Clackamas Women's Services

The village emergency shelter and housing programfor over 35 years cws has provided emergency shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence. To break the isolation of domestic and sexual violence, the village emergency shelter model must foster a connection to a survivor's community. The village nurtures a rich and diverse community, serving a wide range of languages, those needing service animals, and survivors struggling with mental health or addiction concernsall in one community. In this supportive environment, survivors can step away from their current home lives, regain their strength, and individually shape the ways they want to move forward in the world. It is a place where participants feel trusted to make their own life choices and do what is meaningful to themthe village, our emergency shelter, actively partners with culturally specific agencies to support the survivors with whom they are working by prioritizing referrals from these agencies. As most of these agencies do not operate shelters, they depend on access to other programs to support survivors who need these resources. We pair this with our highly inclusive screening process to ensure that these communities, as well as others who have historically been screened out of shelters (people with addictions, disabilities, service animals, multi-generational or non-traditional family structures, etc. ), have equitable access to shelter Services. We believe this priority access is one way we demonstrate the value we place on serving these communities that acknowledges the lack of access they face in many systems. Most of these referrals come from our partnership with immigrant and refugee community organization (irco), el programa hispano catlico (ephc), native american youth and family center (naya), and russian Oregon social Services (ross). Each year, over 50% of all cws shelter and housing participants are referred by culturally specific partners and 58% of the survivors in our shelter and housing program are from communities of color (annual average). The isolation of domestic and sexual violence may impact survivors beyond the time they are in the relationship with their abusers. Relationships take time to rebuild after an abuser interferes or isolates survivors from their family or friends, because survivors may be unsure who they can trust. When we rebuilt our village shelter, we dreamed of building a home not only for those staying there briefly, but also a community for survivors for years to come. In our new community space, former shelter residents were invited to visit the village for support through weekly support groups and celebration events. Survivors and their children returned to a place where they created many memories to connect again with trusted community and support new shelter residents along the way. Because a strong support system is essential for safety and stability, we also welcome survivors' safe family members for visits. For those with family living nearby, the ability to spend time together helps the shelter to feel like a home and reduces the isolation for the family. Sharing movie nights, meals, and just hanging out with each other helps to further break the cycle of isolation.the village emergency shelter continues to nurture a rich and diverse community where survivors rediscovered their strength, resilience, and connectedness. Annually, the village cultivates healing and community for over 100 adults and 140 youth. Since the onset of the pandemic, cws has served over double the number of individuals and families, demonstrating that conditions of pandemic isolation are pushing more survivors to seek temporary emergency shelter. The cws housing program serves over 400 households annually through a housing first model that includes the coordinated housing access, transitional housing, homeless prevention, permanent supportive housing, move-in assistance, rapid rehousing, and on-going supportive Services. This included direct rental assistance and comprehensive case management, which helped participants afford the costs of living while building the skills needed to navigate housing barriers and the time to heal from the trauma they have experienced. Survivors seeking housing assistance from cws are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Many rely solely on tanf income or have no income due to chronic and/or underemployment because of abuse. In addition to these financial impacts, survivors also contend with physical disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, or mental health disabilities resulting from the trauma they have experienced. Consequently, 68% of the survivors served in cws housing programs identify as having one or more disabilities. Culturally specific and culturally responsive community based advocates and housing case managers provide additional assessments designed to address housing barriers, needs and preferences, and housing search assistance. These staff members work together to support survivors throughout their journey and across the spectrum of available housing opportunities. Our low barrier, housing first, screening uses a race-explicit approach in which we discuss the ways screening criteria have been used to deny Services to bipoc communities (for example, not allowing for cultural difference in the description/definitions of abuse). From the beginning, we assure participants that cws Services are voluntary, not time-limited, and are available for as long as they need. In a highly integrated system with other partners who often must close cases when a key service/case is complete, this role is often uniquely provided by cws. As relationships are the core of all we do, it is natural for Services to continue after a participant has graduated from rental assistance and is self-sufficient. Because the breadth of Services housed in cws is wide, survivors have an extensive menu of quality Services to choose from. Rather than just engage in traditional case management as supportive Services, survivors may also (or instead) engage with support/self-care groups to build their community, seek counseling for themselves or their children, work with civil/legal attorneys for support with family law matters, or their children may participate in our pathways and camp hope summer camp program. Households experiencing homelessness are offered a wide array of supportive Services when they enter our programs. For most, these supports are most intensive at the beginning, when meeting their basic needs. Coming from crisis many survivors rely on case managers to help them navigate the complex web of Services they may be engaged with and are initially in close contact with a case manager, who can accompany them to appointments, to look at available rentals, and provide other support. As a survivor is connected to housing and has a roof over their head, our staff work with them to establish the structures that can support their self-sufficiency and daily life. Our case management is also attentive to the importance of rebuilding community. For many survivors, they don't know who to trust first and the circle may begin with just their case manager. But through relational focused work, our staff works with participants to expand that circle and reconnect to a safe community, be it through our support groups, children's school, church communities, hobbies, or the survivor's past community that an abuser may have isolated them from.

