Public administration of a domestic violence legal services program in Decatur, Alabama

public administration of a DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEGAL SERVICES ASSISTANCE PROGRAM in DECATUR, ALABAMA

Domestic violence is a problem of great magnitude among the poverty-level population in the City of Decatur, Alabama. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that the local Legal Services program was curtailed to a great extent five years ago and clients are required to travel to Huntsville, Alabama, to apply for assistance. Prior to the curtailment of this program, a Legal Services satellite office was located on Vine Street, just adjacent to the poverty level neighborhoods in the City of Decatur and within walking distance for the majority of poverty level individuals who generally seek out the services provided through this satellite office.

According to coordinating agencies to include the local police department, the local Department of Human Resources Department, and the local emergency rooms in the City, domestic violence is on the rise in the poverty level areas of the city and there is a need for assistance for domestic violence victims in the City of Decatur which is going unanswered since the Legal Services Corporation curtailed the satellite offices provision of these services.

I. LEGAL SERVICES PROGRAM DESIGN OVERVIEW

Evaluation of the assistance provided to alleviating social problems is important in the process of providing that assistance. For instance in the initiative to make an assessment of the needs of a population for legal services provisions in a service population area there are specific necessary steps that must be taken in order to understand what the precise needs are and then it required is presentation to those in the roles of decision-maker to convince these individuals of the need and in order to gain funding and other support necessary to implement a program that is designed to answer this need in a target population. This scenario will be based upon implementation of a Domestic Violence focused Legal Services program in a population of predominantly low-income individuals and will be in the following design and the steps as follows:

1) Identification of individuals in need of legal services for Domestic Violence -This initiative would involve polling residents of an area as to their need and what specific needs are present in the area. Therefore, the committee in charge of this should call a community meeting with community leaders and participants in order to identify the needs of the population in this area. This step would also involve accessing demographics from local officials relating to the age, race, income-level, education-level, and other necessary information for planning a Legal Services initiative in the population service area.

2) Description of Target Population and Service Environment - a description of the residents of the area along with the service environment to include transportation, demographics, restrictions of eligibility and the capacity of service. For instance, what type of cases will the legal services provide to this population and what type of legal services will not be provided should be identified. Eligibility is generally governed by laws and legislations relating to these types of provisions, which are generally, at least in part government-funded.

4) Needs Identification in relation to Assistance for Domestic Violence through Legal Services - This step involve analyzing the problems of the population in the area where assistance will be given. This involves surveying the population, community forum meetings as well as observation to make identification of the needs of this population.

3) Needs assessment of the population for Domestic Violence Assistance through Legal Services - a needs assessment would also involve meeting with the community leaders and community representatives. For instance, in the Decatur, Alabama area which provides legal services to community members there is a great need for housing assistance, debt collection and eviction-related assistance as well as Social Security Disability assistance. Uncontested divorces are also generally handled by legal services but only in the case where domestic violence is involved or in cases where there are minor children of the marriage.

5) Communication of the Established Need of assistance for Domestic Violence through Legal Services Assistance - This is the fifth step in this process. After all the foregoing steps have been taken then the information necessary for presenting this information to those in the roles of decision-making is available. This information should be communicated to those individuals in the roles, which allow for funding and implementation of this assistance to begin in its implementation.

Diagram of Steps to be Taken for Intervention Program Design

II. PLAN for IMPLEMENTATION of NEEDS ASSESSMENT PROCESS

In this scenario the following steps are implemented:

1) the individuals in charge of this program assessment have set up meetings with the following community agencies:

1) Police Department representative;

2) Department of Human Resources representative;

3) Homeless Shelter representative;

4) Hospital Emergency Care representative, 5) Officer of the Court representative; and 6) Local private attorney representative.

Secondly, the individuals in charge of this program assessment will meet with representatives of the community through posting notice of a meeting in public places at least 30 days prior to the meeting date along with a telephone number that members of the community can call for additional information. The thirty days allows community members time to discuss among themselves and to prepare statements of need at the meeting.

