Confidentiality and Safety

This presentation discusses how programs can create a framework of safety for survivors by considering their approaches to access, assessment,and other policies and practices. Also discussed are the "how-tos" of safety planning and other tips about working safely with survivors receiving services in homeless/housing programs.

This presentation explores why confidentiality is core to our work with survivors. Also discusses statutory privilege, VAWA-approved releases of information, informed consent, and child abuse reporting. Note: Some information Oregon-specific. Presentation date preceded successful passage of advocate privilege law in Oregon legislature in 2015.

These powerpoint slides are from a pre-conference session delivered by a diverse group of DV providers at the 2013 National Alliance to End Homelessness conference. Topics addressed include DV dynamics, partnerships, HMIS, safety planning, and best practices.

A comprehensive presentation that includes information about housing protections for survivors as well as protections for children and youth. Provides guidance toward best practices with these populations.

This study examined survivors’ reflections on the Community Advocacy Project, an empirically supported intervention for women with abusive partners. The study examined the service delivery processes that survivors affirmed or identified as core components of the intervention. Qualitative analysis of interviews with 51 survivors indicated that 3 main service delivery elements contributed to positive outcomes: orientation to the whole person, unconditional validation and acceptance, and an orientation to information provision and action. These overarching themes are described and implications for domestic violence services and dissemination are discussed.

Guidelines for safely conducting home visits with survivors as part of a housing first approach. 

Survivors face numerous barriers to keeping or establishing safe housing, often forcing them to devise unsafe housing arrangements, live in danger on the streets, or even to stay with or return to an abusive partner just so that they and their children have beds to sleep in. The victim services system offers lifesaving support and resources to countless survivors, but in many communities those systems lack the capacity to help all survivors with their housing needs. This toolkit is designed to boost the ability of homeless/housing programs to confidently offer housing services that are meaningful, safe, and grounded in best practices for a survivor population.