Domestic violence harms families, here’s how NWLA Family Justice Center helps

SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – It takes a village to help families that are damaged by domestic violence, and the NWLA Family Justice Center is one of many partner organizations that fight this issue that plagues our community.

Located in Bossier Parish, the Family Justice Center serves individuals and families across Caddo, Bossier/Webster, Bienville, Claiborne, DeSoto, Jackson, Sabine, and Red River Parishes. They provide several services to victims, ranging from providing personal care items to escape planning and filing protective orders.

Jeri Bowen is the center’s executive director and said she has seen victims of domestic violence from every walk of life.

“We have worked with all types. It goes from one end of the socioeconomic spectrum to the other. It goes across the board. Not just hetero relationships. It’s same sex relationships, it’s in the trans world. It is – it picks no one,” Bowen said. “You see it in professionals, you see it in poverty, you see it in law enforcement.”

Bowen said being violent to one’s significant other is a cyclical learned behavior. Research published on womenshealth.gov backs up the claim, citing that “a boy who sees his mother being abused is 10 times more likely to abuse his female partner as an adult. A girl who grows up in a home where her father abuses her mother is more than six times as likely to be sexually abused as a girl who grows up in a non-abusive home.”

Although the Family Justice Center does not work with perpetrators of domestic violence, she said some organizations provide help for domestic batterers who want to change.

“We do not work with them, but there are programs out there that can, and they’re not just simple online programs. I know we want our judges to push these better intervention programs that are 26 and 28 weeks long. They didn’t learn this behavior overnight,” Bowen said.

One form of help they do provide has gotten a lot of attention after members of the Shreveport City Council, led by Council Chairwoman Tabatha Taylor, drafted a resolution asking the Louisiana State Supreme Court to shorten the length of the state’s current protective order request form. The current form is 17 pages long.

“What we are working on with many other agencies right now in the Louisiana Supreme Court and the LPOR, the Louisiana Protective Order Registry is to get it shortened, to get it streamlined to where if someone can’t get to our office or they can’t get to one of the courthouses for help, if they have access to get online and complete one themselves its not so difficult,” Bowen said.

Louisiana can look to other states with protective order forms that are one-third page fewer, like Kentucky, Tennessee, and neighboring Arkansas. She said much of the LPOR is repetition, so it should be easily condensed, but until a change is made, her small but mighty team is ready to serve however needed.

Teens experience dating violence as well, and while the Family Justice Center’s clients are 18 years and up, she said, Project Celebration, and the juvenile court system typically work with victims of teen dating violence. They provide training and resources so that young people can understand the dangers of abusive relationships.

“We just need to encourage them that they should always tell, you know, if they see something, that doesn’t mean they have to tell the media. That doesn’t mean they have to tell law enforcement.”

Bowen said a little-known place where people can report domestic violence is at the pharmacy. A pharmacist can be given a note discreetly and report incidences of abuse to law enforcement. “There’s a lot of little secrets out there that just take learning them or promoting them to let people know,” Bowen said.

Caddo DA James Stewart announced that a satellite office of the Family Justice Center could be coming to the Shreveport police substation under construction on N. Market. Bowen said they are excited about the possibility of a location that is more convenient for Shreveport residents and along a bus route, but there are still some details to work through.

“Budgets have been just slashed, and slashed, and slashed over the last several years since inception. And so we’re down to just a small budget. So right now we’re talking about maybe just set office hours or by appointment only.”

She said they are constantly fundraising and accept donations on their website to ensure that, as government budget allocations continue to shrink, the NWLA Family Justice Center remains able to provide critical services to the communities they serve.

Through the end of October, the NWLA Family Justice Center is hosting a raffle with several fun prizes, including an autographed Terry Bradshaw jersey, to support its fundraising efforts.