PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Karena Lim-Peralta, Social Work Supervisor at Center for Family Representation (CFR)
2:30:16
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166 sec
Karena Lim-Peralta, a social work supervisor at the Center for Family Representation (CFR), testified about the challenges faced by domestic violence survivors in the NYC shelter system. She highlighted how shelter policies and mandated reporting can lead to harmful family policing investigations, exacerbating the trauma for survivors and their children.
- CFR represents parents in ACS cases and works to prevent family separations
- Shelter stays often feel like another form of coercion and surveillance for domestic violence survivors
- Mandated reporting by shelter staff can trigger ACS investigations, causing additional harm to families
- There's a lack of physical and emotional support in domestic violence shelters, with staff sometimes lacking understanding of family situations
Karena Lim-Peralta
2:30:16
Oh, there.
2:30:16
Okay.
2:30:17
Sorry.
2:30:18
Good afternoon, deputy speaker Ayala and chair Lewis on the committee.
2:30:21
Thank you for this opportunity today and for addressing this critical issue.
2:30:25
My name is Karina Lim Peralta, and I'm a social worker supervisor with the Center for Family Representation CFR in their Bronx practice.
2:30:33
I worked directly with pairings facing ACS, neglect, and abuse prosecutions in Bronx Family Court.
2:30:40
CFR is the county wide assigned indigent for defense provider offering legal representation to pair with ACA's cases in Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
2:30:50
CFR helps families prevent and navigate family policing investigations and works to reunite families who are separated by the Foster system.
2:30:58
Since our founding in 2002, we have represented more than 13,500 parents with more than 27,500 children.
2:31:07
We take the lead of directly impacted families and seek a world where the family policing system is dismantled until it is volished.
2:31:15
We know that family safety and well-being can be achieved without surveillance, prosecution, or separation.
2:31:21
Our clients who have survived domestic violence often experience staying in a shelter as another experience of coercion and surveillance that puts their families at risk of harm.
2:31:31
When our clients and their children are forced to comply with arbitrary shelter policies, shelter staff who are bandated reporters often report them to the Statewide Central Registry, the SCR, prompting a child protective investigation or what we refer to as a family policing investigation by ACS.
2:31:48
Family policing investigations are harmful themselves in can exacerbate feelings of fear and instability that many families who are fleeing domestic violence experience.
2:31:58
The families that we work with have incredible resiliency and lean on their inner strength and courage, leaving dangerous situations in the state of crisis.
2:32:06
For safety and security, only to realize that these things are incredibly difficult to find within the city's shelter system.
2:32:14
Shelter is designated for domestic violence survivors do not guarantee safety, and survivors can also face re traumatization within shelters.
2:32:21
There is a lack of physical and emotional space and support.
2:32:25
Survivors have shared that oftentimes shelter staff do not have conversations with them to better understand their family situation, and they are affected by judgment and gender stigmas.
2:32:35
And gained mandated reporting and permitting shelter staff to 1st work with families to provide them with direct on-site support and resources before initiating a family policing investigation would protect CFR's clients from further harm.
2:32:50
Many people do not know what happens after a call and report is made to the SCR, but we, as CFR, continue to see the long lasting and generational effects of the family policing system.
2:33:00
Thank you for hearing our testimony today.
