Agree with Marcos, although it took me too long to figure out; I was raised to simply work in a profession, and trust that this would suffice.

Then married (in Bay Area); abusive; then threw him out (Bay Area) which should've resulted in more safety, but thanks ot the courts -- and all their nonprofit-contractors, hasn't. It made things worse.

Ties into this guy because the JoMiJo foundation, turns out, funded a local nonprofit [Center for Judicial Excellence) which is determined to keep this entire topic off the radar, although it's a primary factor in endangering people who go to the courts for help or protection. The group is posturing as a humble agent of change for the better, while functioning in arrogance and egotism. It didn't make sense to me til I looked at the consultant's own clientele -- and a few tax returns, and finally a grant agreement dated 5/29/2006.. (link to it below).

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... people like myself who actually look at the funding of our courts instead of demanding "performance evaluations" and clamoring for public attention for story-telling of court disasters. Also google Huffington post blog by an Anne Stevenson -- this is not a left/right issue at that level of funding.

...I've lived in the Bay Area almost two decades and formerly used to commute to SF (carpool or noncarpool) in the process of working. A self-employed professional in the arts, and a mother -- and a domestic violence survivor whose account may mirror many of those in the film that CJE keeps peddling, while demanding more and more attention (White House, NCADV, now a prominent Psychologists -- so much for drawing attention to the problem that too many psychologists in the courthouse is causing; in fact this organization has developed a bad reputation among women who actually study the grants trail, and report on it).

I don't have a problem with his carpool challenge, or really Frieman -- I have a problem with ideologue nonprofits serving to cloud (not completely hide, but at least cloud) whose agenda they are serving by clouding the funding.

I have for many years attempted to persuade women in serious distress, often PTSD (literally, beside themselves) some of them homeless through having to fight to retain custody of children they removed from violent households (as I did) to wise up that just because someone talks your rap doesn't mean they are on your side.

The situations we deal with are unbelievably unjust, place our lives at risk needlessly, and often go on for over a decade (mine has!) -- and CJE, a group formed (and funded) only in 2006, thanks to JoMiJo foundation -- has been more interested in getting on FOX news, or Dr. Phil, Oprah, or close to wherever the money is -- than actually listening to people who came before them, and took their own time to investigate the money trail. It's hard to report on something you're on the take from.... Recently, the "Our Broken Courts" initiative has taken it up a notch.

San Francisco is full of groups like this. While Jonathan's brainchild (?) is not the largest, it's the mouthiest in this field, and through collective clout and its original startup funding (plus leadership not themselves being plagued by threats to their kids -- Ms. Russell is not a parent, and I don't believe has gone through what the people whose stories she tells have) -- it's become a significant problem, including interfering with legitimate grassroots activity from mothers and children whose lives remain at risk, and can't afford major mistakes in policy year after year.

I've become someone who spends a lot of time looking up corporate records and charitable records (etc.) UP FRONT; it's an honesty check. I wish I'd known to do this years earlier, for my kids' sake; one of who has apparently run away (or been warehoused), and another one who has been well groomed (and rewarded) for selling out an immediate family member, by some of the same who did this to me -- rather than going through legitimate processes to adopt, they simply enabled someone to steal (children).

I have come to almost despise people who call themselves "experts" or seek to be "the voice" for others. Most of the time, they aren't -- it's just a game, a livelihood.

What a shame -- SF is a great area for the arts, but it's been a nightmare for someone who actually required a somewhat stable environment (post-domestic violence) to function within them. By the way -- is JoMiJo Foundation still filing and active? Last I looked, they weren't the most upfront group around.
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/MyLicenseVerification/Search.aspx?facility=Y
(look it up -- it's been delinquent, hasn't filed since 2009). Hypocrite! If that project was some sort of game for the guy, it's hurt innocent people dealing with major trauma. One reason I blog (unfunded so far) is just to tell the truth about that system that CJE refuses to. The phrase has been used "throwing people under the bus" (regarding in the court system).

To see this in larger relief, check out "Futures Without Violence." Hogwash practices (their vocabulary follows their funders, too), but prime real estate. Using real-life situations for private profit -- millions of $$ of it. I called them on it as "Family Violence Prevention Fund," but they got a major grant for a facelift, corporate namechange, and new property to save the world from, in the Praesidio. The women they are trying to save are still getting shot, stabbed, strangled, burnt sometimes -- and are having cars towed when child support is not enforced, can't maintain work around ridiculous court proceedings, or kids stolen and transferred to the abusive parent when they try to get child support enforced. (That's the racket and the pattern). I was traumatized out of my own profession, and it's no cakewalk repeatedly having to jumpstart new ones -- while the same actors are in place.

For seven years now, CJE has been functioning and refusing to report the HHS grants system that even California NOW had identified back in 2002. Thanks to internet and phone (when we have access, that is), some of us have caught on, even though we aren't being paid to fly around the country, conference, and then sell the results of conferences in books, then write off the airfare and travel... etc. See post "Our Broken Family Courts Aren't."

(Whatever...).

Now, now, Greg, he's got a point there. For-profit corporations are more democratic and accountable than non-profit corporations and for that structural lack of accountability you still get the same authoritarian top-down structure! At least for-profits have to have shareholders that elect the boards of directors who hire staff. Non-profits boards of directors are almost exclusively self perpetuating.

In the case of the SFBC, they allow members to vote in board elections but they have created such a culture of bicycle chic that there is no substantive discussion of the direction of the agency during board elections. The board culture there is hypersocialized where the structural role of the board is to provide support to the executive staff rather than to actually manage then and give them direction based on democratic feedback from the membership, like a board of DIRECTORS is supposed to.

I agree that these laws go to far in some cases, the progressives agree that entities they don't agree with go to far. There is a big difference there.

The far left and right are quite predictable in this area, the rights constant attempts with those props over unions deductions, in the city the reporting laws for some lobbyists to the ethics commission.

Quite obviously the goal is to get over for both side.

I think what you are doing is making my point, the left is going to want to limit some incorporated entities and enable the ones they like.

The bike coalition, SEIU, non profits, religious groups, think tanks, race based groups, cities, universities, etc... They will all get a pass in the New American order.

A good example of how this game is played is the cities lobbyist law, only some lobbyists get counted, the full time Police, Fire, SEIU, race group, non profit, lobbyists get a pass. Campos and Avalos can spend all day with their bosses at the SEIU and we the citizens will never know.