MICAV News and Activities

MICAV held a conference on September 27, 2011 at Suffolk Law School:  Minority and Immigrant Survivors in Probate and Family Court: Building a Community of Practice.

Approximately 75 people, largely non-lawyer advocates, attended the conference.  A main theme of the conference was that it is very important for survivors to do court planning as well as safety planning when they are or might become involved in Probate and Family Court proceedings.  Since they are so likely to end up going through the Probate and Family Court without a lawyer, informed and helpful non-lawyer domestic violence advocates should play key roles.

One part of the event was an audience participation exercise, "Going Through the Probate and Family Court: Critical moments - Effective counseling."  The critical moments in the exercise were calling the police, needing an interpreter, going through Probation, talking to the other side, and dressing appropriately.

Another part was a role play, "The Advocate's Role When the Survivor is Unrepresented."  At critical moments in the role play, the action stopped and audience members discussed how to deal with what was happening at that moment.

One of the handouts at the conference was an outline called "Helping Your Client Understand the Court System: A Guide to Critical Moments in the Family Court Process that Advocates Should Discuss with Clients."

Another was the Probate and Family Court Probation Department brochure "Dispute Intervention in the Probation Office."

The conference featured a keynote address from Quynh Dang, Director of Refugee and Immigrant, GLBT, and Faith Communities Sexual and Domestic Violence Programs at the MA Department of Public Health.  The topic was "Key Lessons from Immigrant Domestic Violence Homicides in MA."  Ms. Dang described the record of domestic violence homicides in MA 1993-2009 and focussed on the immigrant data in this record.  She said that by looking at this record the advocacy community can draw some important lessons.

In the afternoon the conference had an advocate and interpreter panel: "Brief presentations on panelists' experiences working with domestic violence survivors in family court."  The panelists had a dialog to clarify their roles, identify barriers for immigrant and minority survivors in the Probate and Family Courts, and discuss ideas for collaboration to improve services for survivors. Attendees asked questions about building collaborative efforts among interpreters and advocates, listened to panelists' comments, responded to those comments, and participated in a large group discussion.

The conference was sponsored by the Boston Women's Fund, Greater Boston Legal Services, the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, the Wellesley Centers for Women, and Suffolk University Law School.  The sponsors formed MICAV's conference planning committee which designed the format and developed the content.

MICAV collaborates with the court system to reduce language barriers for immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence

MICAV's is working with the court system's Office of Court Interpreter Services to

• develop multilingual signs in courts to help immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence know where to go to file for restraining orders and how to get an interpreter for their cases
• develop bilingual restraining order forms
• train court interpreters about domestic and sexual violence 

For more information about MICAV's collaboration with the court system, contact Jeff Wolf at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute jwolf@mlri.org

MICAV trains court interpreters about domestic violence

MICAV's training for court interpreters includes

• basic training about domestic and sexual violence
• addressing challenges when interpreting in domestic and sexual violence cases
• focusing on the importance of the words that are used and how they are translated
• addressing interpreters' issues such as interpeter safety, establishing proper boundaries, and secondary post traumatic stress disorder

For more information about MICAV's domestic violence training for court interpreters, contact MICAV co-chair Katia Santiago-Taylor   Katia.Santiago-Taylor@state.ma.us