service providers; and dramatically increased community support for services for survivors and families. The US Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women calls the Family Justice Center model a best practice in domestic violence intervention and prevention.