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This report was funded by a grant from The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham. Points of View do not necessarily represent the official position of the Women’s Fund of Birmingham. Report prepared by: Allison Miller, MPH Youth and Family Services Network Consultant Author Sara Jane Camacho Program Director of Freedom to Thrive, a program of Youth and Family Services Network Co-Author Rachel Brzezinski, UAB Candidate for MPH Youth and Family Services Network Consultant Transcription and citations Sherry L. Allen, MEd, NCC, LPC, GPC President/CEO of Youth and Family Services Network Page 2 Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the following individuals and organizations for contributing their guidance and information to this report. The Freedom to Thrive Youth Service Provision Work Group for providing the vision for this project from the very beginning and for making Invisibility possible. Thank you for all of the hard work that each of you do providing meaningful and important direct service to high-risk youth in our area. Chair: Phil Cain, Assistant Director - Family Connection, Inc Members: Gayle Watts, LCSW, Executive Director, Children's Aid Society; Christie Mac Segars, LCSW, Director of Agency Development, Children's Aid Society; Rhonda Noble, Project Independence, Children’s Aid Society; Alice Westerly, Homeless Advocate, Cultural Affairs Committee; Cherie Foster, Intake Supervisor, Jefferson County Family Court; Helen Smith, Victim Witness Specialist, FBI; Debbi Land, Director, Clay House Children’s Center; Shemeca Barnes, Child Sex Abuse Unit, DHR Freedom to Thrive Steering Committee for guidance and contacts for the project Tammy Hopper, YFSN for providing technical assistance throughout the project Isabel Gomez, YFSN for providing a report on Survey Monkey data Interviewees for their time and participation Alabama Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Birmingham Police Department, Children’s Aid Society, Crisis Center/Rape Response, Clay House CAC, Coordinated Community Response of Jefferson county, Family Connection Inc, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hispanic Interest Coalition, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, N-Motion Consulting, Prescott House CAC, Women’s Missionary Union, and Zonta International and other individual advocates for all your hard work in fighting for social justice in Jefferson County. Becki Goggins, Manager for Crime Statistics and Information Division, and Carol Roberts, the Public Information Specialist, at Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center for providing Jefferson County Statistics Cherie Foster, Intake Supervisor at Family Court, for providing Family Court statistics and meeting space Allison Dearing, the Director of Coordinated Community Response, and Jennifer Killburn, the Executive Director of Children’s Policy Council, for sending out the survey invitations UAB Public Health SAGE volunteers for transcription assistance Debbi Land and Phil Cain for providing case studies The Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (HICA) for use of office and meeting space for Freedom to Thrive operations and Invisibility project- specific meetings Dedicated volunteers Rachel Hébert and Jessica Jones for taking the time to review Invisibility Plusbob Media for formatting and branding Page 3 Key Informant Biographies Shemeca Barnes Shemeca Barnes is a licensed bachelor’s level social worker who has been employed with the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources (DHR) for eight years. During her time with DHR, she has worked as a child abuse and neglect (CAN) social worker for three years and has supervised CAN investigations for five years. Her current duties consist of supervising a specialized child sexual abuse unit, which she has done for the past three years. Phil Cain Phil Cain is the Associate Director of Family Connection in Birmingham, Alabama. Youth residents are referred to Family Connection through juvenile court, the Department of Human Resources, self- referrals, and a result of Street Outreach services. Cain is responsible for therapeutic intervention with the residents through providing individual, group, recreational and family counseling. He is also responsible for daily administration and supervision of the multi-faceted program, which includes staff supervision, grant writing, public speaking, and representing the agency in regional networks. Cain received his Masters of Education from the University of Montevallo in 1991. He also received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Montevallo in 1985. Dana Gillis Special Agent Dana M. Gillis has been on duty with the FBI since 1987. He has been working with the Birmingham Field Office since 2007 as a Special Agent assigned to work White Collar Crime and Civil Rights. With the FBI, Gillis has worked or managed investigations in the areas of Foreign Counterintelligence, Special Operations, White Collar Crime, Financial Crimes, Environmental Crimes, the Inspection Division, Public Corruption, and Governmental Fraud. Gillis was responsible for the management of the Integrity Committee of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency and was designated ASAC over Houston Division’s Cyber, Violent Crime, Drug and Crisis Management programs. Gillis completed his undergraduate studies at James Madison University in 1983, has served in the U.S. Army, received a graduate certificate in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and received a Master of Studies degree in Applied Criminology and Police Management from the University of Cambridge in 2006. Judge Brian Huff Honorable Judge Brian Huff is the Presiding Judge in Jefferson County Family Court and a national speaker on juvenile justice reform. Judge Huff presides over several “specialized dockets” including the Truancy, Juvenile Drug Court, Gun Court and Return to Aftercare Program (RAP) dockets. He oversees Reclaiming Our Youth, a multi-faceted, collaborative, juvenile justice reform effort that seeks to improve the local juvenile justice system from intake to disposition to promote positive youth development, restorative justice and family involvement by working with children in their communities. Judge Huff led the Birmingham City Schools’ Collaborative, which developed Birmingham’s School Offense Protocol to Page 4 establish alternatives to incarceration for children who commit minor delinquent offenses within the school system, is currently active in the Alabama Juvenile Judges’ Association, the board of directors for the Alabama Department of Youth Services and the board for the Children’s First Foundation. He is the past-chair of the Family Law Section of the Alabama State Bar and the Birmingham Bar associations and a member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. Judge Huff is a graduate of the University of Alabama and the Birmingham School of Law. Debbi Land Debbi Land graduated from Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, Alabama in 1974 with a BA in Sociology and from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1993 with a Masters in Social Work. She began working at the Child Advocacy Center in 1994 as a forensic interviewer and counselor, primarily addressing child abuse cases. In 1999, she became the Clinical Director at Prescott House and also acted as the coordinator of the Jefferson County Child Death Review Team (Birmingham Division). In 2000, she became the Clinical Director of The Bessemer Cut-Off Advocacy Center and continued to conduct forensic interviews and provide counseling. In November 2003, she became the Director of the Advocacy Center. Land has been a member of the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources Quality Assurance Committee since 1997 and Child and Family Planning Team of Jefferson County since 2006. Meg McGlamery Meg McGlamery is the Director of Sexual Assault Support Services for the Crisis Center, Inc., which serves five counties in Central Alabama. She has been involved in victim advocacy for over ten years. She received her Masters in Higher Education Administration with a focus on counseling, arts administration and grant writing from Florida State University in 2001. While at FSU, she worked with the Victim Advocate Program, which confirmed her desire to work directly with survivors of sexual violence on a professional level. Meg also received a Bachelors of Arts degree from Samford University in 1997. Maribeth Thomas Maribeth is the Clinical Director for Prescott House Child Advocacy Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Prescott House provides forensic services to the largest number of abused children in the State of Alabama, specializing with children who may have been sexually abused, severely physically abused, or witnesses to a murder or other traumatic events. Maribeth has conducted more than 2,000 forensic interviews and has provided counseling for several hundred children and adults. She served as an instructor for seven years at Fort McClellan’s Military Police Academy, teaching MP’s, CID officers and other military personnel how to interview child victims. Beginning in 2002, she has served as an instructor with the National Children’s Advocacy Center, training police officers, child protective service workers, therapists, psychologists, members of the medical profession, attorneys, and judges in the foundations of forensic interviewing and forensic evaluation. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor with the state of Alabama. Page 5 Intro..............................................................................................................................................................