The Lane County collaboration – formally named SurviveAbility – was comprised of seven primary partners: Cottage Grove Community Sharing, Direction Service, Lane Independent Living Alliance (LILA), Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS), Siuslaw Outreach Services (SOS), ShelterCare, Womenspace, the Lane County Domestic Violence Council (DVC)/VALID subcommittee, and Lane County Department of Children and Families (DCF). SurviveAbility seeks to enhance the partner agencies’ capacity to serve women with disabilities through changed policies and practices that integrate effective responses to violence and accessibility across their systems.
Our Unique Contribution
This collaborative effort represents the first time this group of stakeholders has come together with the exclusive focus of improving services for women with disabilities who have experienced domestic and sexual violence. Every member of the collaboration committed to making changes to their organizations based on their needs assessment findings. The collaborative was especially impacted by the lessons learned regarding Universal Design, and created a tool to assist partners in reviewing their built and their policy-level environments to identify ways to improve their programs and agencies.