No Wrong Door New Jersey 

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Strategic Plan 2010 

 

 Women.s Education, Training and Enhanced Services to End Violence Against and Abuse of 
Women with Disabilities Grant 

OVW Grant # 2007-FX-AX-K007 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Table of Contents 

 

Overview of the Collaboration------------------------------------------------Page 3 

 Collaboration Charter---------------------------------------------------Page 4 

 Narrowing the Focus----------------------------------------------------Page 5 

 

Needs Assessment Plan, Implementation and Report-----------------Page 7 

 Planning--------------------------------------------------------------------Page 7 

 Implementation-----------------------------------------------------------Page 8 

 Report-----------------------------------------------------------------------Page 8 

 

Collaboration Structure and Work Process-----------------------------Page 11 

 

Strategic Plan--------------------------------------------------------------------Page 12 

 Statewide Initiative------------------------------------------------------Page 14 

 Initiatives Involving the Pilot Sites----------------------------------Page 17 

 

Long Term Initiatives----------------------------------------------------------Page 21 

 

Conclusion----------------------------------------------------------------------Page 22 

 

 

 

 

 


The No Wrong Door New Jersey (NWDNJ) collaboration is committed to 
addressing the intersection of violence and the lives of women with intellectual and 
developmental disabilities and women with mental illness. The NWDNJ collaboration 
partners have been working together for a number of years to improve the services 
provided to this historically silenced population. The following document outlines the 
collaboration.s history, needs assessment findings and strategic plan. Past efforts 
and plans for the future are grounded in the No Wrong Door New Jersey project 
vision: “We envision that survivors of domestic and sexual violence with 
disabilities will be treated with dignity and respect through a seamless 
integrated system where they will receive timely, appropriate and sufficient 
services regardless of the door they enter”. 

 

I. Overview of Collaboration 


The NWDNJ collaboration consists of four statewide advocacy agencies 
dedicated to improving the quality of services for survivors of domestic and 
sexual violence and women with intellectual and developmental disabilities and 
women with mental illness. Fear and stigma leave women within the selected 
disability populations with little voice and power. Through collective efforts the 
collaboration partners hope to end the silence of these women and create 
sustainable systems change. The collaboration includes: 

. The Arc of New Jersey (The Arc of NJ) - Established in 1949, The Arc 
of New Jersey is a civil and human rights advocacy organization 
committed to community inclusion for all individuals with intellectual 
and related developmental disabilities. Community-based services are 
available statewide through a strong network of local county chapters. 


 

. The Mental Health Association in New Jersey (MHANJ) – A nonprofit 
agency that strives for mental health for children and adults through 
advocacy, education, training, and services. 


 

. New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NJCASA) – A nonprofit 
agency whose mission is to promote the compassionate and just 
treatment of survivors, their loved ones and significant others, foster 
collaborative relationships between community systems, and affect 
attitudinal and behavioral changes in society as we work toward the 
elimination of sexual violence against all people. 


 


. New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women (NJCBW) - A statewide 
association that provides leadership, support and resources on the 
prevention of violence against women in New Jersey through 
advocacy, training, public awareness and research. 


No Wrong Door NJ received an Education, Training and Enhanced Services to 
End Violence Against and Abuse of Women with Disabilities grant from the Department 
of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) in 2007. The grant purpose 
focuses on creating systems change within disability and victim services agencies. This 
generous award has funded the collaboration.s planning work to effectively create 
systems change in New Jersey during the past two years. The collaboration partners 
entered an extensive process to strengthen the relationships of organizations within the 
collaboration, determine pilot site locations and identify the gaps in service provision 
within disability and victim service agencies. 

 

** The terms “collaboration partners”, “project team,” and “the team” are used 
interchangeably in this plan. These terms reference the NWDNJ collaboration partners 
in their various roles and activities throughout the strategic plan and implementation 
phase. Additionally, the terms “pilot partners”, “pilot sites” and “local collaborations” are 
used interchangeably in this plan to reference the agencies in the Atlantic and Morris 
pilot site counties. 

 

A. Collaboration Charter 


The OVW grant allowed NWDNJ a significant amount of time to strengthen the 
collaboration. As part of a process to develop a formalized collaboration charter, the 
partners explored shared values, strengths and areas of opportunity. Common 
language and a set of communication guidelines were developed as well as agreements 
regarding roles and responsibilities and the work process. The team formalized these 
discussions in a document referred to as the No Wrong Door New Jersey Collaboration 
Charter. From this insightful process, a mission statement was cultivated to address the 
issue of violence in the lives of women with disabilities: 

 

The mission of No Wrong Door NJ is to build the capacity of domestic and sexual 
violence organizations, intellectual and developmental disability organizations and 
mental health organizations, to provide an integrated continuum of services to survivors 
with disabilities. The collaboration will do so by: 

. Fostering collaborative partnerships 
. Developing and promoting promising practices and policies for service provision 



. Encouraging the participation of survivors with disabilities in the development, 
delivery and evaluation of the initiative 
. Encouraging accountability and responsibility as an integral part of the continuum 
of services 
. Supporting continuous quality improvement 


 

Upon OVW approval of the collaboration charter in June 2008, the NWDNJ team began 
a process of narrowing the project.s focus. 

