“Domestic violence increases during the holidays.”
So says Beverly Engel, executive director of Domestic Violence Solutions. People tend to drink more, and alcohol fuels tempers. Abused women also tend to stay with their partners through Christmas for the sake of their children. Then, in January, “we’re just inundated with calls,” Engel said.
So in a season that should mark increased vigilance in rooting out the problem, why is a Santa Barbara County nonprofit shutting down its Intimate Partner Abuse Counseling program available to Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Santa Barbara residents?
The answer should come as no surprise to anyone who knows how the world works, especially in times of economic turmoil. The culprit is money. Or, to be more precise, a lack of it.
Batterers and abusers on probation are mandated by law to attend a 52-week counseling program. The goal is to help identify causes of an individual’s aggression and offer growth through a small support group. Participants are required to pay for each session to cover the cost of hiring people to run the groups. For Domestic Violence Solutions, that fee has been $30 per session.
“About 50 percent of them don’t [pay] it,” Engel said.
She feels providers’ hands can be tied by the system. Engel said because of people who didn’t pay, the nonprofit was hemorrhaging money, taking dollars away from the group’s shelters and housing where women fleeing violence can stay, as well as a teen program that aims to curb abuse before it starts.
Thus, come January, Domestic Violence Solutions will no longer offer the Intimate Partner Abuse program.
It was a difficult decision, and the final call comes burdened with regret. Engel pointed out that treating batterers is something Domestic Violence Solutions believes in. It’s part of the group’s mission statement. Counseling treats the source of the problem and helps “break the intergenerational cycle of abuse.” From a business point of view, however, it stopped making sense.
Engel hopes to see a new “restorative justice” program start, one that teaches culprits how to improve life skills like communication and empathy, helps reveal the effects of their harmful actions, and ultimately develops a form of restitution for the abusive party.
Lee Bethel, the probation manager who oversees domestic violence programs for the county, said the department is sorry to see DVS go.
“We like to have more providers rather than fewer,” she said, “but we also we need to keep the providers we do have healthy.”
To that end, all is not lost for local program participants. There are other providers. One Santa Barbara-based nonprofit, Zona Seca, has agreed to take on Domestic Violence Solutions’ soon-to-be-ex-clients. Most of them, anyway.
“In Santa Barbara, it’s not a problem for us to take over that population that DVS is going to leave behind,” said Frank Banales, Zona Seca’s executive director. “In the Lompoc and Santa Maria area, it’s a little bit different.”
Banales explained that there aren’t as many referrals to the program in North Santa Barbara County. Fewer referrals means less money coming in from participants’ fees. And though Zona Seca has a 70 percent success rate when it comes to collecting fees, as well as other profitable programs to offset the fund-draining costs of the counseling program, the numbers still don’t quite mesh for North County.
Kevin Smith, program director for Zona Seca’s Youth and Family Services, operates out of the Lompoc office. He’s been talking to the probation department and Domestic Violence Solutions about the feasibility of a North County program. Currently, only four people attend the DVS counseling program in Lompoc, and three are almost finished with their sessions, he said.
One guy’s weekly fees aren’t enough to justify a whole program.
“My understanding in talking with probation is that there could be more in the future,” Smith said, though he noted that it’s hard to plan for staffers—and their wages—with uncertain data in these fiscal times. And he’s already had to lay off a couple of full-time employees from other programs because of budget cuts. Still, he hopes to have more concrete numbers—and therefore a more solid outlook on the future—between now and mid-January.
The Probation Department’s Lee said the Charles Golodner Counseling Group still handles intimate partner abuse counseling for Santa Maria and Lompoc, and First Mexican Baptist Church works with clients in Santa Maria, so the future of mandated counseling isn’t totally bleak for the more than 250 individuals currently enrolled in such programs in North County. There just won’t be as many options as there could be.
Contact Executive Editor Ryan Miller at rmiller@santamarisasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 18-25, 2008.
