Anne Wilde, Mary Batchelor, David Dye and Allie Matthews, a pseudonym, are giving presentations at the Texas Council on Family Violence's annual conference. Also participating is Pat Merkley, director of the Utah Safety Net Committee.

The two-day conference, which begins today in Dallas, is expected to draw more than 300 participants.

Gloria Terry, council president, said Texas providers were not "culturally competent" to deal with women and children removed in April from the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado, home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

"We recognized their belief system and structure was different, but all we knew was it was different," she said, which created challenges in dealing with the families.

Terry said she received help from the Utah Domestic Violence Council in the days after the raid but "everything happened so quickly that we did not have the opportunity to be as responsive as we would have liked."

In addition to presentations by Merkley and Principle Voices, a third workshop will look at implications and legal issues raised by the raid, the largest child removal in U.S. history. Presenters are Julie Balovich and Amanda Chisholm of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which successfully challenged a judge's order to put 439 FLDS children into state custody.

Terry said domestic violence service providers are concerned the raid may have set precedents for women in other situations.

Merkley said women in or from polygamous families have a deep fear about disclosing family relationships or religious affiliation, she said.

"I think it is one of the final arenas of prejudice," said Merkley, a licensed social worker affiliated with the Family Support Center. "It is still OK to be rude and crude to people in fundamentalist culture."

It is the first time that Wilde and other members of Principle Voices have met with service providers outside of Utah. Principle Voices provides advocacy for and education about polygamous culture.

"I just think it is about four months too late," Wilde said before traveling to Texas.

Wilde said she would address the history, diversity, practices and beliefs of fundamentalist Mormons and review past raids on polygamous communities.

"Persecution like that makes most fundamentalist Mormons more determined than ever to live their religion," Wilde said.

Principle Voices opened a dialogue with the FLDS in June after the raid and is the only nonprofit group to do so. Batchelor said her group reached out to Texas officials to offer their expertise but got no response.

Batchelor said presenters will address dynamics of and barriers to working with polygamous families.

"The No. 1 fear is that if they in any way acknowledge there is a problem - even if it is not necessarily abuse - in their family it will become a tool that will be used as a weapon against their religion," Batchelor said.

brooke@sltrib.com