Oklahoma Gazette: Oklahoma Trail Blazers - Meet Kim Garrett-Funk

Kim Garrett-Funk is the chief visionary officer and founder of Palomar, an Oklahoma City-based organization that provides support and resources for victims of domestic violence. This year, Palomar broke ground on a new family justice center.

Kim Funk: I started when I was 19 in Reno, Nevada, working at a crisis call center. I would work with survivors of sexual assault, providing advocacy, safety planning and support. I then began working at the Reno police department on an array of crimes, like homicide, child fatalities, anything you can imagine. I really loved working with families in crisis.

I then moved to Oklahoma 15 years ago and then started the Victim Services Unit at the Oklahoma City Police Department. I quickly saw how families in crisis would come in and be scared for their safety, with a myriad of different valid concerns. At the time, we just had a lot of really pretty brochures. I would say, “Go to the courthouse for a protective order, go here for therapy, go here for shelter and go here to do a police report.” On about the third referral, you could just see they would kind of glaze over and were understandably overwhelmed.

So it just really hit me that our systems are inadvertently siloed and are setting families up for failure. I started doing research on best practices and found the family justice center model, where all the great agencies are under one roof to coordinate care and reduce barriers.

That’s heavy work. Why did you enjoy working with families in crisis?

I loved the unpredictability of it. No two days were ever the same. I liked connecting with survivors in their own environment. I would be at their house, which would allow me to assess their needs more effectively than if they came into an office. In my opinion, this approach would enable you to do a lot better in terms of advocacy and work, as you could see their holistic picture firsthand.

What was the community’s response to Palomar?

Honestly, it was very territorial. Change is scary, and there were people who were scared of the concept that it could hurt their organization or their funding, and so it took a lot of intentional relationships and development to overcome that.

At our strategic planning meeting, we had 120 people from 47 agencies come together, and that was so hostile, at one point, I honestly wanted to crawl under the table and cry. Thankfully, our board stood firm and just said, “Anybody who interfaces with hurting families has an important role at the table, and they’re welcome.” The community, as a whole, was super receptive. Survivors wanted better outcomes and more connected programming.

When did you know Palomar was successful?

There have been a lot of stories, so it’s hard to narrow it down. We’ve received national honors and attention from DC and have been highlighted by the Department of Justice, and that’s exciting. We were in a President’s Commission Report, which is also exciting.

I’m really committed to breaking the generational cycles of violence and kids being in safe homes, so one thing that really stands out to me is I was on a panel a few years after we opened with some people from DHS/child welfare, and the supervisor just randomly said, before Palomar, 100% of kids in violent homes were going into custody and foster care because we couldn’t determine primary aggressor, we couldn’t ensure safety, things like that. And she said now it’s less than 10% because they can just walk down the hall and know a family is connected by seeing they’re working with this agency or they’ve got protective factors.

When I heard that, I was like, “Wow! We’re keeping kids out of foster care or increasing their support systems in their homes with their non-offending parents.” That was huge.

There are also times when I’m out and about and somebody I don’t know will come up and just say, “Thank you. You saved my life.” That’s pretty powerful.

Can you talk about the new justice center and what it will mean for the city?

The building we’re in now was always a proof of concept of whether this would work. It was always intended to be temporary. However, when we started seeing really positive outcomes, we began dreaming bigger about our forever home and what survivors truly need and deserve in our community. In 2019, we presented this plan to our city council, and the voters approved our inclusion in MAPS 4, enabling us to build a 72,000 square-foot, trauma-informed, state-of-the-art facility.

It’s really exciting because it will allow us to double the capacity of our programs, expand our partnerships and add in more programming and opportunities for clients. It has a community space, which I’m really excited about. We can have town halls and forums, where professionals can sit with the community to help them understand things from a trauma-informed lens, especially when issues arise in the community or nationally.

How do you think the community’s posture toward domestic violence has changed since Palomar opened?

I think there’s a lot more awareness. What we did was not only build a collaborative in our building, but we also welcomed policymakers into the movement. We were the ones who found that domestic violence in Oklahoma wasn’t considered a “violent crime.” We were the ones who pointed out that domestic violence against a pregnant woman was just a misdemeanor. And you can see a shift in policy that reflects this.

I think the conversation has also shifted significantly, where for a long time, it was, “Oh, [domestic violence] is a private issue,” or “That’s a family issue.” Now more people are standing up and saying, “No. We can’t have safe communities if we don’t have safe homes.” And that mindset ripples into schools and workforces because we have a responsibility to collectively come together to solve this and move forward.

Oklahoma Gazette: Oklahoma Trail Blazers - Meet Kim Garrett-Funk

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