Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance
Action Priorities
2005-2007
Note: **= Items that must be accomplished as part of the
continued coalition transformation.
SDVAAs=Sexual and/or Domestic Violence Action Agencies (commonly
referred to as Sexual Assault Crisis Centers and Domestic Violence
Programs)
Links to the topic below:
Raising Public Awareness of Sexual and Domestic Violence
Preventing Sexual and Domestic Violence
Public Policy to Improve the Community Response to Sexual and Domestic Violence
Supporting Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Agencies
Professional Resources to Support Effective Sexual and Domestic Violence Services
Training Advocates and Allied Professionals
Building the Capacity of the VSDV Action Alliance to carry out our mission
- Public awareness materials developed for victims and survivors
of sexual and domestic violence will be written at an
accessible reading level, and produced in alternative formats
(for example, multiple languages, Braille, audio-tape) as
appropriate for the intended audiences and for SDVAAs.
- Develop a set of VSDV Action Alliance public awareness
materials to promote name recognition, logo recognition,
awareness of the Action Alliance mission and philosophy
and to raise public awareness of sexual and domestic violence
including membership materials and an equal number of
priority sexual violence and domestic violence materials
(such as brochures, posters, fact sheets, static cling stickers,
magnets, emery boards and balloons).**
- Develop and conduct a major statewide sexual violence
public awareness campaign, similar to the Silent Witness
or Clothesline Projects that is highly visible and can
be used at both the local community and statewide levels
to raise awareness of both the extent and the impact of sexual
violence in our communities.
- Plan a new VSDV Action Alliance awards event and establish
this event as an annual recognition of the important
work that is being done to end sexual and domestic violence.**
- Develop and deliver a prevention focused public awareness
campaign with an emphasis on reaching men and boys.
- Support the VSDV Action Alliance’s Task Forces and
Caucuses in the development of public awareness materials,
specifically supporting the Social Justice Task Force
in the development of materials that promote understanding
of the intersection of oppression and the LGBT Task Force
in the development of materials that raise awareness of sexual
and domestic violence within the LGBT community.
- Maintain the “Break the Silence” campaign
as both a public awareness and community organizing campaign
focused on African-American faith communities and ensure
that intimate partner sexual violence is effectively addressed
as a part of this campaign. Consider the development of
a comparable public awareness and community organizing campaign
related to sexual violence.
- Continue to work with the Office of the Attorney General
to promote public awareness of sexual and domestic
violence, partnering on projects such as the Verizon Hopeline
project, Good Cuts for a Good Cause and booths as public
events such as the Southern Women’s Show.
- Recognize both Sexual Violence Awareness Month and Domestic
Violence Awareness Month by obtaining Governor’s
Proclamations and through special awareness activities
focused on the general public and allied professionals.
**
- Maintain and expand the DELTA collaboration through a
statewide conference linking intimate partner prevention
and rape prevention education efforts and through the
development of a plan to sustain primary prevention focused
on both sexual and domestic violence as part of a coordinated
community response.
- Adopt a position paper that addresses “protective
factors” for children, youth and adults related to
sexual and domestic violence victimization and perpetration
and act on the positions adopted by establishing new partnerships
and alliances (for example, with schools, child abuse prevention
programs and others).
- Adopt a position on marriage promotion as a sexual and
intimate partner prevention strategy and then develop
a resource on sexual and domestic violence to be distributed
by Court Clerks as marriage licenses are issued.
- Adopt a position on affirmative consent and the prevention
of sexual violence and then develop a plan to incorporate
this position into training, resources, public awareness
materials and public policy.
- Support the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME)
in the development of a statewide intimate partner fatality
review and corresponding policy and practice recommendations.
- Support the development of a Youth Advocacy Task Force
within the coalition to provide leadership to prevention
and intervention work focused on youth.
