I. EXPLORING OUR MOVEMENTS OVERVIEW The vision of the major discussion on exploring our movements is to provide associates with an opportunity to discuss information presented in several articles that were sent prior to the discussion. These articles vary in topics such as violence against women, disability, deaf, mental health, and substance abuse. They each discuss about these movement’s history, defining characteristics, milestones, or areas of conflict or tension. The purpose of this discussion is to identify similarities and differences that exist among the five fields that intersect this work, which will ultimately help everyone to better understand and work within the differences and similarities should they work with grantees. A. Small Group Discussion Developing collaboration is the starting point for any effort to address violence against women with disabilities and Deaf women since these women straddle multiple systems and disciplines. Developing an effective collaboration is, in part, based on understanding each of the parts or fields that are coming together, and finding common ground. In our work, we envision representatives from the following fields coming together to form these collaborations violence against women (domestic violence, sexual assault, elder abuse, and stalking), disability, Deaf, mental health and substance abuse, which mirrors the composition of this room. So, we’d like to begin this meeting with an exploration of the fields that each of you represent. So, we are going to get into small groups to explore each of these fields and the similarities and differences between them. In your binder, you should have a small group assignment. Groups 1 and 2 can stay in this room, while groups 3 and 4 can move into the room across the hall. While in your small groups, based on the readings and your experience/knowledge with these fields, please consider and answer the following questions: * What are the foundational principles, basic tenets, or defining characteristics of each field? * What similarities exist between these fields? * What differences exist between these fields? You will have 45 minutes in your group to answer these questions. Then, we will regroup and compile our answers. So, please assign one person to the role of scribe (or note taker) and one person to be your group’s spokesperson. B. Large Group Discussion Questions * For each small group discussion question, is there anything else that anyone would like to add to or remove from this list? * One of the first steps in building a collaboration is identifying common ground. Looking at this list of similarities, are there certain principles or tenets that are particularly strong or exceptionally foundational in all of these fields that it makes sense for us to highlight as that common ground? * People often refer to the benefits of collaboration in the abstract. Looking at this list of similarities and differences, how do we benefit from these similarities and differences when we work together collaboratively in this area? II. CRITICAL QUESTIONS: AN OVERVIEW Critical questions as listed below will be discussed with associates, to help everyone to better understand and identify ways to work within or overcome the challenges raised in response. Several critical issues emerged that communities often grapple with when building multi-disciplinary collaborations in the area of violence and disability. These issues, posed as questions, include: 1. How do we ensure that women’s safety is the guiding framework for our work? 2. What are our definitions of violence and disability? 3. What is the role of people with disabilities, Deaf women, and survivors of violence in this work? 4. What is our theory of change when it comes to increasing accessibility? 5. How do we ensure that our work is effective in meeting the needs of diverse women? When left unexamined, these issues often can be a source of conflict or tension for newly formed collaborations and even long-standing collaborations. The purpose of this discussion is to develop a better understanding of these issues and to identify strategies for overcoming these challenges. A. HOW DO WE ENSURE THAT WOMEN’S SAFETY IS THE GUIDING FRAMEWORK FOR OUR WORK? This discussion on ensuring women’s safety serves the purpose to discuss and better understand ways to frame work around women’s safety. The importance of women’s safety and framing this work in the context of safety was been widely recognized, along with important issues raised in relation to safety. People may have different understandings of what safety means and how to achieve safety in this area, and according to some people, the more specific to the work of this grant program, the focus on safety can get lost in the day to day work of capacity building. Below is the discussion plan. Discussion Questions 1. Associates’ reflections on this issue: Now, we will have two associates offer their perspectives on how they define safety in the context of their work. * Cat Fribley – safety in the context of victims of sexual assault * Patti Bland – safety in the context of battered women with substance abuse issues * Laura Prescott – safety in the context of women with psychiatric disabilities 2. Sample prompts for group discussion: a) How do you define safety in the context your work? * Is this definition different when working with women with disabilities and Deaf women, as opposed to working with women without disabilities? If so, how? * Are the strategies for achieving safety different when it comes to women with disabilities and Deaf women? * One of the things that we have heard repeatedly in our conversations with key stakeholders in this field is