	Domestic Violence Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

DV 7: Community Partnerships

Community partnerships increase the ability of the organization and community to support survivors and meet their needs.

DV 7.01

Education and outreach are provided to community providers likely to encounter survivors, including:

law enforcement and legal services;
child protective services;
medical and health care providers;
mental health care providers;
substance use conditions service providers; and
welfare offices.

Interpretation: The organization should provide information and education that: (1) alerts providers to problems experienced by the victims of violence, and (2) informs providers about the organization’s services.

DV 7.02

The organization partners with community providers to coordinate service delivery and increase the likelihood that needed supports and services will be used.

Interpretation: If the organization arranges for survivors to receive services rather than providing them directly, it should collaborate with other involved providers to: (1) ensure that services are provided in a coordinated, integrated manner, and (2) prepare other community providers to meet survivors’ needs.

Research Note: Some research suggests that survivors find services more useful when there is greater coordination between the organizations and agencies that provide them.

DV 7.03

When a survivor’s children are involved with child protective services, and with the survivor’s permission, the organization collaborates with the child protective services agency to:

provide needed education about the dynamics of domestic violence;
ensure that family problems are addressed in a cohesive and comprehensive manner; and
promote the best interests of both survivors and their children.

NA The organization does not serve survivors who have children, or survivors’ children are not involved with child protective services.

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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.


	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."