1 Place Family Justice Center tells Jefferson County commissioners domestic violence remains pervasive and coordinated response improves outcomes

Rebecca Williams, executive director of 1 Place Family Justice Center, told Jefferson County commissioners on April 21 that domestic violence across the county remains widespread and that coordinated, multidisciplinary services reduce homicides and improve survivor outcomes.

Williams told commissioners that 1 Place — a nonprofit family justice center based in the Avondale community that began work in 2014 and incorporated in 2015 — provides victim advocacy, danger assessments, and coordination with law enforcement and prosecutors to identify and protect people at high risk. "We are a family justice center that is here to provide coordinated services for domestic and intimate partner violence, and our main focus is providing coordinated community service to domestic violence in Jefferson County," Williams said.

Williams said the center documents 12,000 to 14,000 calls for service a year across the largest jurisdictions where data are collected (Birmingham, Hoover and areas served by the sheriff's office) and that the Birmingham division is seeing 400-plus felony domestic violence cases a year and about 400 misdemeanors from unincorporated Jefferson County. She said the center recorded 420 protection-from-abuse petitions this year as of April 20 and that 329 of those were emergency orders issued by judges because of immediate danger.

Why it matters: Williams argued that early, coordinated intervention reduces risk of homicide and repeated abuse. She cited research and local prosecutorial partnerships indicating many people who later commit homicide have prior domestic violence records. The center is working with the Jefferson County district attorney's office on a high-risk team and with the U.S. Department of Justice on a firearms technical assistance project to improve firearms relinquishment and enforcement of protection orders.

Williams described services 1 Place provides: on-site prosecution support through a district attorney team, victim navigation, danger assessments for every visitor, referrals to shelter partners, a Camp Hope program for children exposed to violence, and partnerships with municipal police departments. "If a victim has an advocate that is walking alongside them and helping to coordinate everything that's happening — whether it's a civil case, a criminal case — we provide a trauma-informed, survivor-centered experience and space," she said.

Commissioners and other speakers responded with questions about shelter capacity and staffing. Williams said 1 Place is not a shelter and instead refers clients to shelter providers with whom it coordinates; she noted the county has a 36‑bed shelter for the county and said more shelter capacity is needed. Williams said 1 Place had five full‑time staff at the time of the presentation and had recently hired a sixth; the organization had served 100 unique clients and provided 341 units of service in the year to date. "We need more people," she said, describing a need to expand the advocacy team to serve the entire county.

Williams gave examples of cases where coordination between 1 Place, prosecutors and municipal police led to stronger charging or prevented a suspect's release on bond, and she described outreach and training to ensure municipalities and magistrates correctly apply felony strangulation statutes (intent can suffice; the victim does not have to stop breathing, she said, citing prosecutor guidance).

Williams urged the commission to work with 1 Place and partners to expand coordinated responses, improve service rates for protection orders, and increase shelter and advocacy capacity. "This is happening in your community. The people in your community are suffering from this, and it is your constituents," she said.

Ending: Commissioners thanked Williams for the presentation and several said they would follow up on coordination and support. No formal county action to fund or expand 1 Place was recorded in the transcript of this meeting.