 


 

B. Narrowing the focus 


 

New Jersey is a densely populated state with 21 counties. To effectively 
implement systems change, the collaboration decided to recruit disability agencies and 
victim service agencies in two counties to act as pilot sites for the project. An extensive 
set of criteria was developed to assess the capacity and willingness of affiliates of The 
Arc of NJ and the MHANJ and the members of NJCBW and NJCASA. After performing 
an extensive assessment, the collaboration determined that organizations in Atlantic 
and Morris Counties met the criteria. The selection process was documented in the No 
Wrong Door NJ Narrowing the Focus Memo. 

The following agencies were recruited and agreed to participate in the project: 

. The Atlantic County Women.s Center (ACWC) is a non-profit organization 
dedicated to empowering and supporting women, children and families. Services 
include a 24 hour hotline, counseling, emergency shelter services, legal 
assistance, children.s services, batterer.s intervention and a sexual assault 
response team. It is a member program of both NJCBW and NJCASA, providing 
both domestic and sexual violence services. The ACWC is unique to this project 
as they are the only dual agency among the pilot partners. The agency suffered 
a significant budget cut during the planning phase of the grant and continues to 
deal with the challenges of changes in staff roles and responsibilities. 


 

. The Arc of Atlantic County (The Arc of AC) is a non-profit organization that 
makes a difference in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental 
disabilities and their families through a variety of services including but not 
limited to housing, advocacy and support services. It is a chapter of The Arc of 
NJ. The Arc of AC is the largest of the pilot partners, employing over 200 staff. 


 

 


. The Mental Health Association in Atlantic County (MHA in AC) is an organization 
dedicated to improving the mental health of people in New Jersey and to 
achieving victory over all types of mental illness through advocacy, education 
and support services. It is an affiliate of MHA in NJ and the smallest of the pilot 
partners in Atlantic County. 


 

. Jersey Battered Women.s Service (JBWS), Inc. is a non-profit organization 
providing domestic violence and abuse prevention services in Morris County. 
Services include a 24-hour hotline, counseling, emergency shelter and 
transitional living services, legal assistance, children.s services, batterer.s 
intervention and a teen dating abuse prevention program. It is a member of 
NJCBW. JBWS is the project.s largest Morris County pilot partner, employing 
over 75 staff. 


 

. The Morris County Sexual Assault Center (MCSAC) is a non-profit organization 
providing support and advocacy to survivors and their families in the area of 
sexual assault and abuse. It is a member of NJCASA. The agency suffered a 
significant budget cut during the planning phase of the grant and continues to 
deal with the challenges of changes in staff roles and responsibilities. 
Additionally, they experienced a leadership change immediately after the needs 
assessment process yet they remain committed to the NWDNJ project. 


 

. The Mental Health Association of Morris County (MHA of MC) is a non-profit 
organization that provides a wide variety of support, education and advocacy 
services for adults, children and families impacted by mental illness. It is an 
affiliate of the MHA in NJ. Despite a leadership change during the planning 
phase of this grant, MHA of MC remains committed to the NWDNJ project. 


 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 


II. Needs Assessment Plan, Implementation and Report 


 

A. Planning 


Upon completion and OVW approval of the Focus Memo, the collaboration 
constructed a plan to gather critical data about the gaps in services at the domestic and 
sexual violence and disability organizations in Atlantic and Morris Counties. Existing 
national data was limited and information regarding service provision to the selected 
populations within New Jersey was unavailable. The team created a set of guiding 
questions to provide a framework for the needs assessment plan. It was expected that 
the collected data would answer the following global questions: 

 

1. What are the hopes and expectations of consumers with intellectual and 
developmental disabilities and consumers with mental illness service 
system(s)? What are the hopes and expectations of survivors of domestic 
and sexual violence service systems? How do those expectations align 
with services? 


 

2. What are the experiences of people with intellectual and developmental 
disabilities and people with mental illness when utilizing services? What 
are the experiences of survivors of domestic and sexual violence when 
utilizing services? 


 

 

3. What are existing relationships between organizations providing direct 
services? What barriers exist that make it difficult for relationship building 
between organizations? 


 

4. What is the status of the current service system between disability 
organizations and providers of domestic and sexual violence programs in 
Atlantic and Morris Counties? What are the opportunities for change within 
these systems? What barriers are present that prevents that change? 


 

Once these questions were established, the project partners engaged in conversations 
regarding details of the needs assessment plan. 

 Safety and accessibility factors were the foremost driving factors in regard 
to the data collection process. The completed needs assessment plan included the 
goals, purpose, proposed audiences, recruitment process, confidentiality plan, consent 
process, incentives, work plan and tools. The needs assessment was designed to 


capture the experiences of those designing, budgeting for, overseeing and providing 
services as well as those individuals who utilize services. Based on the wide range of 
audiences and many discussions regarding which method would be most effective for 
data collection, the collaboration agreed to use a combination of focus groups, 
individual interviews and a survey to collect data in both pilot counties. 

