Rural Partnership with People with Disabilities: One Communitys Experience

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Rural Partnership with People with Disabilities
One Communitys Experience

• Sponsored by Transforming Communities Technical
  Assistance, Training Resource Center, Part of
  Marin Abused Womens Services, California. Funded
  by California Department of Public Health
  MCAH/OFP, Unserved/Underserved Training and
  Technical Assistance (U/U TAT).
• Presented by Cathy Hoog, Abused Deaf Womens
  Advocacy Services (ADWAS) Leigh Hofheimer,
  Washington State Coalition Against Domestic
  Violence (WSCADV). Partners in the disAbility
  Advocacy Project of WSCADV. Please do not reprint
  or distribute materials without permission, April
  2008.

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What is the disAbility Advocacy Project?

• There are four organizations that make up the
  disAbility Advocacy Project (dAP)
• Washington State Coalition Against Domestic
  Violence
• Abused Deaf Womens Advocacy Services
• Disability Rights Washington and
• Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs.
  
• The goal of the dAP partnership is to make
  domestic violence and sexual assault services
  more accessible for survivors with disabilities.
• HOW? By building collaborations at the local
  level

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What informs our thinking?

• 2000 2006 Community gatherings, surveys with
  advocates and people with disabilities
• 2004 2007 Two pilot projects in rural and
  urban communities
• 2007 2008 Needs assessment
• Focus groups and interviews with advocates from
  DV or SA programs, disability advocates, and
  people with disabilities.

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Goals for the Training

• Discuss one communitys approach to mobilization
  with people with disabilities
• Discuss lessons learned from our Rural pilot site
• Discuss particular challenges to mobilizing
  people with disabilities and advocacy groups in
  eastern Washington rural communities
• Discuss engagement strategies that brought
  together people with disabilities and advocacy
  programs
• Discuss the impact community mobilization had on
  improving access to domestic violence/sexual
  assault advocacy organizations for survivors with
  disabilities

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What is community mobilization?

• Mobilization - to put into movement or
  circulation mobilize support for a
  proposal,
• -Merriam Webster
• Finding your allies
• Listening to each other
• Involvement and leadership from survivors
• Identifying needs and barriers
• Crafting solutions together
• you can only go as fast as the slowest person in
  the group

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Much of this work comes from

• Rural Pilot Site eastern Washington,
  Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse- ATVP
  (dv/sa service agency) in Whitman County
• ATVP sponsored and co-led a community task force
  made up of survivors and people with
  disabilities, and conducted interviews with
  survivors with disabilities

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A bit about Whitman County

• Geographic and demographic features
• Whitman county is 2,178 square miles and borders
  Idaho
• Pullman is the largest city with a population of
  27,030 people
• Whitman county is part of the Palouse - a wide
  prairie-like region located in the Columbia basin
  and bordered by three mountain ranges
• Economy
• 26 of the population lives below the poverty
  line, most under the age of 18
• Seasonal economy depends on farming and
  Washington State University college jobs
• Climate
• Hot, desert-like summer
• Harsh snowy winters
• Resources
• Scarce public transportation
• Most people live outside the city of Pullman in
  isolated mountainous areas

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Challenges in Pullman

• Elected politicians dont change very often
• People in power are also known in other settings
• Bad history between agencies/systems takes a long
  time to undo
• Lack of accessible public transportation
• Lack of accessible housing
• Disability Advocacy programs cover huge areas
  even more than the DV/SA programs
• Confidentiality among interpreters is always
  suspect
• People with physical disabilities known
  throughout the community
• People dont want to be seen going to the office,
  or meeting with advocates - in cahoots with the
  feminists
• Many of the hotels or motels did not have a TTY
  nor did they care to get one

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Strengths in Pullman

• Flexible and creative
• Self-reliant
• Knowing many people in the community
• Comprehensive approach to advocacy
• Many organizations and system providers worked
  closely together
• College community resources
• Informal networking and strong support group
  participation among DV/SA survivors

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Challenge People with disabilities dont know
about local domestic violence and sexual assault
services

• Thats the myth about rural communitiesThat
  everyone is connected and aware of one anothers
  businessIts a misconception.
• task force member, self-advocate for mental
  illness,

