Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence

Improving funding & public policy this year, the Coalition rallied advocates, survivors, and community members to amplify the message that survivors of Gender-Based Violence need more support and options than ever before. In 2023 we: restored 250k in one-time funds that were set to expire and now will continue supporting survivor-driven mobile advocacy in seattle. Secured 200k in new funding to implement the recommendations from the recent report, "transformation is possible", which explored alternatives to the criminal legal system for misdemeanor domestic Violence cases in seattle. Secured 5.1m for wage equity for human service workers including gbv providers in seattle. Ensured the passage of the vets seniors and human services levy (vshsl), which had increased investments in Gender-Based Violence services and supports throughout king county. Maintained the workforce stabilization funds in the vshsl to better address the dismal pay/wages that so many people in the human service sector experience. Maintained funding for Gender-Based Violence in the king county budget. Connecting within and across disciplines survivors of sexual and domestic Violence need their communities and service providers to be coordinated to respond collaboratively to Violence and address the gender, racial, and economic disparities that drive Violence and abuse. Some of our collective efforts towards our vision of safe and just communities in 2023 included: the monthly family law work group continued to serve a critical role of being the main conduit for information flow between the court, gbv advocates, and attorneys. This group provides peer review and consultation as well as referrals and guidance for attorneys and advocates who are working with ipv survivors and their children. In collaboration with the king county prosecutor's office, we hosted two in-person advocate gatherings with over 100+ attendees to give community based and systems-based advocates an opportunity to connect, network, and learn from each other. We continued to convene family emergency shelter and dv shelter providers to strengthen partnerships, coordinate services, and provide a unified voice to funders and stakeholders around domestic Violence and homelessness. This included two well attended in-person events to further connection. We continued significant coordination with other regional human service groups, including the seattle human services Coalition, the king county alliance for human services, and the seattle/king county Coalition on homelessness. We wrapped up the last year of the cse collaborative, made up of four organizations who provide support and services to those engaged in the sex trades, focusing on relationship building and planning for 2024. We continued to deepen our work in transformative justice and prevention in the region by hosting our first in-person prevention gathering for Gender-Based Violence preventionists in king county to build a container for relationships and resource sharing. We hosted our 3rd year of the transformative justice cohort, experimenting with a smaller group to build analysis and plan future work with a bigger impact together. We began the advocate connection space, an advocate support group with the intention to provide a space for advocates to explore and imagine what a stronger, more collective system might look like in our work, while collaboratively creating stronger connections to increase individual capacity. We began monthly a Gender-Based Violence/ behavioral health provider consult and support group, a space for behavioral health service providers within Coalition membership organizations to come together for connection, support, reciprocal consultation, and collective problem solving. Equipping people with helpful information & tools we provide training and resources to Coalition members, adjacent systems, and community members so that they can provide effective services and supports that center survivor well-being. In 2023: we maintained and continued coordination of our 2nd full year of the dv coordinated entry system, supporting housing placement of over 40 dv housing openings, across 14 dv housing programs. We convened the 2nd annual community meeting for the "new day" gender- based Violence resource database to be in community and gather ongoing feedback. The database has been successful in connecting gbv providers to updated services faster. 2023 saw the addition of at least 2 more organizations and more access points for those seeking support. We coordinated training for more than 200 mental health, chemical dependency, domestic Violence, and sexual assault professionals throughout king county about strengthening therapeutic responses to domestic Violence, connections between gbv/mh/substance use, and offered strategies to collaborate across fields for deeper impact. A surplus of midd training funds in 2023 increased our capacity to reach more people and explore deeper training topics such as: sexual health and trauma recovery for neurodivergent bodies integrative trauma and healing framework- foundation concepts religion and ipv mental health of ipv survivors during pregnancy and postpartum we stepped up to requests for training to specific organizations like healthpoint, king county housing authority, and downtown emergency service center to train more than 100 homeless housing providers and/or health care providers on domestic Violence dynamics, resources and responses, emphasizing the deep intersections between domestic Violence and homelessness. We provided multiple training to attorneys, advocates, mental health professionals, and other professionals involved in family law cases. Examples include: the Washington state Coalition against domestic Violence conference and to the wa state bar association on issues related to family law. This included how advocates can help survivors prepare for family court evaluations and how attorneys and other professionals need to consider the impact of dv in family law cases. A series of trainings for family law casas (court appointed special advocates) on the intimate partner Violence impact assessment tool (ipvia).