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creating
change |
understanding
disability |
understanding
deaf culture |
addressing
accessibility |
understanding
violence |
responding
to violence |
safety alert
If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, call 911 or your local hotline or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233 voice), 1-800-787-3224 (tty). There is always a computer trail, but you can click ESCAPE to leave the site quickly.
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About Us
The Accessing Safety Initiative was established in 2005 by the Vera Institute of Justice 
and the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women to provide technical assistance and training to help organizations and communities meet the needs of women with disabilities and Deaf women who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.
We serve as the comprehensive technical assistance provider to organizations that are recipients of OVW’s Education and Technical Assistance Grants to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities Program. Currently, we are working intensively with 15 federally-funded sites around the country, providing them with technical assistance that includes multi-site trainings, in-person site visits, conference calls, and consultation. We also provide limited assistance and support to service providers who are not funded through this grant program, but who are interested in improving their services for victims with disabilities and Deaf victims. We do not directly serve individual victims/survivors of violence. If you or someone you know needs help, go to HELP for Victims/Survivors for more information.
We rely on a diverse pool of over 30 active practitioners - associates - who are successfully changing their own systems to provide advice and other kinds of assistance that is responsive, practical, user-friendly, and culturally appropriate. We also partner with other nonprofit agencies to help develop specialized resources and trainings for the communities with whom we work.
