Safe, Respectful & Accessible Needs Assessment
Just ASK – Kansas Collaboration
Break-out Session
Louisville 2007 Grantee Meeting
May 20, 2008, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. 

Values and Assumptions

The collaboration operates under certain values and assumptions that are shared jointly by all three partners.  
* Violence against women with disabilities is a community problem.  Violence against women with disabilities is supported by community silence, societal myths and cultural societal frameworks that stigmatize, isolate and blame survivors with disabilities. Just ASK believes the locus of the problem lies not with individuals but with the larger framework that encourages ineffective and often harmful systems response.  
* Survivors with disabilities have a right to safety and autonomy.  Systems can best support women through survivor-centered advocacy that is empowerment-based, confidential and accessible.  The collaborative believes supporting this philosophy within each partner organization and the target sites will lead to an enhanced systems response.
* Difference amongst survivors with disabilities is tremendous. Each person’s experience of disability, of violence or of systems will vary greatly.  The collaboration recognizes this diversity and rejects models that depict a monolithic image of survivors with disabilities. Embracing this diversity further strengthens Just ASK’s commitment to a survivor-centered philosophy and to creating system responses which respect each survivor’s individuality.  
* Systems change is necessary to increase safety and autonomy for survivors with disabilities.  Systems responding to violence and systems responding to disability have not been designed with women with disabilities at the center.  Women with disabilities have often received inadequate responses from these systems, therefore, change must occur at the systems level. 
* Partner organizations must be willing to change. Each partnering organization’s commitment to collaboration includes a process of changing their own systems to better reflect accessibility and support the safety and autonomy of survivors with disabilities. In moving towards more accessible and responsive systems, partner organizations can often identify crucial steps that may otherwise go unrecognized.  Engaging in this process of self-reflection and constructive criticism with the collaboration partners increases expertise and credibility in working with target sites. 
* Lasting organizational change is created through careful collaboration with attention to process, confidentiality and respect.  Each partner’s level of influence increases dramatically as organizational relationships deepen and create increased trust between partners.  Key to the collaboration’s foundation is a commitment to respect for each individual, each partner organization and each movement’s history and culture.  The collaboration’s effectiveness relies on maximizing organizational buy-in (see Roles and Contributions,  p. 5), conscious communication within the group and with stakeholders (see Communication Plan, p. 8), and dedication to change as an on-going process.  
* A common language is critical to collaborative work.  Collaboration requires intense working relationships that must bridge separate movement and organizational cultures.  Just ASK examines language deliberately to ensure partners have a shared understanding of complex issues such as confidentiality, autonomy, accessibility and safety. 
* Confidentiality is essential to the work of the collaboration.  Historically neither survivors of sexual assault/domestic violence nor individuals with a disability have had control over their own information.  Honoring an individual’s confidentiality is central to both the sexual assault/domestic violence movement and the independent living movement.  Confidentiality is also paramount in building trust between organizations.  Each partner has committed to maintain the confidentiality of collaboration discussions as well as strict confidentiality with any survivor’s information (see Confidentiality Statement, p. 13). 
* Full accessibility and genuine safety involve an ongoing process.  Ensuring universal access is an ongoing process of examining organizational language, attitude, documents and other products, policies and procedures, physical structures and social environment. Universal access is not a destination.  It requires a commitment to continually reexamining one’s own system and honest dialogue about barriers.  Likewise, true and sustainable safety is not a destination.  Safety concerns for survivors are ever evolving.  They require an ongoing critique of system responses to domestic and sexual violence.  They require the acknowledgement of emerging risks and unintended consequences of each partner’s own strategies. Just ASK will account for both safety considerations and accessibility considerations in every decision-making process.