safety alertalert exclamation

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.

home>community profiles>

Austin, TX

Project Name

Partnering to Increase Service Access

Partners

Advocacy, Inc. This link will open a new browser window.
(http://www.advocacyinc.org)

SafePlace This link will open a new browser window.
(http://www.austin-safeplace.org)

Overview

The Partnering to Increase Service Access initiative was funded in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women through an Education and Technical Assistance Grant to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities grant program. The collaborative partners involved in this project are Advocacy, Inc. (AI) and SafePlace. AI is the Texas protection and advocacy organization and SafePlace is a local domestic violence and sexual assault service provider. Both SafePlace and AI’s state offices are located in Austin, TX and are focusing on improving services in Austin area.

This grant project allows SafePlace and AI to build upon their previous work together which included cross-training between SafePlace and AI. Under this project, they plan to conduct an assessment of the current services, resources and support needs of survivors of domestic and sexual violence who have disabilities and/or who are D/deaf. They are focusing their assessment activities on their organizations with the goal of identifying opportunities for creating model policies and practices.

Partnering to Increase Service Access collaboration hope is to foster relationships between their organizations that can serve as a model for other counties in Texas to replicate. The partnering agencies are committed to systems change in their own agencies and communities by ensuring that disability and victim services are available to all members of the disability and Deaf communities. The collaboration has focused on advancing policies, practices, and services that ensure culturally aware, sensitive and fully accessible responses to members of the disability and deaf communities regarding domestic, caregiver and sexual violence.

Contact Information

SafePlace

Wendie Abramson
512-356-1599 (v)
512-482-0691 (tty)
wabramson@austin-safeplace.org