U.S. Grant Will Benefit Spousal Abuse Victims

A San Fernando Valley group that helps victims of domestic violence obtain restraining orders against their abusers has received a federal grant allowing it to expand its operations for the first time in three years, the agency and Rep. Howard Berman announced Thursday.

San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services, which runs free clinics at courthouses in Van Nuys, San Fernando and Burbank, will use the money to hire an additional staff attorney and open a clinic in the Antelope Valley, according to the group’s executive director, Neal Dudovitz.

The money, which comes from a U.S. Department of Justice grant funded by the Violence Against Women Act, will help ease budget woes that have limited the operating hours of existing clinics and made it impossible to serve residents in other such areas as Lancaster, Dudovitz said.

“I think there should be a clinic like this in every courthouse, but we don’t have enough of a staff to maintain that many clinics,” Dudovitz said. “We know we’re not meeting the need. We can’t comfortably handle the people that are [seeking help] now.”

Dudovitz said Berman has been a big supporter of his organization and, through telephone calls and letters, was instrumental in helping it obtain the federal grant.

“When children see violent acts in the home, they are far more likely to grow up and commit acts of violence themselves,” Berman (D-Mission Hills) said in a prepared statement. “By working to remove the offender from the home, clinics are performing a very important service to society.”

A 37-year-old Canoga Park woman said that without the help of the Van Nuys clinic, she would have been unable to get a restraining order against her husband, whom she is now in the process of divorcing. The clinic not only helped her fill out the paperwork last year, but also provided an attorney to represent her at the hearing and battle her husband’s attorney.

“They kind of saved my life,” she said. “When you are in that situation, you can’t think very clearly and you feel very, very powerless.”

San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services also provides free legal assistance for the poor in family and civil law matters.

Although its clinics are staffed primarily by about 50 volunteers, legal service employees train and supervise those workers and also assist those who come in for help. Dudovitz said the additional staff lawyer will handle more complicated cases and may allow the clinics to expand their hours, if the agency can round up enough volunteers.

He said much of legal services’ $3.75-million budget already comes from government grants, but this is the first time the Department of Justice has awarded the group.