Overview Guide 


Section 1: Introduction ........................... 4-9 
Section 2: Illinois Imagines Planning 

 Process ………………...... 10-17 
Section 3: Women with Disabilities 
and Sexual Violence ......... 18-23 
Section 4: Creating a Local Collaboration 

 …………………………... 24-29 
Section 5: Tools ................................. 30-79 
. Tool 1: Team Building 
. Tool 2: Collaboration Documents 
. Tool 3: Sample Strategic Plan 
. Tool 4: Cultural Humility Resources 
. Tool 5: Definitions and Acronyms 
. Tool 6: Illinois Imagines’ Needs 

 Assessment 


 


Introduction 
What Is This Toolkit? 
A collaboration team, called Illinois Imagines, 
created the Our Rights, Right Now Toolkit to guide 
disability service agencies and rape crisis centers as 
they respond to women with disabilities who 
experience sexual violence. The guide includes an 
introduction to the issue of sexual violence against 
women with disabilities, information specific to each 
discipline and tools for service provider agencies to 
share with women with disabilities. 
This Toolkit is one key product of the strategic 
planning process. It contains the resources to: 1) 
foster local collaborations among disability service 
agencies and rape crisis centers, 2) train workers in 
disability service agencies and rape crisis centers to 
improve their response to women with disabilities 
who experience sexual violence, and 3) equip service 
providers with the tools to inform women with 
disabilities about their rights and options. 
The Our Rights, Right Now Toolkit consists of five 
modules: 



Module 1: The Overview Guide – This module 
provides the foundation information and guidance to 
assist a local collaboration to improve responses to 
women with disabilities who experience sexual 
violence. 
Module 2: Guide for Disability Service Agencies – 
This module provides educational and training 
material on sexual violence and trauma response for 
disability service agency staff. It also guides 
agencies regarding how to create a safe environment 
for women with disabilities to discuss sexual 
violence. 
Module 3: Guide for Rape Crisis Centers – This 
module provides education and training material on a 
victim-centered rape crisis center response to women 
with disabilities who experience sexual violence. It 
also guides rape crisis centers regarding how to 
enhance their ability to serve women with 
disabilities. 
Module 4: Women with Disabilities and Sexual 
Violence Education Guide – This module provides a 
step-by-step training curriculum for the rape crisis 
center and/or disability agency staff to use to educate 
women with disabilities about sexual violence, their 


rights, healthy sexuality and how to get help. 


Module 5: Multi-media – The materials in Module 5 
are intended for both rape crisis centers and disability 
service agencies. This module contains training 
material for agency staff, including two education 
videos on working with women with disabilities who 
experience sexual violence. A third video is intended 
for use when conducting educational sessions with 
women with disabilities. The module also include a 
CD containing this toolkit material, including 
handouts, in PDF format. Also, a CD of “Who, What, 
Where, When: A symbol book for communicating 
with survivors of sexual abuse who use 
Augmentative and alternative communication” is in 
this module. Additional videos, posters and other 
material can help create an environment that 
welcomes women with disabilities to discuss sexual 
violence. 
We hope this Toolkit is useful 
as you work to Achieve Change 
What is Illinois Imagines? 
Illinois Imagines is a project of the Illinois 


Department of Human Services (DHS) funded by the 
Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). In 
2006, DHS received a three-year grant from OVW to 
examine and propose changes to the systems 
responding to women with disabilities who 
experience sexual violence. DHS’ grant project, 
called Illinois Imagines, is designed to strengthen the 
service delivery systems so that women with 
disabilities who survive sexual violence will receive a 
proactive, individualized, compassionate response to 
their experience. 
Illinois Imagines convened a project team including 
representatives of key agencies working in the fields 
of disability and sexual assault. While bringing 
together partners from various areas of study can be 
challenging, all project team members shared a 
common vision of justice, compassion, person-
centered services, and the empowerment of all 
women with disabilities who have survived sexual 
violence. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Overview Guide Tools 
Tool 1 Definitions and Acronyms ................ Pages 32-37 


Tool 2 Cultural Humility Resources ............. Pages 38-43 
. Disability Humility: A New Way of Thinking 

 .............. Pages 38-39 
. Disability Humility for Employers: 

 A Framework for Training ..... Pages 40-43 
Tool 3 Team Building .................................. Pages 44-55 
. Initial Collaboration Meetings .............. Pages 44-47 
. Meeting Icebreakers 
and Closing Activities .......................... Pages 48-53 
. The ABC’s of Meetings ....................... Pages 54-55 
Tool 4 Collaboration Documents ................ Pages 56-64 
. Statement of Agreement ....................... Pages 56-57 
. Collaboration Charter ............................. Pages 58-61 
. Collaboration Membership Roster .............. Page 62 
. Meeting Sign-in Sheet ................................. Page 63 
Tool 5 Needs Assessment ............................ Pages 64-72 
. Questionnaires and Surveys ......... Pages 64-72 
Tool 6 Strategic Planning ............................. Pages 73-77 
. Strategic Planning Questions .............. Page 73 
. Strategic Plan (Sample) ................ Pages 74-77