The Duluth Model is constantly evolving. Here are some of our latest projects.
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Initiative
This new project examines the intersection of domestic violence and sexual assault. Because the responses in the criminal justice system to each crime is so different, it is difficult to develop coordinated policies that meet the safety needs of each type of victim. This project will look at the coordination and integration of police policies, advocacy, the tracking and monitoring of cases and prosecution of cases.
Blueprint for Safety Implementation
In 2010, Ellen Pence, cofounder of Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs, along with nine participating agencies in St. Paul, MN, agreed to replicate and expand on what Duluth successfully accomplished with its Coordinated Community Response thirty years earlier in a much smaller community. The Blueprint for Safety is a written document produced by the inter-agency group that demonstrates the intricate details that must be figured out to process cases in ways that always centralize victim safety and offender accountability. We are currently working with our partner agencies in the criminal justice system in Duluth to implement the lessons from St. Paul in Duluth and to develop and add to the Blueprint for Safety components around civil protection orders, visitation centers, sexual assault, and batterer intervention programs.
Crossroads Project
The Crossroads Project is a multi-disciplinary collaboration project with SafePlace of Austin, TX and the Office on Victims of Crime to respond to crime victims with disabilities. The project is reaching out to people with disabilities, victim service providers, disability service providers and law enforcement to provide training, invite collaboration and improve communication among service providers on disability issues. The goal is to increase reporting of crimes by people with disabilities and to create improved responses by victim service providers and the criminal justice system.
Safe Transitions Project
When court-orders abruptly change and children suddenly switch from visiting the abusive parent in supervised visits to unsupervised visits, the likelihood of experiencing the trauma of domestic violence around exchanges and visits is high. Abuse continues, in different forms, with the child as a pawn in the process. Working with both parents and the children, this project is exploring ways to develop fair and respectful communication, and other measures of safety and accountability, as families move from supervised to unsupervised visits.
Logging the Equality Wheel in Men’s Nonviolence Classes
Using aspects of the Control Log, a central tool in our men’s nonviolence curriculum, we now also log (logging is to name the actions, intents, beliefs and effects behind men’s abusive behavior) the components of the Equality Wheel. This allows us to avoid abstract conversations about equality and get to deeper and more concrete understandings of each of the elements of the Equality Wheel (such as what respecting your partner looks like) using the lived experiences of the men in the group.
Domestic Violence Response Teams
This team, made up of domestic violence investigators, advocates and probation agents, is located in the police department and coordinates efforts around case processing, warrants for apprehending offenders, advocacy for women and system change efforts. It speeds up agency response times and enhances the ability to respond to risk in a shorter time. It also creates a document of an offender’s violent history so practitioners are all making decisions from the same information.
Want to learn more or share what is new in your community? Contact us.