Mass Rights for Change: 

Strategic Plan 


Mass Advocates Standing Strong 
Victim Rights Law Center 
Pathways for Change 

This project is supported by Grant No. 2017-FW-AX-K004 awarded by 
the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The 
opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this 
publication/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily 
reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence 
Against Women. 


Table of Contents: 

Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…3 

Overview of Collaboration Members……………………………………....3 
Overview of Planning and Development to Date..……………4 
Individual Agencies………………………………………………………….4 
Focus Statement…………………………………………………………..….6 
Vision Statement……………………………………………………………..6 
Mission Statement…………………………………………………………..7 

Overview of the Needs Assessment………………………………………...7 
Purpose……………………………………………………………………………7 
Goals………………………………………………………………………………..8 

Key Findings from MRfC Needs Assessment..…………………………..9 
Strategic Plan…………………………………………………………………………10 
Table for Initiatives and Activities for MRfC…………………………..12 
Conclusion…………………………………..…………………………………………22 

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Introduction 

The Collaboration and Its Partners 

Mass Rights for Change (MRfC) 

We are 3 agencies: 

• Mass Advocates Standing Strong (MASS) 
• Victim Rights Law Center, (VRLC) 
• Pathways for Change, Inc. (Pathways) 
In 2007 a program called Building Partnerships for the Protection of 
Individuals with Disabilities Initiative, funded by the Office for Victims of 
Crime, invited MASS (and others) to begin work on an exciting project 
that would create a program to educate people with disabilities by 
trainers with disabilities to recognize, report and respond to all types of 
abuse. This is how the Awareness and Action (A&A) trainings began. 

VRLC and Pathways began working together in 2009. Pathways and 
VRLC’s long-standing collaborative relationship includes cross-referrals 
for sexual violence survivors in Central Massachusetts. In addition to 
referrals, VRLC attorneys provide training to Pathways staff and 
volunteers to help improve free legal assistance access to sexual assault 
survivors in Central MA. 

Seeing the need and an opportunity to expand services to survivors 
with I/DD, Pathways forged a connection between MASS and VRLC and 
agreed to request the funds to support this collaboration. In 2017 we 

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gratefully received grant funding for this project from the Office on 
Violence Against Women. 

Planning and Development to Date 

We came together to build the collaboration and named ourselves 
Mass Rights for Change (MRfC). We created our name by taking parts 
of the name of each agency, which are described below. As a 
collaboration, we have created a Charter together that includes a 
roadmap for how our collaboration will work together throughout this 
project. We then created a Statement of Focus that states that we 
have come together in order to focus on survivors of sexual violence 
who have intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD), and 
how each agency can improve to serve these survivors. Next, we 
created a plan for how to assess the needs of the agencies as well as 
survivors in the community and people with I/DD through crafting a 
Needs Assessment Plan, which we implemented over the previous 
months. We then created a Needs Assessment Findings Report that 
described what we found, including 8 separate key findings, that our 
team could then focus on for our Strategic Plan. 

The Individual Agencies 

Mass Advocates Standing Strong (MASS) is a grassroots self-advocacy 
organization run for and by people with intellectual and developmental 
disabilities across the state of Massachusetts. MASS calls the people 
within their organization “members” and not clients or consumers. The 
partners involved within this collaboration include members from the 
Central Massachusetts region of MASS. They are also the Awareness 
and Action team for Central Massachusetts. The Awareness and Action 

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program is a key and unique program provided by MASS. MASS is the 
only self-advocacy I/DD organization dedicated to providing peer-topeer 
education around abuse and violence in Worcester County. 
Through its Awareness and Action Program, MASS’ self-advocates train 
others in Worcester County about how to recognize, report, and 
respond to abuse. 

Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC) provides free legal services to sexual 
violence victims in Massachusetts. VRLC is the only organization to offer 
sexual assault-specific legal services in Worcester County. VRLC offers 
survivor-centered and empowering legal representation to rape and 
sexual assault survivors in Massachusetts. This includes adults and 
children; people of all abilities, gender identities, and sexual 
orientations and immigrants, refugees, and undocumented persons, 
regardless of immigration status. 

