Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Domestic Violence topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Sutter County official outlines 2024 Domestic Violence and Child Abuse prevention work; trends vary by jurisdiction
Summary
Josh Thomas, chair of the county Domestic Violence Council and Child Abuse Prevention Council, presented the body's 2024 annual report, highlighting prevention programs, a Handle With Care pilot in Live Oak Unified, and mixed statistics—some agencies reported declines while sheriff-area reports rose.
Josh Thomas, branch director overseeing Children’s Services in Sutter County Health & Human Services and chair of the Domestic Violence Council and Child Abuse Prevention Council (DVCAPC), presented the council’s 2024 annual report to the Sutter County Board of Supervisors.
The report summarized three council priorities for 2024—organization, response and statistics, and community education and prevention—and described ongoing, multiagency work to reduce domestic violence and child abuse. Thomas said the council, “was established by ordinance in March 1995 and renamed by ordinance in December 2002,” and that it brings together probation, victim services, law enforcement, school officials and nonprofit partners to coordinate prevention and response.
On programs, Thomas described a Handle With Care pilot launched in Live Oak Unified School District that partners the school district and the Sutter County Sheriff to provide school-based supports for children exposed to traumatic events. He also noted the council supported the Lisa project, evidence-based parenting programs such as Incredible Years, and differential response efforts in child welfare services. “We wanted to include [shelter] numbers because they sometimes provide services that have no law enforcement response at that moment,” Thomas said when explaining why shelter counts were included alongside law-enforcement data.
Thomas presented agency-supplied statistics that show mixed trends across jurisdictions: Yuba City Police Department’s data appeared to trend downward overall, while county-sheriff-area reports rose. On the sheriff’s figures he said the trend in that response area was “going upwards” and characterized the change as “about 80 some odd percent of an increase over those several years.” Thomas cautioned against assuming causation from those numbers and noted that population growth in Live Oak and increased child-welfare responses there may be factors.
The presentation also flagged duplication risks in aggregated data: Thomas said Casa de Esperanza shelter statistics may overlap jurisdictional counts because shelter clients sometimes come from city and county areas and may not be tied to law-enforcement reports.
Supervisor Jeff Stevens asked whether the council had compared local rates with other jurisdictions. Thomas said he had not completed that comparative analysis but offered to provide it to the board.
Why it matters: the report aggregates prevention work and local data and identifies Live Oak as a potential focal point for services. Board members and staff may use the report to prioritize outreach, funding and data analysis to better understand why some measures rose while others fell.
Next steps: Thomas offered to provide comparative analyses with neighboring jurisdictions and additional breakdowns on the figures; no formal board action or vote was taken on the report.