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Goals of the Pilot Project

• Organize a local domestic violence and disability
  task force to improve access to DV/SA services
  and support a co-advocacy approach to work with
  survivors with disabilities
• Promote community mobilization and develop
  co-advocacy practices between DV/SA and
  disability advocates at the local level

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The Task Force

• was co-led by a local community- based domestic
  violence/sexual assault advocacy org and a person
  with a disability who is a self-advocate or works
  with a disability advocacy program
• was required to have a significant number of
  people with disabilities as members
• Recruited community members (people with
  disabilities) and survivors (who may or may not
  have had a disability).
• created opportunities for leadership for persons
  who are not usually at the table

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Getting Started

• Think about access and accommodations with
  everything you do
• Where do you find allies?
• What sparks peoples interest?
• How do you keep people engaged?
• How do you connect?
• How do you follow-up?
• How do you share information?
• How do you sustain your efforts?

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Recruitment Strategies

• The make-up of the task force persons with
  disabilities vs. service providers perspectives.
• Keeping the purpose of the meetings at the center
  of your recruitment efforts is key.

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Recruitment Strategies

• What worked in Pullman
• One-on-one contact methods
• Leaders in the disability advocacy setting
  snowballing
• Formal and informal leaders in disability
  communities survivors and/or self-advocates
• Personal connection led to trust
• Frequent and ongoing follow-up

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Where do you find self-advocates with
disabilities?

• Formal networking
• Disability advocacy groups/CILs
• The Disability Rights Organization (Protection
  and Advocacy office)
• The disAbility Advocacy Project partners

• Informal networking
• Disability studies teacher at college
• People First members
• Community centers where people with disabilities
  go for other services
• Friends of friends, word of mouth
• DV and SA support group members

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Be a good host

• ACCESS, ACCESS, ACCESS . . . figure out what
  people need
• Describe what will happen and ask what people
  need - dont wait for someone to tell you
• Meetings preparation and facilitation
• Materials in alternate formats distributed
  before meetings
• Accessible space, attention to seating and light
• Time meetings are held
• Food
• Pace of meetings
• Provide supportive atmosphere for survivors/be
  aware of risks for participating
• Funds for personal assistants or interpreters
• Check-ins between meetings

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• When recruitment was done, Gretta (ATVP staff)
  was the only person on the task force without a
  disability and nearly everyone had some sort of
  personal experience with domestic and/or sexual
  violence
• - member of the task force

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Task force workplan

• Provide cross-education among members
• Ask their constituents, contacts what they
  needed, identified barriers to access
• Develop focused and pertinent solutions to
  increase access to DV/SA services and build
  partnerships with disability advocacy
  organizations.

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How to build shared understanding?

• You dont know what you dont know.
• Buy-in for task force members
• Members explore shared values and goals
• Members experiences drive the focus of the work
• Activities respect the autonomy and
  decision-making of survivors with disabilities
• Cross training about DV, SA and disability
• Cross training about the role of advocacy (among
  three groups), and confidentiality/safety
  planning
• Develop a confidentiality policy and acknowledge
  the personal content of meetings
• Develop a sustainability plan

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Shared values between the DV/SA and Disability
advocacy communities

• For people experiencing a pattern of power,
  control and exploitation called survivors
• For people establishing a pattern of power,
  control and exploitation called abusers

• Selfdetermination
• Safety
• Accountability

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• suddenly agencies and people that were once so
  strapped for time and resources that they
  couldnt connect were prioritizing connecting
  with one another
• - a task force member

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The impact of community mobilization

• Improved access to DV/SA services
• Building partnerships that support co-advocacy

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Task force asked . . .

• What barriers do persons with disabilities
  experience when trying to access DV or SA
  services?
• How will mobilization efforts help DV and SA
  programs remove barriers?
• Does breaking down barriers have to mean breaking
  the bank?

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Task force identified . . .

• Community Barriers
• Lack of info about resources, including ATVP
• Lack of public transportation
• Lack of accessible emergency transportation
• Lack of accessible housing

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• Lack of financial resources for survivors with
  disabilities
• Other service providers lack information about
  what domestic violence looks like in the lives of
  persons with disabilities
• Persons with disabilities fear loss of housing
  and placement in a more restrictive environment
  for their own safety if they seek services or
  resources.

