The Justice for Family (JFF) Project kicked off the 2025 with a 2-part workshop for Family Court Services (King County Superior Court) and ended with a workshop on supervised visitation for the Statewide Family Law Task Force, with a variety of workshops and presentations in between.
A huge highlight of the year included an online, anonymous survey – the Survivor Parenting Plan Survey – to gather information from survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) regarding their experiences of family court. We had 59 survey respondents that answered a variety of questions related to the process of developing a parenting plan in King County Superior Court. Survey respondents identified several challenges (lack of IPV knowledge, collusion with abusers, abusive litigation, not being believed, and safety concerns) and helpful resources (IPV-informed attorneys, domestic violence assessments, and supervised visitation). The final survey report will be posted soon and will guide facilitated discussions with various family court-related professionals in 2026 on how we might improve outcomes for survivors and their children. Stay tuned!
We also participated in several work groups and task forces throughout the year. Our Family Law Work Group is going strong and includes members from community-based victim advocacy programs, legal aid services, private bar attorneys, the Protection Order Advocacy Program, and the King County Superior Court. Dr. Tracee Parker, our JFF Project Manager also represented CEGV on Children’s Justice Center’s DV Best Practices Group, the HB 1620 work group, the Seattle Domestic Violence Intervention Project work group, and the Northwest Justice Project Appellate meeting.
What’s Coming in 2026 We’ve got a lot on our plate coming up in 2026, including focus groups and round table discussions, development and implementation of an online component of training for the IPVIA, development of decision trees, guidelines, and training in how to more effectively account for domestic violence in parenting plans, and more. Stay tuned!