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Advancing the Implementation of Effective, Survivor-Driven Advocacy

NCJ Number
253514
Date Published
May 2019
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This is a report on a project whose goals were to implement a community-based advocacy approach (Community Advocacy Project) in a local agency in Champaign, Illinois, serving domestic violence victims (Courage Connection), to increase Courage Connection's capacity to evaluate its efforts, and to create instruments to monitor and document the community-based advocacy approach.
Abstract
Since 1971, Courage Connection has helped victims and survivors of domestic violence rebuild their lives. Current services include a 24-hour hotline, safety planning, emergency shelter, counseling, court advocacy, and transitional, as well as supportive services such as financial planning education, parenting classes, and support groups for friends and family. The CAP project involves a partnership between Courage Connection and a researcher from the University of Illinois, who has focused her research on domestic violence and sexual assault, as well as how communities can most effectively respond to these victimizations. In order to facilitate the implementation of the community advocacy project (CAP) at Courage Connection, the effort to date has been to specify the agency's theory of change and to establish how CAP fits into this theory. This was achieved with the collaborative development of a theory-of-change logic model; the establishment of new data-collection efforts for the evaluation of CAP's implementation; and the development of instruments for examining the implementation process. The instruments facilitated the determination of organizational readiness; organizational climate; and organizational policies, procedures, and practices related to survivor-centered and trauma-informed care. This report describes the progress to date in achieving these goals. 1 figure and appended project materials. 1 table and appended project materials