that the established practices of the domestic violence field may need to be expanded to meet the needs of this population. In particular, we have heard that the emphasis on shelter may need to be decreased for this population because shelter may not be feasible or most appropriate for these women. What do you all think of this statement? What types of alternatives need to be envisioned? b) What are the benefits of framing this work in terms of safety? c) What does it mean for our work to be guided by the safety of women with disabilities and Deaf women? What does that look like? d) How do we ensure that our work together and the work of the pilot sites maintain a focus on the safety of women with disabilities and Deaf women who have experienced violence? B. WHAT ARE OUR DEFINITIONS OF VIOLENCE AND DISABILITY? Violence The purpose of this discussion is to discuss and better understand the common and different definitions of violence. These definitions are very important as they guide the work and establish who’s included and who’s excluded from focus (i.e., who’s safety are we ensuring). Below is the discussion plan. Discussion Questions 1. Associates reflect on the definition of violence: Now, we will have two associates will discuss how this issue has emerged in their work and offer their definition of violence. * Sandy Ortman – discuss the widely accepted definitions of DV, SA, and stalking within the violence against women field * Mary Oschwald – discuss the need to expand these definitions given her work within the disability community 2. Sample prompts for group discussion on violence: a) What definition of violence do you use or is being used in your community? b) Does that definition include personal care attendants? c) What are the arguments for using a more inclusive definition of violence that includes abuse by personal care attendants? What are the arguments against using a broader definition of violence that includes abuse by personal care attendants? d) What are role do grant requirements and state regulations play in shaping the definitions of violence that communities use in their work? e) What strategies can be used to broaden the work when communities are facing more narrow legal definitions? Disability Similar to the discussion on violence, the next discussion on disability is to discuss and better understand the common and different definitions of disability within the context of violence against women. The field of disability is expansive, including physical disabilities; cognitive and developmental disabilities; sensory disabilities; psychiatric disabilities; chronic illness; and substance abuse. Just as the definition of violence guides this work and establishes who’s included and who’s excluded from focus, so does the definition of disability and the language we use to recognize women’s identities. Below is the discussion plan. Discussion Questions 1. Associates reflect on the definition of disability: Now, we will have two associates discuss how this issue has emerged in their work and offer their definition of disability. * Roberta Sick – provide us with a big picture overview of disability definitions * Leslie Meyers – discuss the definition of disability she uses and the challenges having multiple definitions poise for survivors with disabilities 2. Sample prompts for group discussion on disability: a) What definition of disability do you use in your work? b) What are the challenges created by having multiple definitions of disability being used? c) We’ve talked a bit about the formal definitions that are used. I’d like us to talk about how these definitions have been applied in practice when addressing violence against women with disabilities. Specifically, I’d like to talk about these definitions in relation to several groups of women – women with psychiatric disabilities, women with substance abuse issues, and Deaf women. * While there is a lot of variation from community to community, we’ve heard a trend that women with psychiatric disabilities and women with substance use issues have at best been left out of focus or at worst excluded. - What are your experiences with this? - Why does this occur? - What are the effects? * In practice, the language (meaning the literal word disability) may not engage some key stakeholders (i.e. women who do not identify as having a disability). In our conversations with key stakeholders, this dynamic between language, identity and engagement was made in reference to the Deaf community. So, I’d like us to talk about how our language and frame for this work may include or exclude this community? - What are your experiences with this? - What strategies can we employ to ensure maximum engagement? C. WHAT IS THE ROLE OF WOMEN WITH DISABILITIES, DEAF WOMEN, AND SURVIVORS OF VIOLENCE IN THIS WORK? When talking with key stakeholders, a strong and consistent theme was the importance of including the voices of women who are directly impacted by this work. This theme involves two things as follow: 1) women must be an integral player in these collaborations and as such, involved in every level of this work – including planning, implementation, and evaluation, and 2) the involvement of women with disabilities and Deaf women is an opportunity to build capacity and develop leadership among these communities of women. Below is the discussion plan. 1. Associates’ reflections on this issue: Two associates will offer their perspectives on why is it necessary for women impacted by this work to be involved. * Sally Mason * Beverly Frantz * Julie Rems-Smario 2. Sample prompts for group discussion: a) Why is it necessary for women impacted by this work to be involved? b) What are the