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Lane County, OR

Project Name

SurviveAbility: Lane County, Oregon Collaborative to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities

Partners

Cottage Grove Community Sharing Program

Lane County Domestic Violence Council/VALID Committee
(http://www.dvc.enddomesticviolence.com/)

Direction Service
(http://www.directionservice.org/)

Lane County Department of Children and Families
(http://www.co.lane.or.us/ccf)

Lane Independent Living Alliance
(http://www.lilaoregon.org/)

Sexual Assault Support Services
(http://www.sass-lane.org/)

Shelter Care
(http://www.sheltercare.org/)

Suislaw Outreach Services
(http://www.familyallies.net/f_organization/org_sos.htm//)

Overview

The Lane County collaboration – formally named SurviveAbility – is comprised of 7 primary partners: a shelter for homeless families, a shelter and advocacy program for battered women, an agency supporting people with disabilities and their families, a sexual assault response program, a rural domestic violence and sexual assault program, a consumer-controlled independent living center, a support program for low-income families, a committee of the local domestic violence council, and the county’s department of children and families. SurviveAbility seeks to enhance the partner agencies’ capacity to serve women with disabilities through changed policies and practices that integrate effective responses to violence and accessibility across their systems.

SurviveAbility represents the largest collaboration of the 2006 recipients of the Office on Violence Against Women’s Disability Grant Program. The collaborative partners’ work impacts a broad cross-section of women in Lane County, including survivors of sexual assault, survivors of domestic violence, people with disabilities, women in rural communities, and low-income families. The wide range of expertise represented in this collaboration indicates their readiness and ability to work with the diverse populations in Lane County.

While individual agencies have worked together in the past on related issues, this collaborative effort represents the first time this particular group of stakeholders has come together with the exclusive focus of improving services for women with disabilities who have experienced domestic and sexual violence. Their planning phase focused on identifying gaps in their service delivery system in Lane County. As they move into implementation, SurviveAbility plans to address the gaps identified through changed policies and practices and formalized collaborative relationships between each of the partner agencies. They are driven by a vision that services women seek will be accessible, responsive and informed because agencies throughout Lane County will understand and address the vulnerabilities, barriers and challenges that survivors encounter and will embrace the important role each plays in promoting safety for women with disabilities and Deaf women.

Contact Information 

Lane County Department of Children and Families

Diana Avery
541-682-6731 (v)
Diana.Avery@co.lane.or.us