- 1. Develop and implement a 5-year plan of public policy
initiatives that will move the VSDV Action Alliance into
a pro-active leadership position on the response to sexual
and domestic violence in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
- 2. Create and support a Public Policy Committee to develop
and implement a structure for member involvement in public
policy activities including communication, individual
participation, and assisting local SDVAAs to develop an infrastructure
to respond to policy alerts.**
- 3. Actively participate in monitoring federal legislation
through the national organizations, the National Network
to End Domestic Violence and the National Alliance Against
Sexual Assault, and communicate federal issues to local
SDVAAs.
- 4. Conduct voter registration drives and provide SDVAAs
the resources to conduct voter registration drives to encourage
all of those affected by sexual and domestic violence
to make their voices heard in the democratic process.
- 5. Maintain the highest priority on securing adequate
funding for sexual and domestic violence intervention and
prevention services throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.
- Actively participate in legislative studies related to
sexual and domestic violence and ensure that the study
recommendations are communicated to SDVAAs and are implemented
on behalf of sexual and domestic violence survivors.
- Develop resources for employees and community members
about non-profits, including non-profit employee
rights and responsibilities, and how to propose ideas,
request information and/or address grievances.
- Continue to promote quality services throughout the state
through the continued evolution of standards
and certification for SDVAAs including the possibility
of combining the SACC and DVP processes, ensuring that training
requirements adequately support the VSDV Action Alliance
principles, and developing a protocol to address concerns
that standards can not or are not being met.**
- Develop outcome measures and tools to support outcome
measurement in collaboration with the primary
state funders of sexual and domestic violence services
for use by SDVAAs.
- Develop and implement a plan for site visits with new
SDVAA Directors to introduce the resources
available through the VSDV Action Alliance, including training,
technical assistance and resources, and to encourage
the participation of diverse staff in the Alliance.**
- Expand VAdata participation to 100% of the SDVAAs and
add the campus centers as funding allows.**
- Explore the benefits and drawbacks of forming an “Employee
Association” to address insurance and other
collective benefit issues.
- Conduct a bi-annual survey of salaries and benefits in
SDVAAs and distribute the results to all
member SDVAAs.
- Use technology to link the coalition and SDVAAs (including
a toll-free technical assistance number,
list serves, bulletin boards and other tools) and provide
training to each SDVAA on the effective use of this technology.
- Focus on technical assistance to rural communities through
the addition of a Rural Outreach Coordinator
who will organize regional meetings of rural SDVAA service
providers, coordinate with the statewide rural initiatives
(for example, the current grant for rural domestic violence
and child victimization services), and facilitate technology
to link rural service providers.
- Continue the development of the disability project with
an emphasis on mental health related disabilities,
supporting access to services through training, resources
and technical assistance for service providers.
- Explore the resources available to make SDVAA facilities
and services accessible to people with disabilities,
seeking statewide support for local community
access wherever possible.
- Continue to work with statewide initiatives such as the
Hispanic Outreach Forums to improve services
to Virginians of Hispanic descent, with a focus on outreach
to Spanish-speaking, recent immigrant and migrant populations
who may have difficulty accessing services.
- Develop a discussion paper on SDVAAs serving male survivors
of child sexual abuse addressing the scope
of the violence, the needs of survivors and providing guidance
to service providers on the range of services to be offered
for children, youth and adults who are male and who
are survivors of child sexual abuse.
- Develop and implement a plan for the publication of regular
VSDV Action Alliance resources (for example, bulletins,
newsletters, reports, fact sheets) in a variety of formats
to meet the needs of the membership and allied professionals.**
- Maintain an up-to-date on-line Directory of SDVAAs for
use by professionals and the general public that includes
crisis intervention as well as business contact information.**
- Develop and distribute resources to assist SDVAAs in providing
services to military members and military families, including
the differences between military and civilian laws, procedures,
services and rights.
- Develop and distribute a resource packet for service providers
on how to work with survivors on credit issues.
- Survey member SDVAAs regarding their interest in providing
parent education and if more than 50% indicate an interest,
work to develop a curriculum that meets the required
standards of the Office of the Executive Secretary of the
Supreme Court (OES) for use by SDVAAs.
- Maintain and expand the lending Resource Library.
- Operate a 24-hour toll-free Hotline for victims and survivors,
family and friends, and professionals who need support,
information and referrals related to sexual and domestic
violence.
