Content by Keyword: Place-Based Initiatives and Community/Faith-Based Partnerships

The San Diego DV Council includes over 200 members from agencies throughout the county that provide services to victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, the medical community, social services agencies, law enforcement, prosecutors offices, judges, and the military.

The City Attorney's Office has been a strong leader in the San Diego County domestic violence community's effort to coordinate the response to domestic violence. Along with victim advocates, they were instrumental in developing the Domestic Violence Task Force and subsequent Council, as well as developing the first specialized unit in San Diego.

The San Diego Domestic Violence Council (DV Council) began as a formal task force in 1989, and was officially recognized by City and County Officials at that time. Prior to this, many of the members had been meeting informally for several years. An important event for San Diego's efforts came in 1986 when California passed legislation defining dom

The main vehicles for an increasingly coordinated response to domestic violence in San Diego County are the San Diego Domestic Violence Council (DV Council), specialized domestic violence units and programs in several agencies, and many formal and informal relationships among service providers that have developed through the DV Council.

San Diego County is a large sprawling metropolitan area near the Mexican border, and with a population of over 2.6 million, it is one of California's largest counties. It has a racially and ethnically diverse population, which is nearly 10 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 7 percent African American, 1 percent Native American, and the rest white. Ab

The obvious strengths of the service and support system for domestic violence on the Range are Minnesota's progressive laws on the issue, strong local awareness of the issue and willingness to treat it seriously, and the cooperation in evidence among the many agencies and organizations involved in the system. The gaps in the system include, for th

The Range Community The fact that this is a small, stable rural community makes a big difference in the ease with which coordination happens, and the familiarity of all the players with each other. Most sit on each others' boards and have interacted in numerous ways over the years. It is also important that RWA has been around for so long, and

The Family Violence Council counts among its members representatives from every potentially relevant element of the Range community, including schools, social services, health professionals, batterer intervention services, chemical dependency treatment providers, representatives of the business community, and women who have been battered as well a

RWA is involved in extensive training and education activities; in addition, other agencies and parts of the system conduct their own trainings on domestic violence, participate in cross- training with RWA, and share some other mechanisms (e.g., a monthly lunch) on related topics. RWA participates in ongoing educational efforts such as "Teens, Cri

RWA serves as the focal point for many services and coordination activities, and participates in everything that it does not run directly. The basic domestic violence services for the area are run by RWA with eight staff, and include a 24-hour crisis line, support groups, and a system of safe homes; there is also a transitional housing program wit

Thanks in part to the Range Intervention Project and the many-year commitment of RWA, and thanks in part to the efforts of people working within most of the criminal justice and court sectors, most parts of the criminal justice system on the Range have adopted policies and practices to improve their response to domestic violence cases. All law enf

Range Women's Advocates (RWA) has been at the center of the local response to domestic violence since that response began in the late 1970s. Everyone we interviewed mentioned the importance of that consistency and persistence in moving Northern St. Louis County in the direction of more awareness of and direct supportive actions for victims of dome

Two organizations are key to the development of the coordinated community response to domestic violence on the Range—the Range Women's Advocates (RWA), and the Family Violence Council. RWA provides services and advocacy for battered women, offers extensive educational activities to schools and community groups, contracts for and monitors battere

Northern St. Louis County and surrounding areas are known throughout Minnesota as "the Range" because the Mesabi Iron Range was the main reason for settlement of the area and the core of its economic base until the end of the 1960s. The largest town is Hibbing, with about 18,000 people; the Range Women's Advocates, the primary domestic violence ad

The coordinating bodies and the advocates' efforts have created open communication among all the players. Previously, people were unaware of problems and, therefore, were unable to respond to issues that arose. Now everyone has a better understanding of how their actions and behavior affects others in the system and the system as a whole.

RWA and MSH have been at the center of changing the response to domestic violence in Carlton County. Many of the policy changes in law enforcement agencies, the prosecutor's office, and probation have resulted from the advocates' work. For RWA, this has consisted of developing relationships with other agencies over a number of years. More recently

Beginning in the early 1980s, several women living in Carlton County (including some former victims of domestic violence), began meeting to discuss what they could do for other victims in the county. These women had their own bad experiences with law enforcement and wanted to change the response for other victims. At that time, there were no domes

Given Carlton County's close proximity to Duluth, the community's coordinated response to domestic violence has been greatly influenced by DAIP. The community has at least five groups with missions that include domestic violence, either specifically or as part of a broader focus on violence. Leadership for Carlton County's efforts has come from Ru

Carlton County is a racially and ethnically homogeneous county of about 30,000 located just southwest of Duluth. Nearly 95 percent of its population is white, with the remainder Native American. The largest city within Carlton County is Cloquet (with 11,000 people). Also within the county's borders is the Fond du Lac Indian reservation. Portions o