Proposed audiences for focus groups included staff, consumers with disabilities, 
survivors of domestic and sexual violence, volunteers of the sexual assault programs, 
mental health consumers-at-large and self advocates. These two-hour focus groups 
were conducted by a floater, facilitator and note taker and held in locations accessible 
by public transportation. Individual interviews were scheduled with a representative from 
each pilot agency.s Board of Directors, Executive Directors, Program Directors, Sexual 
Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) and caregivers of individuals with intellectual and 
developmental disabilities. The No Wrong Door NJ Needs Assessment Plan was 
submitted to the Office on Violence Against Women and received approval in May 2009. 

B. Implementation 


In June of 2009, the NWDNJ project began implementing the needs assessment 
plan. To collect the necessary data, core members of the statewide collaboration team 
were assigned to conduct face-to-face and telephone interviews. Additional staff from 
the statewide partner agencies were recruited and trained to act as facilitators and 
floaters at the focus groups. Focus groups were held at all of the pilot partner agencies. 
They were scheduled at varying times to meet the needs of participants. Target gift 
cards were issued to consumers, survivors, self-advocates and mental health 
consumers-at-large upon their arrival for their participation in the focus groups. 

All of the interviews and focus groups were conducted over a 35-day period. 
Data collected from the focus groups and interviews was recorded manually and typed 
as soon as possible after the interaction. The post focus group discussions between 
facilitators, floaters and note takers were tape recorded. During the tape recording 
sessions, the staff conducting the focus groups avoided discussing any factors that 
could reveal any personally identifying information about the participants. All data 
collected was given to the Project Coordinator and kept in a locked drawer in her office. 

C. Report 


The NWDNJ collaboration was able to complete the majority of the proposed 
interviews and focus groups and is grateful to all those that participated. Budget cuts to 
a few of the pilot partner agencies created a barrier to completing as many program 
director interviews and staff focus groups as proposed. Due to communication and 
protocol barriers, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) were the only proposed 
audience that the collaboration was unable to gather data from. 


The final numbers for participation in both Atlantic and Morris Counties are as 
follows: 

Focus Groups 

Audience 

Number of Focus 
Groups 

Number of Participants 

Staff 

7 

49 

Consumers 

4 

24 

Consumers-at-Large 

3 

19 

Survivors of Sexual and 
Domestic Violence 

5 

43 



 
Interviews 

Audience 

Number of Interviews 

Board of Directors 

5 

Executive Directors 

7 

Program Directors 

24 

Staff 

1 

Sexual Assault Volunteer 

5 

Caregivers 

3 

Self-Advocates 

5 

Consumers 

1 

Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence 

2 

SANES 

0 



 

Atlantic County Total participants = 95 

Morris County Total participants = 93 

Total Participants = 188 


 

Upon completion of the data collection, data was analyzed by the NWDNJ 
Project Coordinator, the Project Director and NJCBW.s Technical Assistance 
Coordinator. The needs assessment was not a professional research project and no 
scientific method was used to analyze the data. Findings were based on themes that 
were seen consistently throughout audiences and counties. The themes were shared 
with the statewide collaboration for further feedback and discussion. The findings were 
documented in a 65 page Needs Assessment Report which included the audiences who 
spoke to each finding and more detailed information regarding service providers and 
users. experiences in Atlantic and Morris Counties. The No Wrong Door NJ Needs 
Assessment Report was submitted and approved by OVW in December 2009. 


Data revealed the following findings: 

. Inconsistencies in policies and procedures 
o Around the intersection of violence and people with disabilities 
o To communicate new and revised policies and procedures to current and 
new staff as well as consumers/survivors 
o For consumer intake across staff and agencies 
o Knowledge and viable process for consumer rights, safety and 
confidentiality 




 

. Weak inter-agency collaborations 
o Informal or nonexistent community relationships among pilot site partners 
o Lack of cross-training and understanding of the issues of violence in the 
lives of survivors and women with disabilities 




 

. Ineffective referral systems 
o Provided on a very limited basis or not at all 
o Supplied without proper follow-up 
o Supplied with limited regard to individual needs 




 

. Inadequate accessibility for consumers and survivors 
o Attitudinal barriers to meeting the needs of people with intellectual and 
developmental disabilities and people with mental illness 
o Inequity in the manner that accommodations are provided 




 

. Insufficient attention to confidentiality 
o Lack areas to accommodate intake privacy and confidentiality 




 

 


. Scarce community based resources 
o Lack of shared resources in the community 
o Inadequate eligibility and approval process 
o Personnel shortages 




 

. Inconsistency in perceptions between service providers and consumers/survivors 
o Insufficient program guidelines 
o Lack of consumer involvement in developing guidelines 




 

. Lack of budget planning to address selected population 
o Budget lacks specific allocations for selected population 




 

. Insufficient safety measures (Morris County specific) 


 

These findings became the basis for the No Wrong Door New Jersey Strategic Plan. 

 

III. Collaboration Structure and Work Process 


 

 In recognition of the change in the types of work to be accomplished during the 
implementation phase of the grant, the collaboration agreed to develop workgroups to 
specifically address each initiative. The collaboration team believes that the workgroups 
will clarify roles and responsibilities; enhance productivity and effectiveness for 
completing tasks; and maintain structure and accountability to the statewide team 
during the transition to the Implementation Phase. Most workgroups will consist of at 
least one member from each of the statewide partners to ensure appropriate agency 
representation and consumer and survivor voice. Workgroups include a Technical 
Assistance Team, an Accessibility Review Team, a Responsiveness Review Team, a 
Training Team and a Resource Development Team. All statewide team members will 
participate in at least two workgroups. The Chair for each workgroup will be responsible 
for coordinating tasks based on a timeline specific for that workgroup and maintain a 
schedule for meetings. The Chair is also responsible for reporting the progress of the 
work to the statewide team. 