2) This step involves collecting data that provides social indicators to inform this initiative. The following will be collected by individuals who are in charge of the needs assessment in this initiative:

a) police reports;

b) hospital reports;

reports from the Department of Human Resources; and d) reports from the local Housing Authority.

3) Surveys and Questionnaires - Surveys and questionnaires will be sent out to key informant agencies to include:

a) police department;

b) judicial offices;

hospital emergency rooms;

d) local attorneys and advocate agencies; and e) local housing authority agency.

4) Evaluation of Evidence - the evidence, once gathered will be evaluated and a report prepared for presentation to decision-making bodies.

III. ANALYSIS of EVIDENCE

Evidence gathered in this initiative includes the following reports:

Demographics of Decatur, Alabama

There are presently 53,929 individuals and 21, 824 households residing in the City of Decatur with the population density being 1,009.7 individuals per square mile.

The racial composition of the city is found to be as follows:

White - 75.50%

Black/African-American - 19.56%

Native American: 0.70%

Hispanic/Latino: 5.64%

Other races: 1.33%

Household composition was found to be as follows:

31.8% of households have children under the age of 18

50.7% married couples

13.4% female head of household

32.4%: non-families

10.7%: elderly living alone

Household income information is as follows:

Per capita income: $20,431

Households under the poverty line:

11.9% of families

14.9% of population

21.2% those under age 18

11.1% those over age 65

Domestic Violence findings are those shown in the two following charts labeled Figure 2 and Figure 3 in this study.

Domestic Violence - Aggravated Assault

Domestic Violence - Simple Assault

The source of the data utilized in this study is data for the State of Alabama at-large since there is no available such data for the City of Decatur at this time, however the State data has been generalized for the purpose of this assessment. Statistics include the following:

Of the 11.019 aggravated assaults of 2007, 1675 were domestic aggravated assaults.

Of these 30% of the victims were the wife or ex-wife of the offender and 42% of the victims were a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend of the offender.

55% of offenders were black and 74% of offenders were males.

In the case of assault the victim was as follows:

Wife - 22%

Ex-wife - 5%

Common-law wife - 2%

Husband - 8%

Common-law husband - 1%

Ex-husband - 2%

Girlfriend - 28%

Ex-girlfriend - 18%

Boyfriend - 9%

Ex-boyfriend - 5%

VI. IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Impact assessment will be conducted on a yearly basis and will involve statistical data relating to those in need of assistance as compared to those actually receiving assistance through this program which will make a strenuous requirement of record-keeping of not only those clients who are served through this initiative but as well will require the same level of record-keeping in relation to those who apply for but are denied assistance due to their not having met eligibility requirements. This can be accomplished through a field experiment based upon those who were and those who were not able to access these services. Because the participants in the study who were not able to access these services must be gained through a voluntary nature, true randomization in this impact assessment for the control group will not be possible.

SUMMARY & CONCLUSION

This study has followed the procedures set out in Chapter Four and Chapter Eight of the textbook and has thus developed a Domestic Violence program Legal Services intervention to answer this need in the City of Decatur. The limitations in this program design include the fact that real-time data was not available for this study as well as the fact that since the curtailment of the Legal Services Corporation satellite office previously located in Decatur, Alabama, that they are quite unfortunately no true statistics upon which to base this design but instead a hodge-podge of data from various agencies in the City of Decatur has been utilized along with generalized State of Alabama statistics. This report was however prepared through collaboration with two previous employees of the Legal Services Corporation satellite office who are well informed as to the need of this type of services and intervention for this target population.

Public Administration

Domestic Violence Intervention Program and Legal Services Assistance

Identification of individuals in need of this intervention and program

Needs Identification

Needs Assessment of Population

Description of target population and service environment

Communication of Established Need