“There is no more important measure of a people than how carefully
and faithfully they attend to the wellbeing of their children.
True justice begins today with the children, or there
is no hope of justice tomorrow for the world.”
– Barry Nolan, Multi-Emmy Award-Winning Television Journalist
The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study found that survivors of childhood trauma are up to 5,000 percent more likely to attempt suicide, have eating disorders, or become IV drug users. The safety, health, and well-being of our nations children must become our top priority in law and society.
http://acestoohigh.com/2015/10/13/how-childhood-trauma-can-make-you-a-sick-adult/
Channel 7 ABC Sarah Wallace: Women wage campaign to impeach New Jersey judge.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=9234665
MYFOXLA Gina Silva: A 16-year-old says his walk down the aisle was his pathway to freedom. The wedding legally emancipated him from a court order to live with his father, the man he says molested him.
http://www.myfoxla.com/story/22142031/teenage-wedding-brings-runaway-out-of-hiding
MYFOXLA Children Lost in the Family Court System: http://www.myfoxla.com/story/19671733/children-lost-in-the-system-of-our-nations-family-courts
WASHINGTON POST: In Maryland courts, parents’ rights supersede child safety.
LUNDY BANCROFT: Domestic Violence author, playwright, expert, and advocate. Lundy Bancroft has twenty years of experience specializing in interventions for abusive men. He is the author of three books in the field, including Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, When Dad Hurts Mom, and the national prize-winner The Batterer as Parent. He has served extensively as a custody evaluator, child abuse investigator, and expert witness in domestic violence and child abuse cases. Lundy appears across the United States as a presenter for judges and other court personnel, child protective workers, therapists, law enforcement officials, and other audiences. His current training and writing work focuses on the impact on children of exposure to men who batter women, and how professionals can best support children’s recovery. Prevention, Response, and Healing for Domestic Abuse and Child Maltreatment.
BARRY GOLDSTEIN: Barry Goldstein is the co-author with Elizabeth Liu of REPRESENTING THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVOR, co editor with Mo Therese Hannah of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AB– USE and CHILD CUSTODY and author of SCARED TO LEAVE AFRAID TO STAY. He has been an instructor and supervisor in a NY Model Batterer Program since 1999. He was an attorney representing victims of domestic violence for 30 years. He now provides workshops, judicial and other trainings regarding domestic violence particularly related to custody issues. He also serves as a consultant and expert witness.
http://www.barrygoldstein.net/
GARLAND WALLER: No Way Out But One tells the story of an American woman accused of kidnapping her own children, who fled the country and became the first American woman to ever be granted asylum by the government of the Netherlands, due to domestic violence.
BMCC: Battered Women, Abused Children, and Child Custody: A National Crisis was created in 2003 by two mothers, Mo Therese Hannah, Ph.D. of Albany, NY, and Liliane Heller Miller of Charlotte, NC. Now in it’s 11th year, Mo and Liliane continue to organize and guide the conference with the goal of hosting a national public forum to address the many complex issues facing battered women as they strive to protect themselves and their children during divorce, custody, and visitation litigation.
Battered Mothers Custody Conference: http://www.batteredmotherscustodyconference.org/
WASHINGTON POST: Conference shines light on plight of battered mothers seeking custody.
DV LEAP: DV LEAP provides a stronger voice for justice by fighting to overturn unjust trial court outcomes, advancing legal protections for victims of domestic violence and their children through expert appellate advocacy, training lawyers, psychologists and judges on best practices, and spearheading domestic violence litigation in the Supreme Court.
NOMAS.ORG: The National Organization for Men Against Sexism is an activist organization of men and women supporting positive changes for men. NOMAS advocates a perspective that is pro-feminist, gay affirmative, anti-racist, dedicated to enhancing men’s lives, and committed to justice on a broad range of social issues including class, age, religion, and physical abilities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irT-8zb6xWk
THE LEADERSHIP COUNCIL ON CHIILD AB– USE AND INTERPERSONAL VIOLENCE: The Leadership Council is a nonprofit independent scientific organization composed of respected scientists, clinicians, educators, legal scholars, and public policy analysts. We are committed to providing professionals and lay persons with the latest scientific information on issues that may affect the public’s health and safety. We also seek to correct the misuse of psychological science to serve vested interests or justify victimizing vulnerable populations — especially abused and neglected children.
http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/
COURAGEOUS KIDS NETWORK: The Courageous Kids Network is a growing group of young people, whose childhoods were shattered by inhumane court rulings, which forced us to live with our abusive parent, while restricting or sometimes completely eliminating contact with our loving and protective parent.
http://www.courageouskids.net/
FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT is a theatrical production co-authored by Lundy Bancroft and Patrice Lenowitz that raises questions about legal responses to domestic violence and child abuse. Through extensive victim interviews, FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT tells the true stories of children who have been required by a family court judge to go into dangerous circumstances where they have been repeatedly harmed by their abusive father. The play demonstrates how most contested custody cases are actually domestic violence or child abuse cases in which abusers have been allowed to use the courts to regain control over their victims and bankrupt the safe protective mom. In all of these stories, judges, lawyers and evaluators have chosen to ignore extensive evidence that the children and mothers were telling the truth, putting the child in harm’s way, and leaving mothers FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT her children and herself.
Co-sponsored by the Center for Peace Justice and Reconciliation at Bergen Community College and Produced by Jim Bumgardner of Bergen Stages,
FORBIDDEN TO PROTECT will open to audiences in 2017. Our goal is to make this play widely accessible (having productions in major cities as well as community theater productions) to affect the public’s understanding of the issues.
For more information, contact Patrice Lenowitz ([email protected]) or Lundy Bancroft ([email protected])
HEATHER NEWMAN: In loving memory of New Jersey resident Heather Newman, a beautiful daughter, sister, mother and best friend senselessly taken from this world because a family court judge ignored the evidence, and denied her a restraining order — twice.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/mother_speaks_out_for_daughter.html