 

 The statewide collaboration will meet a minimum of two hours once per month. 
Meetings will be primarily face-to-face at the Arc of New Jersey and via phone if 
necessary. Most meetings will be scheduled for a maximum of five hours. The logistics 
for these meetings will be coordinated by the Project Director. The team members will 
commit to attend regularly scheduled meetings, as described. A calendar for 2010 
scheduled meetings will be posted on Base Camp. Team members had previously 
agreed to rotate responsibilities of facilitator and note taker; that practice will continue. 


During the Implementation Phase, the Project Director will continue to act as the 
primary point of contact for the media, work closely with the fiscal intermediary 
(Executive Director of NJCBW) to monitor the budget and be the main point of contact 
with OVW. Additionally, the Project Director will coordinate activities of the statewide 
team and Chairs. 

The Project Coordinator will assist the Project Director on issues related to the 
overall function of the collaboration. However, once the strategic plan is approved, 
statewide workgroups will be responsible for deliverables outlined in the work plan to be 
delivered to OVW. The Project Director and Chairs of workgroups are collectively 
responsible for assisting workgroups to maintain timelines and meet deadlines. The 
Project Director will become the primary contact for the statewide team and report on 
the overall activities and progress of the entire project consistent with the responsibility 
of the chair of the statewide team. The Vera Institute of Justice will continue to provide 
technical assistance to the team. The Chair of the statewide team will coordinate 
monthly TA sessions with Vera via telephone during the monthly statewide meeting. 
Chairs of all workgroups will have an opportunity to discuss needs at that time. The 
statewide Chair will coordinate contact with Vera in advance of the monthly meeting, if 
TA is required. No Wrong Door NJ expects that established clear roles and 
responsibilities will contribute to successful implementation of the strategic plan. 

 

 

IV. Strategic Plan 


Upon approval of the Needs Assessment Report, the statewide collaboration began 
discussions around developing a strategic plan to address some of the needs 
assessment findings. The statewide team participated in a two-day strategic planning 
retreat, facilitated by staff from the Vera Institute of Justice, to discuss and prioritize 
possible initiatives. The process of choosing initiatives was guided by a number of 
principles. These principals are based on the collaboration.s shared values as outlined 
in the Collaboration Charter. 

Guiding principals include: 

. Ensuring that all activities have meaningful engagement and inclusion of 
consumers and survivors. 
. Short term initiatives should be feasible, given the time constraints and the 
resources available during the implementation phase of the grant. 
. Initiatives should be prioritized based on what the collaboration believes are 
foundational activities to create sustainable systems change. 


The collaboration continues to emphasize the principal of social justice throughout its 
work; all persons have an equal right to receive fair and timely services from service 
providers. Using these principals and the needs assessment findings as a framework, 
the NWDNJ project has selected four short-term initiatives. 


 During the strategic planning retreat, the team had a number of discussions 
regarding the current structure of the collaboration and how the initiatives chosen would 
be executed. In meetings immediately following the retreat, a number of decisions were 
made in regard to altering the current collaboration structure and regarding the structure 
to provide technical assistance to the pilot sites. The structure of the current statewide 
collaboration worked successfully during the planning phase of this grant. However, the 
activities planned for implementation require more intensive attention from the statewide 
members and will often occur concurrently. In order to accomplish the proposed 
initiatives, the statewide collaboration has revised its current structure. Work groups 
have been created with designated chairpersons to lead each team to perform specific 
tasks. (See section III of this plan for more detail on the structure of the collaboration.) 

 

 It will be imperative that the statewide partners have an effective plan to provide 
technical assistance. For consistency purposes, a statewide team member will be 
assigned to each pilot site county. These two point people will act as a team (referred to 
as the statewide technical assistance (TA) team), working in conjunction to identify and 
meet the needs of the pilot sites. Additional resources from the statewide partner 
agencies will be utilized as the need arises for certain expertise. 

 

The following section of the plan will detail each initiative and the activities 
involved. For further clarity, the initiatives have been separated by specific statewide 
goals and goals that involve both the statewide collaboration and the pilot sites. 

 

Statewide Collaboration Initiative: 

 

 

Initiative 1: Expand statewide team's capacity to provide technical assistance. 

 

 

 

Initiatives Involving the Pilot Sites include: 

Initiative 1: Foster collaboration among the pilot site agencies. 

Initiative 2: Enhance access and safety at the local level. 

Initiative 3: Develop policies and procedures that are accessible and responsive to 
survivors with disabilities. 

The following section will provide: 1) further detail on each initiative; 
2) documentation on the rational for each initiative; 3) the activities involved; 
4) roles and responsibility for carrying out the activities; 5) and a projected 
timeline. 

A detailed work plan (see attached Appendix A) outlines the specific tasks for the 
implementation phase. 

