Public Awareness
OPDV Bulletin: Community Coordination:
An Overview
For the past several years many communities have been moving toward more coordinated responses to domestic violence. The reasons for this shift are numerous, not the least of which is a gradual realization that one system alone cannot solve the problem of domestic violence. Over the years, communities have come to see the interconnectedness of the agencies and systems that deal with domestic violence and the need for them to be working together.
What is Community Coordination?
In its simplest form, community coordination is a concerted effort to bring together formal and informal systems that may be involved in a domestic violence case to improve and foster collaboration. The goal is to improve every system’s response to domestic violence. The shift to coordination has not been an easy one. For a long time, the different agencies and systems involved in domestic violence not only failed to work together but often had adversarial relationships. If you visit most communities in New York State and across the country, you will hear stories of how, historically, members of different systems were rarely found in the same room, let alone at the same table.
For many, watching communities like Duluth, MN, Quincy, MA and San Diego, CA provided the first exposure to community coordination. As these communities piloted innovative projects in which they developed collaborative policies, formed interdisciplinary response teams and initiated creative partnerships, we saw how they were able to reduce their homicide rates and avoid cases "falling through the cracks." This was a contrast to agencies and systems working in isolation who had been unsuccessful in improving the response to domestic violence.
Today, most communities have some form of coordination underway. In New York State alone, there are countless examples of how agencies and systems are working together more closely. Communities have chosen to do this by forming local task forces or coalitions, inter-disciplinary policy development, case conferencing, cross-training, multi-disciplinary response teams and fatality review teams.
Coordination can be a threatening idea to some members of systems. Representatives may feel that working on system problems will result in finger pointing and blame. It is important for task forces to agree, from the beginning, that their efforts are not designed to make agencies look bad or to publicly expose the inadequacies of specific individuals, but rather to identify problems with the current system in an effort to enhance the future response to domestic violence. It is far more productive to learn from mistakes and work together toward change than to place blame and alienate each other. A non-threatening approach can help bring people to the table and build trust among the members. It can also set a positive tone reaffirming that all efforts are designed to keep the focus on domestic violence victims and perpetrators, not on agencies or individuals. Further, coordination encourages looking at how agencies, as well as entire systems, are organized, and whether that organization best serves victim safety and offender accountability. This also helps to avoid blaming individuals.
Another important consideration is the role of the local domestic violence program in the local community coordination efforts. It is vital that the program take a leadership role in such activities. This helps to ensure that the coordination efforts are grounded in a solid understanding of domestic violence and that advocates can take an active role in assessing new projects and policies for unintended consequences to victims of domestic violence and their children. While other system professionals are an important part of this assessment, they may only see a snapshot of the victims’ experience, and are exposed to only those victims associated with their system. Domestic violence advocates, on the other hand, are in a unique position to see a more complete view of victims’ experience.
Benefits of Community Coordination
There are many benefits to community coordination. It can help to reduce the likelihood that cases will “fall through the cracks” by increasing linkages and enhancing communication. It also helps professionals in one system learn about the roles of those within another system. This understanding is vital to coordination as it allows for individuals to combine resources to enhance case handling. Similarly, community coordination allows professionals to learn what resources are available and how to access them through agencies and systems other than their own. It can also establish a standardized mechanism for addressing problems in the system, allowing for swift attention to such issues.
Community coordination is an effective way to send an unmistakable message that the community views domestic violence not as a private issue, but as a serious societal problem that requires the attention of everyone and a collective attitude of zero tolerance. It also helps to reduce the isolation that workers may experience in dealing with the challenging, complex issues involved in domestic violence cases. Perhaps most importantly, community coordination improves the current system, thereby enhancing services and assistance available to victims and increasing accountability for batterers.
Challenges of Community Coordination
In addition to the many benefits, there are also challenges to effective community coordination that have emerged over time. For example, many communities struggle with maintaining their efforts. Some have found it difficult to keep participants active and productive over long periods of time. They find themselves stalled and have difficulty rejuvenating the momentum. Turnover within task forces and member agencies can contribute to this, as can unclear goals and missions of the coordination activities.
Another challenge experienced by some communities is the imbalance of power that exists among the different individuals and agencies participating in coordination activities. Participants with less power may be hesitant to challenge or question someone with more power, fearing repercussions for themselves, their agency or the population they serve. This issue is complicated further if funding is involved and perceived to be threatened.
Other challenges faced by communities include the refusal of integral systems to come to the table, the implementation of community coordination in a large urban setting and the creation of a resource drain on the agencies who participate in the coordination efforts. It is not always easy. This is the reality and it does no good to pretend that these problems do not exist in our communities. While it may seem cumbersome at times, the bottom line is that communities all over the country report that community coordination is the most effective way found thus far to address domestic violence on the local level. Therefore, the belief is that it is worth the time, effort and resources required to implement and maintain.
OPDV is available to assist communities with their local community coordination activities. Assistance is available in many areas including task force building, policy development and implementation, developing interagency agreements, goal setting and planning, and Safety and Accountability Audits (See discussion of Safety and Accountability Audits).
For more information, contact Mary Walsh at mwalsh@opdv.state.ny.us.