ways in which we can benefit from having the women who are impacted by this work directly involved in the work? c) What are the ways in which the women themselves can benefit from this involvement? d) What are the specific roles of women with disabilities and Deaf women in this work? e) How do we avoid tokenizing women? f) What obstacles exist to engaging women with disabilities and Deaf women in this work in meaningful ways? * How can these obstacles be overcome? D. WHAT IS OUR THEORY OF CHANGE WHEN IT COMES TO INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY? This discussion will discuss a range of strategies that exist to get service providers into compliance with the ADA. In some case, advocates disagree about which of these strategies are most effective in creating change and when. The discussion is to help everyone involved to better understand ways to help move people from resistance to change their services to be more accessible. Below is the discussion plan. 1. Associates’ reflections on this issue: Two associates offer perspectives on their community’s experience with different strategies for moving people from resistance to change when it comes to accessibility, including concrete examples of which strategies have created the most change and what conditions were necessary for those strategies to be effective. * Amy Judy * Deborah Lisi-Baker * Erin Volk 2. Prompts for group discussion: a) What are the different types of strategies that you have used to move people from resistance to change when it comes to ensuring the accessibility of services, facilities, communications, policies, and practices? * What are the pros and cons of each? b) Which of these strategies are most effective given our goal of moving people beyond compliance with the ADA and toward inclusive practices that effectively serve women with the widest array of disabilities? * What conditions must be present in order for each of these strategies to be effective? c) What is the role of lawsuits and/or the threat of lawsuits in our work together? d) Why is a unified strategy for our work together important? E. HOW DO WE ENSURE THAT OUR WORK IS EFFECTIVE IN MEETING THE NEEDS OF DIVERSE WOMEN? The discussion will discuss ways to ensure the service providers’ effective services provided to diverse women. The purpose of this discussion is to explore and identify how everyone involved in the field of work with survivors with disabilities and Deaf survivors is effective. When thinking about ways policies and practices accessible to women with disabilities and Deaf women are made, there are other aspects of culture including race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, language, national origin and citizenship that can not be excluded. Focus on the diverse and complex reality of women’s identities and lives are often lost. Below is the discussion plan. 1. Associates’ reflections on this issue: Two associates offer their perspectives on why is it necessary to take into account the multiplicity of women’s identities; what implications this has for our work; and what barriers exist to making our work culturally specific. * Sujata Warrier * Ann Kranz * Pat Speck 2. Prompts for group discussion: a) Why is it necessary to take into account the multiplicity of women’s identities? b) What does it mean or look like for our work to take into account the multiplicity of women’s identities? c) What barriers exist to making our work culturally specific? * How can we overcome these barriers? * How do we ensure that this is not an add-on issue or an after thought, but rather is infused in every aspect of our work? * How do we avoid tokenizing women from specific cultural groups? d) What implications does this broader understanding have for our work and the work of our pilot sites? III. IMPLICATIONS The two-day global discussions about five critical issues in the field of violence and disability provided associates with in-depth information of similarities and differences among philosophies and historical movements among each other. The next discussion will focus on one of the critical issues that were discussed thus far, and respond to a series of questions related to our discussion. The goal of this discussion is to identify ways that the new technical assistance providers can best meet sites’ needs. Below is the list of discussion questions. * What do we as technical assistance providers need to do? * What do the pilot sites need to do? In addition, each group will respond to specific questions related to their topic. Some of those questions were determined in advance (see below) and others will be based on group discussion. A. SAFETY * What does it mean for our work and the work of the pilots sites to be guided by the safety of women with disabilities and Deaf women? What does that look like? * How do we ensure that our work together and the work of the pilot sites maintain a focus on the safety of women with disabilities and Deaf women who have experienced violence? B. DEFINITIONS * What strategies can be used to move people from using a narrow definition of violence towards a broader definition that is more reflective of the lives of women with disabilities and Deaf women? * Specifically, what strategies can be used to broaden the work when communities are facing more narrow legal definitions? C. THEORY OF CHANGE D. ROLE OF WOMEN W/DISABILITIES, DEAF WOMEN, AND SURVIVORS * How can the work funded by this grant program be used as an opportunity to develop leadership in disability and Deaf communities? * What do we as technical assistance providers need to do? * What do the pilot sites need to do? E. MEETING THE NEEDS OF DIVERSE WOMEN January 6, 2006 2