 

 




 

Statewide Initiative 

 

Initiative 1: Expand statewide team’s capacity to provide technical 
assistance on the issue of violence and women with disabilities. 

 

One of the main services that the statewide partners currently provide is 
technical assistance to their members and affiliates. The collaboration, 
however, recognizes that the intersection of violence and women with disabilities is one 
that requires more extensive training and knowledge. 

 

 Although the pilot partners have a good working knowledge and resources, the 
statewide collaboration expects them to gain additional tools during the implementation 
of the strategic plan, as well as encounter challenges with creating systems change. 
The statewide team is vested in providing continual support to pilot partners in order to 
maintain seamless, timely and sufficient service provisions to the selected populations 
and sustain long-term systems change. 

 

 NWDNJ acknowledges that it would be challenging for a single agency to have sole 
expertise in the focus areas of domestic and sexual violence as well as mental health 
and intellectual and developmental disabilities. To provide effective services to 
survivors with disabilities, the victim service agencies and the disability agencies must 
develop a process of working together. The statewide partners have been working 
together for a number of years to address this issue yet concede that there are a 
number of ways the collaboration could strengthen its relationships and work more 
proactively on a number of levels. In order to continue to provide an example of a 
strong, proactive collaboration, there are a number of activities the partners will engage 
in to increase our capacities. 

 

Activity 1: Enhance internal capacity around the issue of domestic and sexual violence 
in the lives of women with disabilities. 

 The key purpose of the grant is to create sustainable systems change. To realize 
sustainable systems change at the local level, continual support to the pilot sites from 
the statewide team, beyond the grant period, is required. The statewide technical 
assistance team, with input from additional statewide team members, will develop a 
plan for providing long term technical assistance to the pilot site agencies. 

 The Collaboration agrees with the need to be the change that we want to see. 
While we accept that we are not there yet, we must believe that the collaboration 
will continue to reach for that goal. Therefore, during the Implementation Phase of the 
project the collaboration will perform a number of activities that will strengthen its 
capacity to provide long term technical assistance. The statewide team will continue to 
meet on a monthly basis. The meetings will be used to share information and 
knowledge gained from interactions with the pilot sites and working groups. This 
process will create an opportunity for the statewide team to gain more insight on issues 




that may emerge, document valuable information and offer feedback. Lessons learned 
during this process will be recorded and used for a toolkit along with best practices that 
emerge during the Implementation Phase and from the Planning Phase. These 
lessons learned will contribute not only to the technical assistance of the collaboration, 
and the pilot sites, but they will also enhance the TA being provided to statewide 
affiliates and chapters. 

 During the Spring and early Summer of 2010, the project plans to perform 
accessibility and responsiveness reviews at the pilot site level. The accessibility review 
tool will be performed at NJCBW and NJCASA also as a way to test the effectiveness 
of the tool. The results from the reviews will be one way that the statewide partners 
benefit from ongoing learning from the pilot sites. It is the hope of the collaboration 
that learning from these reviews, as well as learning from the pilot sites and working 
group activities will increase the collaboration.s working knowledge of how to best 
provide services to victims and survivors with disabilities. Finally, a No Wrong Door NJ 
Toolkit (see page 16 for more detail regarding the toolkit) will be developed with the 
collected best practices and lessons learned from the project that will be shared with a 
broader audience statewide as a long term tool for technical assistance. Information 
related to challenges around collaboration, capacity building and systems change will 
be gathered during the implementation. Throughout the implementation, the TA team 
will be evaluating the technical assistance to the pilots to gauge effectiveness. A long-
term technical assistance plan will be developed in August and September of 2010 
based on lessons learned from providing technical assistance to the pilot sites during 
the implementation phase. 

 

Activity 2: Develop a train-the-trainer curriculum around the intersection of violence and 
women with disabilities. 

 

 During the needs assessment, the collaboration heard from various stakeholders 
that cross-training between victim services and disability organizations was a much 
needed resource. To address this need, the No Wrong Door NJ collaboration will 
designate a Training Team to develop a curriculum to specifically address domestic 
and sexual violence in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental 
disabilities and people with mental illness. The team assigned to this task will review 
national best practice curriculums and adapt them to address the specific issues of 
NWDNJ’s target populations. The expectation is that the curriculum will provide a basis 
for victim services and disability organizations to develop a continuous system for 
cross-training. The training team will design and develop a curriculum between May 
and September of 2010 in hopes that there will be time to share it with the pilot 
partners before the end of the grant cycle. 

 

 NWDNJ recognizes that a best practice curriculum does not contribute to long-
lasting systems change if it is only one time training. In order to make the best use of 
this training, the statewide partners will incorporate it into their annual conferences as 
part of the variety of workshops offered. NJCBW and NJCASA will incorporate the 
curriculum into their training institutes with year round trainings offered to a wide range 




of community stakeholders. As part of the sustainability plan (Activity 4), the 
collaboration will continue to have discussions to explore additional ways to 
institutionalize the curriculum into our future work. 

 

 

Activity 3: Develop a toolkit that will improve services for survivors with disabilities. 

