Updates

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Dear Friends,

1. The annual  International Violence, Abuse and Trauma conference will be held in San Diego in mid-September. It is a great networking opportunity.  Child Abuse Solutions will present a 3 day evaluator training prior to the conference. Dr. Geraldine Stahly will present the protective parent research on Tuesday.

See www.ivatcenters.org  and www.abusesolutions.com

2. You can  view pictures, videos and write up about the May 2010 Mothers Day vigil and march at www.mothers-of-lost-children.com.  

We will return to Washington DC on October 1, 2010, which is the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness month.  At 11:00 am we will hold a press conference in front of the US Department of Justice at 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW to request an investigation into family court endangerment of children.  

Afterwards, we will march to the Senate Buildings to meet with Senate aides and request Congressional hearings. Please contact us if you want to participate in the Senate meetings. Packets and talking points will be provided. It would be helpful to bring several copies of a 1 page summary of your case.

We will end the day with a vigil at the Sewall Belmont house, the suffragists’ headquarters 100 years ago.

On Saturday Oct 2 we will gather at the White House again for a vigil and speakout. 

We will wear white T-shirts saying Mothers of Lost Children.

Many thanks to Renee Beeker for this great article: http://www.nowfoundation.org/issues/family/family_law_newsletter_summer2010.pdf

3. See below for a short Public Service Announcement about the family court crisis which we encourage you to send to television stations in your area. Just email them this link and ask them to run it as often as possible. The files are titled “Child Custody PSA – 2 x 30 – HD.mov” and “Child Custody PSA – 2 x 30 – SD.mpg”.  Anyone can download the file by right-clicking on the appropriate file (high definition or standard definition) and choosing “save target as” or “save link as” (depending on their browser).

ftp://ftp2.wltz.com/pub/UPLOAD/

4. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence conference in Anaheim was wonderful! The custody track included talks by two judges who are appalled at the harm being done to mothers and children in family courts. Mo Hannah and Barry Goldstein presented at the well-attended plenary session. A White House advisor spent over 2 hours listening to family court litigants to gather ideas how the  Federal government can help us. The  most heartening part is that the NCADV understands that battered mothers losing custody is setting the domestic violence movement back 30 years. They receive an increasing number of frantic phone calls every month, and are concerned about the problem which is affecting so many domestic violence victims.

5. Great news! AB 1050 was signed into law by the CA Governor. It gives the court more guidance and encouragement to speak directly to children.

Best, Connie