Resources Library:

Advocacy in Virginia 2022

Added Wednesday, December 31, 1969 by Action Alliance

Virginia's Sexual and Domestic Violence advocates are our community's front-line responders to survivors of violence. They provide not only crisis response and shelter for survivors, but also assistance to meet financial, housing, employment, and legal services needs.

With the continued struggles brought on by the COVID-19 global pandemic, survivors' need for critical services from sexual and domestic violence agencies did not wane. Despite being short staffed, having difficulty maintaining 24/7 shelter coverage, budget cuts, and changes in community partnerships and resources, advocates remained on the front lines to meet survivors' needs, maintaining virtual support opportunities, ongoing safety planning, including better understanding the safer use of technology, and building better relationships with community partners.

Action Alliance staff chose to take a more in depth look at the impact of services on the experiences of survivors since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Take a look at the summary report that demonstrates the continued need for the vital advocacy services provided by sexual and domestic violence advocates around the commonwealth.

Allies in the Struggle: Intersectional work as a trauma-informed response and prevention

Added Saturday, October 15, 2016 by Action Alliance

This webinar, originally broacast in 2015 and presented by the Action Alliance's own Kate McCord, was designed for aspiring white allies interested in deepening their understanding of the connections between racial justice work and domestic and sexual violence intervention and prevention work. Topics included: how disparities created by institutional and systemic expressions of racism may affect survivors of color, why an intersectional approach is integral to a trauma-informed response and building trauma-informed prevention programs, and specific examples of how the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance has integrated a racial justice lens into various aspects of our work.

Click here to view the webinar.

Are Victims Services Programs Liable for Criminal “Harboring” When They Work with Immigrant Survivors of Crime?

Added Monday, December 09, 2019 by Action Alliance

Community-based crime victim advocacy programs that provide services to undocumented immigrant survivors of crimes can minimize risks to their program, funding, employees, and clients by adopting and following policies that take the laws on harboring undocumented immigrants into account. This Advisory answers common questions about providing shelter and other program services to undocumented victims, describes the law and federal policy (as of the Advisory’s publication date), and proposes best practices for programs, but it is not legal advice. Immigration and criminal laws vary from region to region, and federal immigration enforcement policies are constantly changing. Programs should analyze their program-specific risks, their community’s particular needs, and the laws in their jurisdiction—including legal duties associated with an agency’s funding sources—as they design or update program policies. Consulting a local immigration attorney with criminal law experience is highly advisable.

Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence

Added Wednesday, April 29, 2015 by Action Alliance

Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence is a national training and technical assistance provider and a clearinghouse on gender violence in Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. It serves a national network of advocates, community members, organizations, service agencies, professionals, researchers, policy advocates and activists from community and social justice organizations working to eliminate violence against women.

Assets for Independence Resource Center: Domestic Violence Survivors

Added Tuesday, June 28, 2016 by Action Alliance

The Assets for Independence Resource Center (AFI) is housed under the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The AFI Resource Center provides information on AFI programs and Individual Development Accounts (IDAs).  The AFI Resource Center provides a Domestic Violence Survivors Toolkit which includes information for service providers and survivors about how financial independence can be a pathway out of an abusive relationship.  The information on the AFI Resource Center website includes asset building strategies for survivors and how AFI staff and service providers can collaborate to bring IDAs to survivors.

http://idaresources.acf.hhs.gov/page?pageid=a047000000Bmr7F