 

 The NWDNJ collaboration believes that sufficient resources are an essential part 
of improving services for survivors with disabilities. The needs assessment performed 
on Atlantic and Morris Counties reflected the barriers that victim services and disability 
agencies face due in part to a lack of available resources. To address this challenge, 
members of the statewide collaboration will be assigned to a Resource Development 
Team. Using best practice models, this team will create a toolkit that can be utilized by 
service providers to encourage more timely and appropriate services. The toolkit will 
include lessons learned and best practices collected by the statewide collaboration. It 
is expected that the toolkit will not only enhance the capacity of the pilot partners but 
will additionally be useful to victim services and disability agencies throughout New 
Jersey. The Resource Development Team will design, develop and produce the tool kit 
beginning in May 2010 to utilize some of the knowledge gained through working with 
the pilot sites. The finalized tool kit will be incorporated into the statewide team.s many 
existing resources such as: agency websites, resource libraries and training institutes. 

 

 

Activity 4: Develop a sustainability plan. 

Sustaining a long-term commitment to address the intersection of violence and 
women with disabilities is one that the statewide partners feel strongly about. Funding 
will be the overarching challenge, but the partners will develop a sustainability plan that 
addresses both in-kind solutions and additional external funding sources. 

The statewide meetings will be used to refine specifics of the plan. The plan will 
include ways to integrate the project.s work into statewide conferences and training 
schedules and offer both to pilot sites on an ongoing basis. The partners are planning 
to draft an updated Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will detail each 
partner.s contribution to this long-term plan. Engaging other possible statewide 
partners such as the criminal justice system or other disability related agencies is 
another strong possibility. Ultimately, the collaboration.s goal is to develop local 
collaborations modeled after the best practices learned from the current pilot sites in 
Atlantic and Morris counties. 

 Ideally, the No Wrong Door NJ Sustainability Plan will continue to be developed 
based on lessons learned and best practices to be shared with other statewide 
coalitions and with local programs that desire to replicate what was done in New 
Jersey. The statewide team will make this information more readily available with the 
development of a Toolkit. 

 




Initiatives Involving the Pilot Sites 

 

Initiative 1: Foster collaboration among the pilot site agencies. 

 The needs assessment conducted by the NWDNJ project revealed 
that there are areas to strengthen the collaborative relationships at the 
local level. The pilot site partners face challenges around time 
constraints and lack of adequate resources to devote the time and 
energy towards building relationships with the other pilot agencies. 
Authentic, proactive collaboration is foundational to creating sustainable systems 
change. Without collaborations that engage all levels of an organization, change will 
either not occur or be short lived. The statewide collaboration had developed a number 
of activities focused on fostering collaboration among the pilot site agencies. The pilot 
sites will be supported through the activities in this initiative by the statewide technical 
assistance (TA) team. Activities 1 and 2 act as the foundation for all of the future work 
of the pilot partners and are scheduled to occur February through March of 2010. 
Activities 3 and 4 build upon these activities and will occur after the pilot partners 
increase the trust and authenticity in their collective relationship. 

 

Activity 1: Support local collaboration to develop own identity and work process. 

 

 The pilot partners are currently not meeting as a distinct group to address the 
intersection of violence and women with disabilities. The statewide technical assistance 
team will engage in activities with the local collaborations to assist them in developing 
a work process and identity. (See page 7 in the attached Appendix A for more detail on 
activities.) Creating a shared identity will act as a building block for the collaboration.s 
other work together. Agreeing on a work process will create clear roles and 
responsibility and a greater level of accountability. Multiple meetings will be 
coordinated and facilitated by the TA team focused on cultivating the collaborative 
relationships. The process of engaging in these structured discussions will strengthen 
the relationships among pilot partners and increase the likelihood of the partners 
continuing to collaborate. The pilot partners will be able to provide enhanced services 
because they will have a work process in place that encourages proactive relationships 
versus reactive ones. 

 

 

Activity 2: Enhance knowledge of services between collaboration partners. 

 

 One of the key activities to strengthen local agencies. relationships is to gain 
better understanding of the values held, programs offered and population served by the 
partner organizations. The pilot partners will increase their knowledge of one another.s 
services available and populations served through a number of activities including 
agency tours, presentations and cross trainings for staff. To deepen their collective 
relationship, pilot partners will engage in discussions regarding shared barriers and 
their agencies. areas for opportunity. In an effort to inform others of their work 
together, the local collaborations will be supported by the statewide collaboration to 
make a public announcement of their relationship and commitment. 




 

 

Activity 3: Local agency self-examination. 

 

 As the local collaboration partners strengthen their relationships and increase 
their knowledge about their partners, the NWDNJ team will lead them through a 
process of self examination. The needs assessment identified challenges that the pilot 
partners face around providing safe and accessible services to survivors with 
disabilities. Statewide review teams will create and perform accessibility and 
responsiveness audits to gauge the current levels at the pilot agencies. (See Initiative 
2, page 15, for more detail regarding the audits). The pilot partners will commit to 
participating in these reviews and sharing the results with their collaborative partners. 

 

 

Activity 4: Establish a sustainability plan. 

