Serving the Underserved: Improving Program Impact By Successfully Identifying & Assessing Needs of “Underserved

1. Serving the Underserved:Improving Program Impact BySuccessfully Identifying & Assessing Needsof “Underserved” Populations Aleese Moore-Orbih and Purvi Shah, Senior Consultants & Activists, Women of Color Network The Women of Color Network (WOCN), a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) is a national grassroots initiative dedicated to building the capacity of women of color advocates and activists responding to violence against women in communities of color. Through trainings, technical assistance, and advocacy, WOCN helps foster women of color in the advancement of their anti-violence work and leadership. The mission of the Women of Color Network (WOCN) is to provide and enhance leadership capacity and resources that promote the activities of women of color advocates and activists within the Sovereign Nations, the United States and U.S. Territories to address the elimination of violence against women and families.

2. Welcome Introductions Shout Out WHO WE ARE WHY WE ARE HERE WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

3. Learn how to use the WOCN 3-Tier System to better identify underserved” populations Be able to expand “underserved” populations into the 3-tier populations Better understand the resources and program needs of these diverse populations Objectives

4. Be able to list concrete action steps for enabling stronger program impact with underserved populations Objectives WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

5. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TERMINOLOGY

6. VAWA DEFINITION Underserved Populations: 42 U.S.C. 13925(a)(33)(as amended by P.L. 113-4, Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2013) Geographic location, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, underserved racial and ethnic populations, special needs e.g., language barriers, disabilities, alienage status, or age… WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

7. Historical and Systemic Disenfranchisement Based on:

8. The 3 Tier System (3-TS)

9. The 3-Tier System is innovation in Identification, Outreach and Service Un-served, Underserved, and Inadequately Served The term “underserved” represents a wide spectrum of needs. Expanding and enhancing our understanding and approach to include the 3-Tier definitions (Un-served, Underserved, and Inadequately Served) enables us to specify historical or emerging systemic and societal or population-based disenfranchisement, then respond more precisely to these needs and barriers with effective services and advocacy. WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

10. 3-TS Expands and Enhances Our Approach Based on a Spectrum of Needs WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

11. NO SERVCES AVAILABLE Un-Served Populations This category is designated for those populations who are so marginalized that they are not reached at all. This is also indicative of those populations who are emerging and who are not yet visible in our services or who are there in very small numbers.

12. LIMITED ACCESS Underserved Populations:  Populations in this category are those who are growing in number in our services and have minimal access; but who need more services and approaches that meet their specific needs; therefore they remain ‘under’-served.

13. OVER REPRESENTED Inadequately Served Populations: This category speaks to those historically marginalized communities who may be highly visible or even overrepresented in number, but who are still in need of improved quality of services that will help address cyclical challenges their populations face such as “one-size fits all” strategies that disregard specific disenfranchisement and culturally-specific experiences.

14. Appropriating The 3 Tier System (3-TS)

15. Applying the 3-Tier System will: • Provide a clearer distinction among un-served, underserved, and inadequately served populations. • Help you recognize specific complexities of underserved populations. • Enable you to improve the specificity of services for diverse populations.

16. Applying the 3-Tier System will: • Give you new ideas for reaching underserved populations. • Provide a new flexible framework for resourcing underserved populations. • Help to better identify gaps and challenges in your current processes and strategies.

17. How Can You Use the 3-TS • The 3-Tier System can help service providers in the strategic planning and implementation process. • In the development of priorities and approaches to better reach 3-Tier populations. • In decision-making in a strategic planning process for relevant programming and services. • It can be very effective in establishing priority-setting activities.

18. How Can You Use the 3-TS • The 3-Tier System can help service providers assess the needs of marginalized populations • Build relationships with Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) that directly serve these communities. • Improve and increase sustainable and effective partnerships with CBOs serving all marginalized populations

19. What is the Impact?: Avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach to reaching all survivors The 3-Tier System framework enables us to distinguish specific needs across populations in order to more effectively shape service and advocacy strategies and responses. In particular, this approach offers a closer attention to demographics, the needs of small and emerging populations, and ways to form and sustain direct productive partnerships to ensure community connections and respond to the varied needs of diverse populations.

