	Domestic Violence Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

DV 1: Access to Service

Services are available to survivors who need help planning for and achieving physical, emotional, and psychological safety and well-being.

DV 1.01

To ensure that survivors are aware of and can access available services, the organization provides information and education throughout the community.

Interpretation: Appropriate outreach can include posters, pamphlets, public service announcements, and direct contact with those who may interact with the target population.

Note: See DV 7.01 for discussion of the outreach that should be provided to other community providers.

Research Note: Some research suggests that many individuals learn about services through word of mouth from family, friends, and staff at other community organizations and agencies.

DV 1.02

The organization provides 24-hour access to services, directly or through a community telephone network, and at least one staff member is on-call 24 hours a day.

Interpretation: 24-hour access can be provided through a 24-hour hotline or the use of cell phones. If a small organization is unable to budget for a 24-hour hotline or cell phones, and calls are answered by a community telephone network or emergency response center, the organization should: (1) ensure that a trained individual returns calls within a 15-minute timeframe, and (2) develop procedures that address how phone calls are returned without increasing risk to survivors.

DV 1.03

The organization works with community partners and resources to address and minimize barriers that may prevent individuals from seeking or obtaining services.

Interpretation: Examples of factors that may impact whether survivors will seek or obtain services may include, but are not limited to: disabilities, mental health conditions, substance use conditions, cultural differences, lack of English proficiency, immigration status, age, sexual orientation, and having teenage male children.

DV 1.04

When survivors consent, services can also be made available to their children and, when appropriate, other family members or significant others.

Interpretation: For purposes of this standard, the phrase "other family members or significant others" does not include perpetrators. See DV 3.04 for discussion of perpetrator involvement in services.

NA The organization does not directly serve survivors' children, family members, or significant others. When survivors consent, their children, family members, or significant others are referred to needed services offered at other organizations.

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	PURPOSE: Individuals who receive Domestic Violence Services gain a sense of empowerment, improve their well-being, and increase their ability to live safely and independently.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	EMPOWERMENT The process of helping individuals, families, groups, or communities to increase their personal, interpersonal, political, social, and/or economic strength or position and to develop influence that may impact their circumstances.


	PLANNING The process of specifying objectives, evaluating the means for their achievement, and exercising deliberate decision making about appropriate courses of action.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	OUTREACH Contact initiated by a provider to identify persons in need of services, to provide information to them about services and benefits, and to encourage the use of appropriate services.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal program evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."