Recent News Items

Spring is here and it’s time to honor the special women in our lives who have inspired, mentored, nurtured and cared for us, our mothers.

There is no better way to honor the most extraordinary woman in your life than by making a meaningful tribute gift to the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV).

For a tax-deductible donation of $10 or more, your honorees will receive a beautiful letter letting them know of your thoughtful gift. When making your gift online, you will have the option to include a personalized message at no extra charge.

Your gift will warm her heart and help families in need. In 2007, the 80th Texas Legislature made crucial decisions about funding for family violence services statewide and TCFV’s involvement during the session resulted in securing $46 million in funding for family violence programs. Your gifts help us continue making such important progress.

Make your tax-deductible tribute gift by May 7th to ensure she receives her special gift in time for the Mother’s Day. For donations received after May 7th, the letter will simply arrive after Mother’s Day.

Thank you for your continued support of the Texas Council on Family Violence.

The Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) 5th Annual Statewide Battering Intervention and Prevention Project (BIPP) Conference theme is “Coordinated Community Response”. The conference will provide participants with useful tools and opportunities to discuss innovative strategies that enhance coordination between BIPPs and local community systems to protect victims, hold batterers accountable, and enforce the community’s commitment to ending family violence.

The conference will begin at 2 p.m. on Friday, with Judge Roberto Caňas, as the keynote speaker. Following Judge Caňas, participants will have the opportunity to participate in excellent workshops including firearm background checks, use of technology by batterers, and enhancing BIPPs. Later that evening join other conference attendees for a networking dinner at Scholz Garten. Continue Reading »

On February 27, the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) Support to Service Providers (SSP) team facilitated the first Criminal Justice System Response Training (CJSRT) of 2008. The CJSR Training was held in partnership with the Family Crisis Center in Bastrop.

CJSRTs are designed to facilitate collaboration among community systems, such as law enforcement, prosecution, the courts, domestic violence service providers and other human service providers. CJSR Training has as one of its major goals to enhance local coordination and bring about a more consistent response to domestic violence.

Funded through the Criminal Justice Division of the Governor’s Office, eight CJSRTs will be offered in 2008. Ms. Molly Woodard and Ms. Amy Byrd, with the TCFV/SSP team, will travel across the state to facilitate and coordinate the training in cooperation with eight domestic violence programs. Nine different modules are available, three of which are provided at each training. The host service provider is given the opportunity to select the three modules they believe are most beneficial to their respective communities.
Continue Reading »

In 2006, Texas Family Violence Interagency Collaborative (TFVIC) was developed to serve as a tool to build communication, to create strategies, and enhance collaboration among Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV), Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), and the Department of Family and Protective Services (CPS & APS). The ultimate goal is to improve services for family violence victims and their children. This statewide collaborative began in FY00 and developed a training curriculum, a liaison system and a Memorandum of Understanding template to be used between family violence programs and regional CPS/APS offices. TFVIC was formed in FY06 as a revitalization of this original workgroup to continue the dialogue about how we can best serve victims of family violence.

TFVIC understands when there is both domestic violence and child abuse in families often approached as separate problems, and in many cases the abused parent may lose custody. There are also unique challenges for victims of family violence who have disabilities or are elderly both in accessing services at family violence programs and within APS. These are sentiments that are also heard from many other states. Continue Reading »