Together, we envision a future where~

•All homes are safe and nurturing;

•All children and families grow to their full potential, free from the specter of violence and intimidation;

•All neighborhoods are safe for children, families, and elders at all times;

•Alameda County reports zero incidences of death and injury from domestic violence; and

•The human rights of all are respected, valued, and upheld.

Alameda County has long history of being at the forefront of the struggle to address domestic violence and sexual assault. The Alameda County Family Justice Center (ACFJC) was one of fifteen communities in the country to receive a President’s Family Justice Center Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2004.  The ACFJC opened in late August 2005 under the leadership of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.  District Attorney Nancy O’Malley was the visionary behind the Center and served on the CFJI Advisory Committee. Raeanne Passantino was the Assistant Director of the ACFJC and was the Regional Training Center representative on the CFJI Advisory Committee.  Today, Cherri Allison serves as the Director of the Center.

The ACFJC played a major role in providing Northern California sites with meaningful technical assistance. As a Regional Training Center, the ACFJC was instrumental in providing tours to staff and community leaders of Shasta, Sonoma, West Contra Costa, and Stanislaus Counties.  The ACFJC shared sample documents with developing sites including, budgets, operations manuals, governance structures, job descriptions, and other resources.

The ACFJC served as a model for developing a client intake system, including processes and procedures for managing client flow.  In March 2010, Alameda hosted the Learning Exchange Meeting at their Center. Then-Director Nadia Lockyer (now Alameda County Supervisor) and Raeanne Passantino presented on "Developing a Dynamic Intake Process" and provided detailed information on their Efforts To Outcomes (ETO) software system as well as the practice of utilizing “Navigators” as part of the client intake process. The Family Justice Center Alliance developed an Intake Toolkit in collaboration with the ACFJC to assist sites in the development of their client intake policies and procedures.

Alameda was extremely active on the California Family Justice Initiative Advisory Committee.  The ACFJC was a tremendous asset to the Initiative in sharing the Center's lessons learned and blueprints for success. During this initiative, the ACFJC had over 24,000 client contacts for an average of over 1,000 client contacts per month.  The most used services were counseling (31% of client visits), civil legal/immigration services (24%), and forensic interviews (14%).  The Alameda County District Attorney also reported nearly a 40% increase in the successful prosecution of felony domestic violence cases and 50% increase in the successful prosecution of misdemeanor cases after the creation of the ACFJC and the co-location of their law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and advocates in the Center (ACDA Study 2006-2011).