November is Family Court Awareness Month

November is Family Court Awareness Month

fcam
child safety

Supervisor Sam Previti was honored to present a proclamation to Gina Ludwig, Advocate for Child Safety on November, 29th, 2023.

November is Family Court Awareness Month. The month of November provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our support in recognizing the importance of a family court system that prioritizes child safety and acts in the best interest of children.

The effort organized by Tina Swithin of One Mom’s Battle and Sandra Ross of California Protective Parents Association, was joined by The National Family Violence Law Center, The Court Said USA, Piqui’s Justice, Kayden’s Korner Foundation, Kyra Franchetti Foundation, Florida Protective Parents Association, and The Pollack Group LLC. All of these organizations are determined to bring awareness to the conservatively estimated 58,000 children a year who are ordered into unsupervised contact with abusive parents, where hundreds of children were murdered.
In 2022, 366 jurisdictions, including the states of Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and West Virginia, publicly demonstrated their commitment to child safety in the family court system. Mayors, county officials, and governors around the country have pledged their support with proclamations and/ or resolutions officially declaring the month of November as Family Court Awareness Month in their respective communities.
 
During the inaugural 2020 Family Court Awareness Month, top advocates in the family court system joined forces in a united effort to honor hundreds of children who have been reported as murdered by parents in family court cases, that included five-year-old “Piqui” Andressian, who was murdered because of a California family court failure; seven-year-old Kayden Mancuso, who was murdered because of a Pennsylvania family court failure; two-year-old Kyra Franchetti murdered because of a New York family court failure; and four-year-old Greyson Kessler because of a Florida Family Court failure.
 
Our goal for Family Court Awareness Month 2023, is to shine a spotlight on our family court system lacking proper training. Family court professionals should receive training surrounding the topics they rule about every day, which include domestic violence, child sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, trauma, coercive control, as well as victim and perpetrator behaviors.
 
Many are shocked to discover that most states do not have mandated domestic violence training requirements prior to a judicial officer presiding over family court cases and ultimately, are misguided in determining the fate of innocent children who are living with familial violence. In the states that do have requirements for domestic violence training, it is very minimal, in fact in at least one state, barbers and beauticians have more mandated domestic violence training than do its judges.
 
Many families in our community are struggling in silence and facing the reality that child safety is not being prioritized, and that our bench officials need tools to help ensure children are not living trapped in trauma and abuse, and even worse, dying at the hands of a dangerous parent.

For more information, please visit the Family Court Awareness website at the following link: https://www.familycourtawarenessmonth.org/