Counseling and support group servicescws continues to offer mental health counseling Services that are trauma specific and individually tailored to survivors of domestic and sexual violence, trafficking, child abuse and elder abuse. The counseling and support group program provides individual, family and group therapy for children, youth and adults through licensed therapist with advanced expertise in trauma recovery; providing over 1,000 counseling support sessions annually. A combination of grant funding and insurance reimbursements help to promote sustainability of the program and allows us to continue to prioritize equity in Services. Additionally, social work student interns provide additional capacity to serve uninsured, other insured, (continued on schedule o)or folks for whom it may not be safe to bill insurance. We continued to prioritize the values of equity and inclusion for underserved populations. We have a full time latina counselor who provides culturally specific counseling Services to survivors who are often uninsured, and face language and cultural barriers. The counseling program offered Services at our office in sandy, increasing accessibility for survivors who live in rural areas of the county. Nearly 40% of survivors who accessed counseling Services identified as latina and 24% lived in rural parts of Clackamas county. Cws counseling Services are provided in three certified counseling locations including a safe place family justice center, cws' rural outreach office, and the cws' Clackamas community college office. In some circumstances, we also meet with folks in their homes, at shelter or at school. This flexibility helps increase accessibility and equity in Services. Clinicians use evidence based treatment modalities, including cognitive behavioral therapy, emdr sensorimotor psychotherapy, mindfulness, motivational interviewing, as well as art and play-based interventions with kids including a window between worlds.

Community based servicescws is highly collaborative and works with partners across all sectors to meet the diverse needs of survivors in urban and rural communities throughout Clackamas county. Leveraging relationships and resources strengthened by cooperative agreements and coordinated efforts enables cws to enhance critical supports for survivors from all backgrounds. Through the work of cws and our partners across all sectors, awareness of the prevalence of domestic and sexual violence, along with other forms of interpersonal violence or abuse, is growing in Clackamas county. There is greater understanding of the need for a trauma-informed approach to intervention and support across all disciplines, as well as systems-level change (continued on sch o)through the development of an integrated service delivery model and a coordinated prevention strategy. Cws is headquartered at a safe place family justice center (asp-fjc). A public/private partnership centered on a community impact model, asp-fjc's structure and purpose is identified as a best practice in the field of domestic violence intervention and prevention by the u.s. department of justice. As the primary community-based service provider at asp-fjc, we are co-located and coordinate cross-agency survivor response with social service providers, public agencies, nonprofits, culturally specific organizations, legal professionals, circuit court personnel, prosecutors, elder abuse investigators, dhs self- sufficiency, faith-based support, and law enforcement, etc. In addition, cws' community outreach plan places advocates throughout the community through a co-located model, formal programs, and culturally responsive processes for 'warm hand-offs' in the key systems that the most vulnerable survivors are likely to interact with. This ensures that survivors do not need to seek out Services on their own (a step only some will be ready to take) but rather brings the offer of Services and an introduction to an advocate to support them at every step along the journey. Most recently, we have added a co-located position with county behavioral health to reach out to survivors in the mental health system, who we know to be some of the most vulnerable. Cws firmly believes that to create a world free from violence, we must create cross-sector partnership to ensure Services are culturally responsive, linguistically specific, and accessible to those most impacted by oppression and violence within our community. Cws staff are engaged in numerous community collaborations across the county to promote connection including, but not limited to: youth service provider network, sandy social Services task force; Clackamas county child abuse multi-disciplinary team (mdt); behavioral safety program; sexual assault task force; elder and vulnerable adult mdt, the family violence coordinating council, the high risk response team, human trafficking mdt, batter's intervention advisory council, safe kids coalition for Clackamas county, mdt mental health collaborative; school-specific community collaboratives; covid-cbo response meetings; estacada connect, etc. These collaborations have supported our teams in building strong connections across the community, resulting in enhanced service connections for participants. Our wrap-around model grew out of a recognition of the harm victims have experienced as an intervention point and that addressing that harm or providing a resource to mitigate the harm is only one avenue. Survivors are much more than the sum of the experiences of abuse, and we honor that by providing support that is driven by a 'whole-person and 'whole-family' approach. Many social determinants of health can be linked to situations where domestic and sexual violence exists. The well-being of survivors is impacted by things like income and social status, physical environments, and employment. Social supports, coping skills, and healthy behaviors also influence long-term health outcomes. Gender, culture, and race all play a role in health equity, which disproportionately affects survivors of color and immigrants/refugees. Cws Services work to enhance safety, mitigate isolation, and promote self-determination with individualized Services. Participants determine their own goals while case managers and counselors offer support in achieving those goals. All Services remain flexible to meet the changing needs of the family as they stabilize and continue to offer support for as long as the survivor would like to engage. Long-term, multi-faceted Services are often utilized to mitigate the impact of trauma, address the isolation of domestic violence, and support survivors in regaining their articulated/desired goals, wellness plan, and self-actualization. Our model focuses on building relationships regardless of the outcomes. Advocacy support and survivor Services were provided to over 2,000 individuals in 2021, 40% of whom identified as a person of color. Survivors from rural communities comprised 15% of the overall population served. Survivor dependents (primarily children under the age of 18) were also positively impacted by advocacy support and survivor Services, more than doubling the total number of individuals benefitting from engagement with cws. Direct client assistance provided by cws increased 106% over the previous year, growing by more than $1.2m. Flexible grant funding helped address covid-related needs and resource gaps, allowing cws to provide culturally specific food, wellness supplies, technology, and access to economic and employment Services. Innovation defines how cws supports victims of crime. This includes our quick action to modify Services and adapt channels of delivery so that survivors could still depend on cws during the covid-19 pandemic. Our programs are trauma-informed, survivor-centered, and culturally adaptive. Cws provides a direct conduit for victims to connect with other vital Services, particularly those that are population specific. Access to emergency shelter, affordable housing, rent relief, utility assistance, virtual connectivity, and the provision of basic needs (like food and personal items) is essential for survivors as they seek safety and stability, especially in the midst of a devastating public health crisis. Parenting and mental health supports are proving to be an effective outlet for survivors coping with complex situations like supporting their children with online learning, juggling work with safe childcare options, and remotely navigating social service systems. These supports have also become a safe space for children and youth coping with the dual traumas of covid-19 and family violence. Virtual groups and one-on-counseling are helping families maintain hope and find strength despite the ongoing impacts of the pandemic.