Story by: Megan Diskin

A former neurology clinic is set to become the long-planned Ventura County Family Justice Center, thanks to a $400,000 grant from the California Legislature.

With paintbrushes in hand, 60 people started to transform about 15,000 square feet of space into a one-stop site for victims of domestic violence, elder abuse, human trafficking, sexual assault and child abuse to get all the services they need at no cost to them.

“I think it’s gonna be huge for us and for the community,” said Regina Rutherford, a survivor of domestic violence. “We’re lucky. It’s a blessing that this came.”

She serves as chair of the VOICES of Ventura County committee, a group of sexual assault and domestic violence survivors who offer input on what the center should look like.

Over the past few years, the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office has spearheaded the effort to open a local facility based on a national model for victims to receive law enforcement, legal, medical and mental health assistance in one place.

Mike Jump, chief deputy district attorney and director of the DA’s victim and community services, said the legislative grant funding and availability of the site near Ventura County Medical Center were “providential.”

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office announced the recognition of Family Justice Center Legislation Day on June 11 and with it the allocation of $400,000 in grant funding that meant a local center would be opening in September or October 2019.

“We would have gotten here at some point, but this gets us started,” Jump said.

By July 1, the team behind the center was moving into the hospital’s former neurology clinic, Jump said. The grant is for two years and pays for the lease and utilities, he said.

The goal is for the Ventura County Family Justice Center Foundation pay for some of the costs for the center, but it has not raised enough money so far. In the meantime, staff members are looking to fund other renovations with grants that already pay for similar victim services, said Rachael Watkins, victim services manager in the DA’s Office.

“We’re going to make a difference in family violence here in Ventura County,” District Attorney Greg Totten said to the group gathered Saturday to start renovating the facility at 3170 Loma Vista Road.

There’s also a 1,570-square-foot building in the parking lot that organizers hope to turn into an emergency shelter.

Rutherford said she was overwhelmed with emotion as Totten spoke about the positive impact the center will have. She remembers a strategic planning meeting in August 2017 and how big of a goal it seemed at the time.

And now it’s coming together, Rutherford said.

According to the National Family Justice Center Alliance, the movement to establish such centers began in the 1990s as it became clear the system was difficult for victims to navigate and that it would be easier for them to get services if they were all in one place. The first center opened in San Diego in 2002 and went on to become a national model, with then-President George W. Bush launching a $20 million initiative to open more of them.

Reporting family crimes will not be a prerequisite for getting help at the center, which could serve 2,000 to 5,000 people a year, Jump said.

“It’s an exciting vision for co-locating victim services and resources. That’s a gap we have now locally,” said Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub, who was painting rooms Saturday with his family.

The sheriff was joined Saturday by Ventura County Auditor-Controller Jeff Burgh and staff members of community and advocacy groups that will have office space at the site.

Also there were staff members from La Hermandad Hank Lacayo Youth and Family Justice Center in Oxnard. Alicia Flores, executive director of the organization, said among other things, La Hermandad works with those in the immigrant community who are victims of crimes.

There will be space at the center for partners that include the Coalition for Family Harmony, Interface Children & Family Services, the Ventura County Area Agency on Aging, legal aid, prosecutors, law enforcement and immigration attorneys, as well as a host of other agencies and services.

Some walls need to be knocked down, and the parking lot needs to be repaved. But a labor union has donated time to do that work, just as Dunn-Edwards Paints donated the paint and a few professional painters for Saturday’s event.

So-called “navigator rooms” will be painted a calming blue and white. That’s where clients will come in and the service providers will come to them, Jump said.

A grant will help pay for Ventura artist MB Hanrahan to paint a sky in the lobby. She also signed on to create a seascape that depicts the Channel Islands in the hallway where forensic exams for sex assault victims will take place, Watkins said.

Those ideas came from survivors of these crimes, including a child victim of sexual abuse. The girl said it was hard to look law enforcement officers and others in the eye when she first reported the crime.“She said, ‘I’d love to have a sky on the ceiling,’ so we are going to have a sky mural done on the ceiling of the lobby because of her,” Watkins said.

The girl and her mother are involved in the VOICES committee, and they were there Saturday painting a computer room. It will be a place where clients can work on their resumes or kids can do their homework.

A startup center opened in March in a large conference room at the DA’s Office at the Ventura County Government Center. There have been at least 531 visits to Room 308.

The clients have been asked to take voluntary exit surveys about their experience. Their feedback revealed one issue that will be remedied soon.

“One thing is that our clients don’t want is to come here to the government center,” Watkins said.

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