Resources Library: Model Policies & Best Practices

Lessons Learned from the Underserved Populations Learning Collaborative Project

Added Friday, September 29, 2023 by Action Alliance

The Underserved Populations Learning Collaborative(UPLC) was a project that approximately 40 of Virginia's member sexual and domestic violence agencies, Department of Criminal Justice Services (victim services), Virginia Department of Social Services (office of family violence), and the Action Alliance partnered, collaborated, co-learned together for over about 5 years from start to finish. This report is glimpse into some of the lessons we learned along the way, as well as the resources, presentations, and evaluations that were cultivated for this project.

Click here to download the report.

Liberatory Practices for Accountability Across the Social Ecological Model

Added Friday, October 09, 2020 by Action Alliance

What does accountability look like without punishment, isolation, and shaming?

What are the shifts we can make in ourselves, our relationships, communities, and as a society to move from punishment to true accountability, which builds connection and encourages growth?

This infographic, created for the Action Alliance webinar series, “Reimagining Our Legacy: Transforming from Criminalization to Liberation”, seeks to offer a few ways in which we can practice methods of accountability that liberate us from punishment and harm and move us toward healing and connection.

Maternal Mortality Review – Each Death Matters

Added Friday, March 20, 2015 by Action Alliance

Virginia’s multidisciplinary Maternal Mortality Review Team reviewed nearly 400 cases of pregnancy-associated death occurring between 1999 and 2007.  This brief article was published by the National Women's Health Network and authored by Victoria M. Kavanaugh, RN, PhD, Maternal Mortality Review Team Coordinator with the Virginia Department of Health, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.  In the article, Dr. Kavanaugh summaries Virginia data and emphasizes the need for maternal mortality reviews as a means to develop recommendations for interventions and prevention strategies to prevent future deaths. These recommendations apply to a wide array of fields, including prenatal health care, social work, psychiatry, emergency care, dietary services, health care, and advocacy.

Model Policies for Providing Services to LGBTQ Survivors of Violence

Added Friday, August 01, 2014 by Action Alliance

This guide is intended to assist sexual and domestic violence direct service organizations in
Virginia that wish to better serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)
survivors of violence.
There are two major sections to this guide:
1. Model Policies
2. Best Practices

The guide is available in both English and Spanish

Model Protocol on Services for Limited English Proficient Immigrant and Refugee Victims of Domestic Violence

Added Wednesday, November 04, 2015 by Action Alliance

The Washington State Coalition against Domestic Violence (2002) created a model protocol for the state of Washington with the goal of supporting domestic violence agencies to increase and extend their services to immigrant women whose first language is not English.  Included in the protocol are recommendations for agency policies and procedures, specifically how to conduct intake, provide crisis intervention, facilitate accommodating shelter experiences, legal advocacy, and more.