20. What is the Impact? The process of increasing and improving effective and collaborative relationships and partnerships with CBOs serving culturally-specific communities will also greatly increase everyone’s capacity to provide effective and relevant victim services that specifically work to end violence against women and families in ALL communities.

21. QUESTIONS & COMMENTS QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

22. Exercise:Applying the 3-Tier definitions to the populations: State, REGION _________________

23. Review definition: un-served Un-served populations that truly do not have any services available.No services availableSevere isolation WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

24. Review definition: Inadequately Served Inadequately served populationsare historically marginalized& may be overrepresented WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

25. Review definitions: Underserved Underserved populations that have minimal access and are in need of more outreach and support. Limited access Moderate isolation WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

26. State Administrators’ Challenges challenges STOP Administrators identified a number of core barriers and challenges in reaching and supporting 3-Tier populations. In particular: lack of sufficient time, resources, and funding.

27. What challenges do You see? TIME FUNDING REOURCES MORE…

28. State Administrators Promising Practices Reaching out to other STOP Administrators to learn from and share best practices and successful methods on identifying, reaching, and including 3-Tier populations and CBOs.

29. State Administrators Promising Practices • Focusing on the development of sustainable relationships and building stakeholder groups through site visits to diverse localities to better determine the core needs across communities; • Expanding the roster of those who attend strategic planning meetings and re-strategizing the quality and content of the goals and outcomes of these meetings;

30. Promising Practices What Opportunities do You See? • Outreach • Focus • Expansion • More…

31. Better Identification Reach Needs Assessment Next STEP EXERCISES WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

32. Don’t: Take the easy way out Resist the “we are all Underserved” rationale Don’t let, “We tried to reach them” serve as your final answer! WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

33. WOCN’S 9-STEPS • Step 1: Reflect: Integrate ongoing “inward-outward” reflection exercises in your program planning. • Step 2: Use A Social Justice Lens: Frame the work utilizing social justice approaches to examine oppression, identify areas of equity and non-equity, be more aware of systems of power, and consider ways to level the playing field for all survivors. • Step 3: Expand the Definition of Underserved: Utilize the 3-Tier System to deepen your understandings of marginalized populations.

34. WOCN’S 9-STEPS • Step 4: Become an Aspiring Ally: Make a plan to build and/or improve relationships with representatives from 3-Tier System Populations through self-examination and an evaluation of how privilege and dis-privilege based on identity impacts survivors and is reinforced by those who serve them. • Step 5: Collaborate: Join forces with survivors and community representatives from the 3-TS Populations to enhance outreach and support for marginalized

35. WOCN’S 9-STEPS Step 6: Utilize Technical Assistance: Draw upon the expertise of national, state, or local technical assistance providers to assist in your efforts. Step 7: Build Up Your Resources: Develop a library of relevant and culturally sensitive information on barriers/challenges, promising practices, and case studies/tips for supporting survivors from marginalized communities.

36. WOCN’S 9-STEPS Step 8: Get Ongoing Education: Continue seek out and participate in any needed skills-building opportunities and relevant trainings to increase your knowledge of reaching and serving marginalized populations. Step 9: Build Capacity: Develop and implement a plan to improve your capacity to work with CBOs serving 3-Tier System communities, and to raise the capacity of the CBOs write and submit winning grant applications and to successfully administer federal funds for their programs.

37. Final Questions and Comments

38. HOW TO CONTACT US Contact WOCN Lead Consultants: Aleese: Aleesewocn@ gmail.com Purvi: Purvishahwocn@ gmail.com CHECK US OUT ON THE WEB womenofcolornetwork.org

39. HOW TO CONTACT US Contact Staff: Tonya Lovelace tlovelace@nrcdv.org Chelsea Cox or Rebecca Balog 800-537-2238 CHECK US OUT ON THE WEB womenofcolornetwork.org