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Milwaukee, WI

Project Name

Metro-Milwaukee DART Initiative: A Community Collaborative Effort Serving Survivors with Disabilities from Crisis to Healing (MMDI: ACCESS)

Geographic Focus

Milwaukee, WI

Project Partners

IndependenceFirst
(http://www.independencefirst.org)

Milwaukee County Disabilities Services Division
(http://www.milwaukeecounty.org/)

The City of Milwaukee Office on Violence Prevention
(http://www.city.milwaukee.gov/welcome401.htm)

Sojourner Family Peace Center

Overview

The Milwaukee-based collaboration is comprised of four community programs that include an independent living center, a program serving survivors of abuse, a county disability services program, and a city program on violence prevention. As a recipient of the 2007 Office on Violence Against Women’s Disability Grant Program, the collaboration formally adopted the name Metro-Milwaukee DART Initiative: A Community Collaborative Effort Serving Survivors with Disabilities from Crisis to Healing (hereafter referred to as MMDI:ACCESS).

The vision of MMDI:ACCESS is that Milwaukee area residents with disabilities who experience domestic and sexual violence and/or abuse will gain access to a network of interdisciplinary service providers who will assist them on their journey from crisis to healing in a timely and comprehensive manner that embodies choice, safety, and justice with the full support of the community. 

The mission of MMDI:ACCESS is to build an interdisciplinary service network that offers Milwaukee area residents with disabilities, a seamless, comprehensive and timely response to their experience of domestic and sexual violence and/or abuse. This response will exemplify choice, safety, dignity and justice to empower survivors. MMDI:ACCESS will foster a culture of change within this service network and the collaborating agencies by equipping itself with the tools needed to strengthen its relationships, improve communication and break down barriers that exist for survivors with disabilities.

In order to effectively improve services and create change in their organizations, the Milwaukee collaboration took part in a planning and development process that included activities to: strengthen their collaboration, identify their focus, learn about the needs in their organizations, and develop a concrete plan for addressing those needs. After successfully completing their planning and development process, MMDI:ACCESS is currently implementing their plan to enhance the capacity of each of their partner agencies to serve people with disabilities who have experienced domestic and sexual violence and/or abuse.

Planning For Change

This section contains files that document MMDI:ACCESS's planning and development process, including their efforts to: strengthen their collaboration; identify their needs; and strategically plan for change in their partner agencies.

Strengthening Their Collaboration

As part of the planning phase of their grant project, the MMDI:ACCESS team worked on strengthening their collaboration. They collectively determined and agreed upon: member roles and responsibilities; a vision and a mission; shared values; decision making and conflict resolution protocols; policies on confidentiality; communications and work plans; and relevant definitions. Their collaboration charter summarizes these decisions. The MMDI:ACCESS collaboration charter is available in both a PDF Version and a Text Version below. 

• Collaboration Charter PDF Version
• Collaboration Charter TEXT Version

Identifying Their Needs

After strengthening their collaboration and building a strong foundation to work from, the MMDI:ACCESS team formulated a detailed plan for determining the needs in their organizations. The team then completed an in-depth needs assessment process to determine the needs of survivors with disabilities in each of their organizations. Through these organizational assessments, they spoke to board members, leadership, staff and the individuals that they serve in each of their agencies. In total, MMDI:ACCESS engaged 215 people in their needs assessment process. MMDI:ACCESS subsequently created a report outlining their key findings.

Five key findings were identified in the MMDI:ACCESS Needs Assessment Report. 1.) A lack of consistent policies and procedures to address: how staff handle cases of abuse; mandated reporting requirements; and violence/abuse in the workplace. 2.) A lack of awareness of the partner agencies and their programs and services. 3.) Barriers at each of the partner agencies including: physical, communication and attitudinal accessibility; and agency appearance of being welcoming to survivors with disabilities and perceptions of safety. 4.) A need for staff training and cross training on issues of: violence and abuse; disabilities and accommodations; and policies and procedures. 5.) A need to fully integrate the core values of MMDI:ACCESS into the partner agencies' culture and practices. The Executive Summary of the MMDI:ACCESS Needs Assessment Report is available in both a PDF Version and a Text Version below.

• Needs Assessment Report Executive Summary PDF Version
• Needs Assessment Report Executive Summary TEXT Version

Developing Their Plan for Change

In response to the needs identified in their organizational assessments, MMDI:ACCESS created a detailed plan for overcoming these challenges and to address the needs of survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors. MMDI:ACCESS has committed to four immediate initiatives to create change in their organizations. These initiatives include: 1.) Developing Policies & Procedures; 2.) Creating Safe, Welcoming & Accessible Environments; 3.) Developing Linkages with Other Allied Organizations; and 4.) Completing Training & Cross-Training. MMDI:ACCESS believes that their choice of initiatives will create systems change, as they “delve at the core and affect the organization as a whole, rather than touching the surface and changing only one or two people.” While they believe that these initiatives have merit on their own, they also believe that these initiatives will work together and build off of one another, making them even stronger agents of change. MMDI:ACCESS's Strategic Plan is available in both a PDF Version and a Text Version Below.

• Strategic Plan PDF Version
• Strategic Plan TEXT Version

Enhancing Organizational Capacity

MMDI:ACCESS is currently in the process of implementing changes to enhance each of their partner agencies’ capacity to serve survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors. This section will contain links to the promising practices they are creating. Please check back periodically for new information.

Contact Information

IndependenceFirst

Leslie Myers
414-2268381 (v)
lmyers@independencefirst.org