- Maintain the 24-hour Hotline as a resource for SDVAAs
that need back up in providing 24-hour access to services,
language interpretation and/or emergency coverage at
a reasonable cost.
- Provide regional and statewide trainings in a variety
of formats, for a variety of professionals and on
a variety of topics to promote effective intervention and
prevention responses to sexual and domestic violence.
- Expand the Training Institute to include a faculty qualified
to deliver sexual violence training as well as a
faculty that is diverse and includes persons with disabilities
and offer both sexual and domestic violence related trainings
to meet the needs of SDVAAs.
- Explore the possibilities for delivering basic advocacy
training to every SDVAA new employee within 6 months
of hire and work with the SDVAAs to test a model for
training delivery.
- Establish a mentorship project within the VSDV Action
Alliance to provide leadership training and promote
leadership development amongst new members, particularly
people of color.
- Conduct a bi-annual training needs assessment of SDVAAs
to guide the Training Committee in the development
of annual training plans.
- Based on current training needs that have been identified,
prioritize the following training topics for 2005-2006
(in addition to those mentioned elsewhere in the action
priorities):
a. training for trainers in both domestic violence
and sexual violence;
b. anti-oppression training, including training that
builds cultural competence, particularly related
to race and lgbtqi issues;
c. cross training on domestic violence/sexual violence/
child sexual abuse;
d. training on working with elderly victims of sexual
and domestic violence and the new APS guidelines;
e. training that promotes collaboration at the local
level between Child Protective Services and SDVAAs;
f. training on facilitating support groups at both
the basic and experienced levels;
g. training on immigration issues and sexual and domestic
violence, including the issue of trafficking;
h. training on working with women who have been criminally
charged and women who are incarcerated;
i. training on issues of substance abuse and prescription
drug abuse for survivors of sexual and domestic
violence;
j. training on effectively using fatality review to
understand and address the community response
to sexual and domestic violence;
k. training that builds the capacity of SDVAAs, including
training on fundraising, grant writing, technology
safety and legislative advocacy; and
l. training that supports the staff of SDVAAs in their
work, addressing issues of re-victimization,
staff burnout, safety and self-care.
- Increase the VSDV Action Alliance capacity to deliver
technical assistance related to sexual violence issues.
- Participate in statewide interagency work representing
the interests of SDVAAs and sexual and domestic violence
survivors including, but not limited to, the V-STOP State
Action Team, the VDSS Domestic Violence Action Team,
the VDH Sexual Violence Prevention Advisory Group, the Batterer
Intervention Certification Board, the Virginia Interagency
Council for the Homeless, the Campus Coalition Against
Sexual Assault, the I-CAN Advisory Group for the OES and
partnerships on a variety of projects with allies such as
the OAG, DCJS, VDSS, VDH, VHCD, VCCJA, PCAV, VCPEA, VPLC,
the FNE association and others.
- Actively promote the participation of diverse members
in the VSDV Action Alliance, developing membership materials,
leadership development initiatives, and information for
survivors on becoming involved in the VSDV Action Alliance
as well as the local and state political process.**
- Create a fund development plan to support the operation
of the VSDV Action Alliance as well as a statewide fund
to support the work of SDVAAs.**
- Continue to provide staff and financial support for the
work of Task Forces, Caucuses and membership Committees.
- Reach out to campuses across the Commonwealth to encourage
participation in the VSDV Action Alliance and to support
the maintenance and expansion of effective support services
to students attending colleges and universities.
- Continue to produce the National Sexual Assault Crisis
Center Directory and assess the costs and benefits to
the coalition to determine if this should be a continuing
priority for the VSDV Action Alliance.
- Explore marketing the successful products/projects of
the VSDV Action Alliance (for example, Breaking the Silence,
VAdata, Training for Trainers) as a revenue source to
support our continued work.
For more information E-mail Info@vsdvalliance.org. E-mail is not a secure form of communication. To ensure confidentiality please call the Family Violence & Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.838.8238 (V/TTY).
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