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Task force identified . . .

• ATVP Organizational Barriers
• Agency policy stating that advocates do not go
  directly to survivors homes.
• Office/shelter locations of the agency are not
  physically accessible.
• ATVP did not use safety planning guides that were
  tailored to fit the specific needs and
  experiences of persons with disabilities.

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Breaking down the barriersTask force
activities to improve access to DV/SA services
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Improved access to ATVP

• Improved physical access located a new office
  space, worked with landlord to modify the
  bathroom
• Received a mini-grant from the Pullman Rotary to
  install a wheelchair accessible ramp
• Budgeted for a bell for the entrance and signage
  in large print/Braille to be added to the main
  office entry point
• Staff located potential site for new confidential
  shelter, and developed plans to move to new
  shelter, worked with landlord to install ramp and
  modify bathroom

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Changes to ATVP paperwork

• Modified first contact and intake form, added Is
  there anything we need to know about you in order
  to provide you with the best services possible?
• Developed Service Accessibility Options form
• Removed the question, What is your disability
  type?

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Changes in ATVP outreach

• Created a new outreach flyer removed jargon,
  used clear and concise language, added symbols to
  communicate interpreters available
• Added the phrase Voice/TTY to materials
• Staff and volunteers receive annual TTY training
• A new outreach route was identified which focused
  on format and informal places where persons with
  disabilities may seek information.
• Develop a process for publicizing the
  availability of interpreters in advertising of
  events, services and job openings.

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Changes to ATVP advocacy practices

• All advocates are
• prepared to describe pathways of travel to the
  office or shelter and the inside of the shelter
• able to talk through the physical and visual
  layout of the office/shelter and possible access
  barriers
• modifying their general safety planning questions
• Created a working agreement with disability
  advocates to visit people with disabilities in
  facilities and homes

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• ATVP modified the Safety Planning Guide, and
  included new questions that relate to ways
  persons with disabilities may have experienced
  abuse
• Gives advocates a better idea of the strengths
  and needs of each person

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Stepping back and thinking about your own
communities
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Critical questions to consider

• There are several useful guideposts to keep in
  mind when engaging in community mobilization
  efforts and developing collaborative strategies

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Does this Action

• Respect the experience and autonomy of a survivor
  with a disability
• Protect or compromise the confidentiality of a
  survivor
• Account for different impacts depending on the
  social status of the survivor
• Increase the material resources of the survivor
• Focus on changing institutional or system
  practices, not the survivor
• Hold the abuser accountable

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Does this Action

• Include consultation with survivors with
  disabilities
• Blame the survivor for the violence or for
  failing to end the violence
• How could this action be used against survivors
  by systems, by the batterer?
• How will this action be monitored and evaluated?
• What message will your action send to the
  survivor, to the batterer, to the community?

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Questions

• What kind of community mobilization efforts are
  going on in your community?
• Are there any lessons that could be applied to
  outreach to different parts of the disability
  community?

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• Cathy Hoog
• Abused Deaf Womens Advocacy Services,
• 206-726-0093 (TTY),
• cathy_at_adwas.org and www.adwas.org
• Leigh Hofheimer,
• WSCADV,
• 206-389-2515 x202 (V), 206-389-2900 (TTY),
• leigh_at_wscadv.org and www.wscadv.org

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References

• Nothing About Us Without Us,Report of the
  Disability Advocacy Project of the Washington
  State Coalition Against Domestic Violence,
  September 2006, www.wscadv.org. [phone],
  ext. 202 (V) or [phone] (tty)
• Model Protocol on Safety Planning for Domestic
  Violence Victims with Disabilities, Revised 2004,
  Cathy Hoog, Abused Deaf Womens Advocacy Services
  for the Washington State Coalition Against
  Domestic Violence, [phone], ext. 202 (V)
  or [phone] (tty), http//www.wscadv.org/pro
  jects/safety_protocol.pdf
• Needs Assessment Report from the Washington State
  disAbility Advocacy Project, 2008, Washington
  State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, (206)
  389-2515, ext. 202 (V) or [phone] (tty).