The Partnership for Domestic Abuse Strategic Plan: Adopted August 17, 2010 The Partnership for Domestic Abuse Services (PDAS) Listen, Learn, Lead Introduction PDAS has achieved many milestones since an ad hoc group of committed Ramsey County partners embarked on this journey in 2004. Driven by the voices of victims and a core commitment to collaboration, PDAS has a rich history of community leadership and support, resulting in some notable milestones in its effort to end domestic violence. A primary accomplishment was the opening of Bridges to Safety in June 2008. Bridges to Safety is a center where advocacy and community and governmental organizations join together, under one roof, to provide safety for domestic violence victims and hold abusers accountable. Bridges to Safety hallmarks the value and power of true collaboration. In addition, throughout its history, PDAS has embraced an ongoing commitment to learning, informed decision-making and collaborative planning. Past planning efforts successfully captured emerging opportunities and dealt with challenges, to ensure that ending violence is in the forefront of PDAS partners and the community as a whole. Over the past year, the PDAS leadership recognized the importance of developing a new strategic plan which would be a dynamic roadmap to drive organizational decisions over the next 3-5 years and position PDAS to effectively deal with the changing environment and its impact on victims and providers of service to victims. In addition, with the successful founding and implementation of Bridges to Safety, PDAS partners began to ponder and discuss whether there might be other compelling opportunities to explore through the lens of collaboration. While there remains a need to continue to provide leadership and support to Bridges to Safety, PDAS posed the questions: Are there other approaches to ending violence that might benefit from a collaborative approach? Might there be some compelling issues to address in the ongoing commitment to end violence? And, how can PDAS support our partners in this changing economy? Those questions prompted the decision to develop a new strategic plan as a tool to ensure creation of the future of PDAS and to advance its mission of ending domestic violence through its commitment to collaboration. On January 26, 2009, 35 PDAS partners and supporters joined together to review data, explore issues and challenges in the changing economy (and the budgetary implications for partners), and generate the core components of a new strategic plan. The planning process also netted a recommitment to actively assuring a supportive collaborative environment, ongoing and intentional learning, and innovative responses to ending violence. The results of that planning process are reflected in the following plan. Mission The Partnership for Domestic Abuse Services collaborates to identify, create and sustain innovative responses that assure a future free of domestic violence. Core Values and Operating Principles Everyone has the right to live free from violence and abuse. The community and society has an obligation to act to end violence, to hold perpetrators of violence accountable, and to assure victim-centered responses that are culturally proficient, tenacious, compassionate, creative, effective, collaborative and focused on assisting victims of all ages to live free of violence. All victims deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, to be honored and valued, to have the abuse and violence they have experienced be taken seriously and not minimized, to have their voices heard, and to have control over their own lives. It is critical that adult, youth and child victims do not become re-victimized in their attempts to protect themselves and the responses to them are delivered without judgment and bias. Services must be accessible to victims from diverse cultures, backgrounds, experiences and lifestyles. As we continue our evolution, we share an ongoing commitment to actively and honestly work together to explore and seek solutions to barriers to access for diverse adult, youth and child victims. All victims and their families have the right to services that are provided by individuals that honor, value, respect, support and celebrate their individuality and culture. Adult, youth and child victims deserve to share their stories with people who are compassionate, respect who they are and the choices they make, honor confidentiality, and are knowledgeable about and committed to cultural proficiency and inclusive practices. Quality collaboration between providers results in increased knowledge, greater service effectiveness, and better outcomes for adult, youth and child victims by fully utilizing existing resources whenever possible. We are committed to providing ongoing opportunities to reduce duplication of effort; increase the quality of interactions between and among government and community-based organizations; to challenge partners, the partnership and the community as a whole; to enhance individual and collective learning; and to support community-based best practices that end domestic violence. Vision PDAS, driven by the voices of victims, is an ever-evolving and expanding collaboration of passionate individuals and committed organizations that: listens, learns, and leads the development of innovative responses to ending domestic violence. Strategic Plan Part 2: Goals, Outcomes and Indicators.