 

 The overarching goal of this OVW grant is to create sustainability through the 
creation of long lasting collaborative relationships and systems change. To gain 
consensus and understanding on how the local collaborations. efforts will continue, the 
pilot site partners will be asked to create a sustainability plan. The statewide team 
recommends that the sustainability plan include: details on future work process and 
meetings; a process for ensuring that the individual agencies are engaged in the 
collaboration; plans for future funding and growing the collaboration. The plan will also 
include action steps relating to barrier response plans (page 18) and policy revision 
(page 20) that may be incomplete at the end of the grant cycle. The pilot partners will 
formalize and document their sustainability plan in the form of a Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU). The sustainability plan will occur after the reviews are 
completed. It is anticipated that long term goals will be related to the results from 
access and responsiveness reviews. 

 

 

 

 

Initiative 2: Enhance access and safety at the local level. 

 

 

 

 The No Wrong Door NJ collaboration is committed to creating a seamless, 
integrated system of services for survivors with disabilities. As a project that believes in 
the incorporation of consumer and survivor voice throughout that system, data was 
gathered about consumer and survivor experience in the pilot partner agencies. The 
data revealed that there were gaps in the areas of accessibility and safety in these 
counties. Atlantic and Morris Counties were recruited as pilot sites based on their 
demonstrated commitment to addressing the needs of survivors with disabilities. The 
statewide collaboration recognizes this commitment and wants to support the pilot sites 




in their efforts. 

 Upon creating a strategic plan for this project, the statewide team agreed that if 
the pilot partners were to develop a seamless system for survivors with disabilities, 
enhancing access and safety at a local level should be a priority. The statewide 
collaboration has designed a number of activities to address this issue. Activities in this 
initiative will be performed by two statewide work groups, an Accessibility Review 
Team and a Responsiveness Review Team, and the pilot partners. 

 

 

Activity 1: Review/Evaluate/Create 

 

 The Review teams will begin meeting regularly upon OVW approval of the strategic 
plan. The chairs of each team will facilitate discussions around a vision for the reviews. 
National best practice accessibility and responsiveness reviews will be collected and 
evaluated for areas relevant to the No Wrong Door NJ project. The review teams will 
develop a set of universal questions to be included in both reviews. Building on the 
universal questions and drawing from best practice models, the review teams will 
create two reviews that are specific to accessibility and safety, respectively. The 
accessibility reviews will involve physical, attitudinal and programmatic accessibility. 
NJCBW and NJCASA have volunteered to have the accessibility audits performed at 
their respective agencies. Both of the victim service coalitions currently have existing 
goals to address related issues in the organizational strategic plans for their coalitions. 
The responsiveness/safety review will focus on creating safe and welcoming 
environments for survivors with disabilities. Since The Arc of NJ and MHANJ are both 
administrative offices and do not provide any direct services, a decision was made to 
perform the responsiveness reviews solely on the pilot sites to make better use of time 
and grant resources. The reviews will be designed with a solution focused perspective. 
The finalized products will be submitted to OVW for approval. Creating best practice 
reviews will be the main priority of the statewide team for the months of February, 
March and April 2010 to ensure that the following activities have sufficient time to 
implement. 

 

 

Activity 2: Conduct reviews. 

 

 The statewide collaboration has a number of steps planned to ensure that the 
reviews are conducted in a consistent and timely manner. After receiving consent from 
the Executive Directors of the pilot sites to participate, the review teams will determine 
staff from the statewide and pilot teams to conduct the reviews. 

 

 Stakeholders. perspectives will be included as follows: the teams will consist of a 
statewide review team member, a point of contact from the agency being reviewed, a 
member of the pilot collaboration from another organization, and a consumer with a 
disability or a survivor member of the local collaboration (see page 12 of Appendix A). 
Accessibility reviews will be conducted at the victim services including: the Atlantic 
County Women.s Center, Jersey Battered Women.s Service and the Morris County 




Sexual Assault Center. Responsiveness reviews will be conducted at the disability 
organizations including: The Arc of Atlantic County, the Mental Health Association in 
Atlantic County and the Mental Health Association of Morris County. All of the data 
from reviews will be gathered and compiled by members of the statewide review 
teams. The team expects to have all reviews conducted by June 2010 to provide ample 
time to create and implement barrier response plans based on the findings. 

 

 

Activity 3: Develop a barrier response plan. 

 

 The review teams will provide the pilot partners with some immediate solutions to 
the gaps observed during the conduction of reviews. For example, providing better 
physical accessibility may be solved by moving a plant or piece of furniture that is 
blocking a pathway. Another example is that the issue of safety may be improved for 
people with mental illness by adding extra lighting, eliminating dark corners. Although 
there will be instances where a „quick fix. may be possible, it is expected that there will 
be a number of issues that arise that are unable to be immediately solved. To address 
these issues, a barrier response plan will be developed. The plan will include both 
immediate and long term goals and action steps for responding to safety and access 
barriers at the local level. Immediate goals would include activities such as purchasing 
white noise machines for areas where privacy and safety was found to be an issue or 
the re-arrangement of furniture to create a more welcoming space. Long term goals 
would include items such as capital improvements or renovations. 

 

 

Activity 4: Implement immediate activities of the barrier response plan. 

