March Program Agenda

Tim Varvais has been with DCFS for the past 15 years. His education began in nursing school and he subsequently was a nurse for 17 years in an Emergency Room.  He then received his BA in Psychology from USC and an M.S in Marriage Family Therapy from Cal State Dominquez Hills. Currently he is a psychotherapist in the South Bay.
He also obtained an M.A in theology from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. He is the manager over the intake and investigation process for the South County office, where they investigate all referrals called into the Child Abuse Hotline alleging child abuse/neglect for the South County district.
His time as a Social Worker, Supervisor and now Assistant Administrator in the South County/Lakewood office has allowed him to develop a passion for protecting children and working with families to bring change into their lives.  He is firmly committed to promoting a strength-based social work practice for new and existing Children's Social Workers (CSWs) in Los Angeles County.

Overview:
Despite the overwhelming evidence that adults and children often are victimized in the same family, our community responses continue to treat "same family abuse" as separate phenomena.
More and more, however, communities like Long Beach must confront a new and compelling set of facts: (1) adult domestic violence (DV) and child maltreatment (CM) often occur together and (2) new responses are required of everyone, if violence within families is to stop.
To date, community institutions and families have been offered few resources and tools to resolve the complex issues raised by overlapping domestic violence and child maltreatment in a family.
This session will be interactive; the presenter will facilitate a dialogue between child abuse, child welfare, and domestic violence organizations to develop collaborative strategies to address domestic family violence.

Contacts:
Contact information for DCFS Lakewood Regional Office, Team Decision Making (TDM) Liaison:
Quinnette McLeod
mcleoq@dcfs.lacounty.gov
(562) 497-3779

Click here for the DCFS South County Office Contacts.