 

 Although the barrier response plan will include both long-term and immediate 
goals, implementation of immediate goals is the only activity to occur during this grant 
cycle. The long term goals of the barrier response plan will be built into the pilot sites. 
sustainability plan. The immediate action steps as outlined in the barrier response plan 
will be taken by the pilot partners with support from the statewide team. Concurrently, 
an evaluation process will be developed to measure the effectiveness of the changes. 
The changes should reflect an improvement in safe, accessible services for survivors 
with disabilities. Based on timing of Activities 1-3 above, the statewide collaboration 
expects implementation of the barrier response plan to occur in September 2010. 

 

 

Initiative 3: Develop policies and procedures that are accessible 
and responsive to survivors with disabilities. 

 The NWDNJ needs assessment informed the collaboration about a 
number of issues regarding policies and procedures around supporting 
survivors with disabilities at the pilot sites. Inconsistencies around 
intake, policy communication, referrals, confidentiality and 
consumer/survivor rights were evident in information gathered from multiple audiences. 
No Wrong Door NJ places a good deal of importance on the foundational initiatives 




discussed above yet recognizes that collaboration building and enhancing safety and 
access can also act as a building block for the pilot sites to address their policies and 
procedures. An agency can be strong in its philosophical commitment to survivors with 
disabilities but if it lacks adequate policies and procedures, the staff may be unaware of 
how to carry out that commitment. The statewide collaborative has developed a 
number of activities around enhancing the accessibility and responsiveness of pilot 
partners. policies and procedures. 

 

Activity 1: Identify policies and procedures to be addressed. 

 

 Based on the needs assessment findings, the pilot partners will engage in 
discussions around policy and procedure areas that need to be addressed. Based on 
the individual needs of the counties, the local collaborations will decide upon one policy 
or procedure to revise or create. 

 

 
Activity 2: Review and Evaluate. 

 

 After the pilot partners have made a decision regarding which policy will be revised, 
the statewide team will collect best practice policies and procedures. These best 
practices will act as models to enhancing services to survivors with disabilities. The 
pilot partners will then evaluate their own policies and procedures against the national 
best practices. The evaluation and subsequent revision process will be performed by 
the local collaborative as a whole. Revisions to policies and procedures will be 
documented in a formal memo and submitted to management of the pilot partners to 
gain consent. 

 

 

Activity 3: Implement recommended revisions to policies and procedures. 

 

 Upon approval to move forward with the recommended changes, the pilot site 
partners will formalize a written draft of the new or revised policy. This draft will be 
submitted to the leadership of the pilot sites for approval. Further revisions to the policy 
will occur as necessary until the policy receives final approval via the process that each 
pilot partner must follow according to their in-house protocol. With technical assistance 
from the statewide team, the local collaborations will develop a roll out plan for the 
revised policy. The plan will include a process for training new and current staff on the 
policy. Upon completion of the roll out, a plan will be developed to measure the 
effectiveness of the policy to support survivors with disabilities. In the case that 
unforeseen challenges prevent the planned policy revisions from being implemented by 
September 30, 2010, the steps to complete implementation will be built into the pilot 
sites. sustainability plan. Presentations regarding wording for the policy revision will be 
made to the leadership of the pilot partners in the expectation that they will continue 
with the implementation after the grant cycle ends. 

 

 

 




 



V. Long Term Initiatives and Future Plans 


The No Wrong Door New Jersey collaborative partners began their work together many 
years ago and acknowledge that there is still much work to be done. We are committed 
to improving services for people with disabilities who are survivors of violence in New 
Jersey. By starting a statewide systemic change with two pilot sites, our long-term goal 
is to eventually share information with the entire state concerning issues related to 
violence and disability. The collaboration has identified two long-term initiatives to 
address this goal: 

 

. Increase the awareness of the community and individuals and survivors with 
disabilities about the issues of violence and abuse, as well as the resources 
available. 


 

o Activities: Identify and pursue funding to conduct an awareness campaign. 
Make materials available in alternate formats. Use suggestions from the 
needs assessment participants on best ways to reach people with 
disabilities. 




 

. Share our lessons learned and experiences with disability agencies and victim 
service agencies statewide. 


 

o Activities: Create a project website that would include lessons learned by 
the collaborative, information learned from the needs assessment and 
links to services for survivors with disabilities; and resources for survivors 
with disabilities. 




 

o Expand NWDNJ.s technical assistance on the issue of violence in the lives 
of women with disabilities to other counties in New Jersey. 




 

 

The No Wrong Door NJ team plans to have subsequent discussions to develop action 
plans for these initiatives as well as develop additional ones. The ultimate goal is to 
have the vision of “a seamless, integrated system of services for survivors with 
disabilities” to become a reality through greater systems change in New Jersey. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


VI. Conclusion 


 The No Wrong Door New Jersey project is cognizant of the vast amount of work to 
be done during implementation phase. The initiatives discussed earlier in this document 
were chosen because they lay the foundation to move us toward our vision of a world 
where “survivors of domestic and sexual violence with disabilities will be treated 
with dignity and respect through a seamless integrated system where they will 
receive timely, appropriate and sufficient services regardless of the door they 
enter”. In collaboration with the chosen pilot sites, we feel that the activities in the 
strategic plan will create a systems change at the local level. These sustained changes 
will act as a springboard for future work as additional ways are explored to enhance 
services to women with intellectual and developmental disabilities and women with 
mental illness who are survivors of violence and abuse. 

 

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao-tzu