Pathways for Change, Inc. (Pathways) is a stand-alone multicultural 
rape crisis center (RCC) and provides trauma-informed support services 
to survivors of sexual violence in ASL, English, Portuguese, Spanish and 
Vietnamese. Pathways is well-known for innovative work that includes 
their Deaf Survivors Program (DSP), the creation of a regional hotline 
collaboration, outreach and prevention work with sexually exploited 
individuals and a college campus advocacy program. Pathways provides 
free support services to 47 cities and towns in Central Massachusetts, 
which includes: 

• 24-hour crisis intervention 
• Support Counseling 
• Healing Circles (support groups) 
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• Advocacy in the medical, police and legal settings 
• Prevention education for youth and adults 
• Professional training 
• Community outreach 
Focus Statement 

The Mass Rights for Change team is committed to a survivor-centered 
approach that empowers individuals with I/DD in Central 
Massachusetts who have experienced sexual violence. The core of this 
collaboration is that it values the whole person seeking help, services, 
support, and safety. We see the person before we see the disability or 
that they have been a victim. 

Our Vision 

The vision of Mass Rights for Change is to see a future that supports all 
victims of sexual violence who have intellectual and/or developmental 
disabilities to: 

• Recognize they have been abused 
• Know they have rights 
• Be able to get the services they need without barriers 
• Act on their power to manage their recovery and healing 
• Have all the help they need to recover in their own way that 
works best for them 
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This vision will support all survivors of sexual violence who have I/DD 
to have doors opened. We will start with our three agencies and then 
we hope to do this across our area, our state, and hopefully the 
country. 

Our Mission 

The mission of the MRfC team is to remove barriers and increase the 
services, access, and support for survivors of sexual violence who have 
I/DD in Central Massachusetts. The mission is for MASS, VRLC, and 
Pathways to work together to make this change happen, by building a 
strong, ongoing partnership, between the 3 agencies. We will do this 
through respect, teamwork, true listening, and understanding. 
Specifically, we will: 

• 
Develop new ideas that will build trust between our programs and 
survivors of sexual violence who have I/DD 
• 
Review, revise, and create policies, and practices within MASS, 
VRLC, and Pathways 
• 
Create guidelines to increase the accessibility and responsiveness 
of our services and programs 
• 
Develop a plan to improve how people are given help and 
increase survivor safety. And treat individuals with kindness and 
compassion, making sure that all survivors are believed. 
• 
Develop and provide training for the MRfC partners 
Needs Assessment Purpose 

In order to accomplish the mission of the MRfC team, we created a 
needs assessment to better understand the issues that survivors of 
sexual violence with I/DD face when seeking services. Our team hoped 

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to do this by asking people with I/DD, survivors of sexual violence, and 
people who work with both groups, along with staff from all three 
agencies, what helps and what stops, or at least slows down people 
from getting the services they need, and how we can remove these 
barriers and increase the helpful practices. We hoped to get from this 
process: 

• 
Practical information on what works in services for survivors of 
sexual violence who have I/DD and how to improve services 
• 
Information on what we can do to improve our individual 
agencies and services, and to implement activities based on that 
information 
• 
Increase agency commitment and ability to provide help and 
services to survivors with I/DD 
• 
To make sure that all participants within the project are excited 
about our project and our success now and in years to come. 
Needs Assessment Goals 

• 
Find what gets in the way for each of our agencies in helping 
survivors of sexual violence. This may be in the policies, 
procedures, the buildings, or what training staff and volunteers 
receive, or do not receive, to help survivors. 
• 
Find out what is good and what is working or not working inside 
of each organization to help staff and volunteers provide safe, 
accessible, and helpful services to survivors of sexual violence and 
those with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. 
• 
Find out how people who are survivors of sexual violence and 
who have I/DD are now able to get help from each of our 
organizations and what gets in the way of them getting that help. 
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• 
Find out how people who are not part of the statewide support 
system of the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) get 
access to services and support. 
• 
Guardian and Parent Input: Sometimes guardians and sometimes 
parents have influence or rights to decision-making about people 
with I/DD. We asked this group about their opinions about the 
need and necessity of sexual violence services for people with 
I/DD. 
We met our goals of asking a large cross-section of people about 
services for survivors of sexual violence who have I/DD. Through the 
kindness and honesty of those willing to share their experiences and 
stories, we were able to find some gaps and areas of focus for our 
collaboration to focus on, for the rest of this current grant process, as 
well as some long-term plans for change. 

Below is a list of the key findings our team found through the needs 
assessment process. 

Key Findings from MRfC Needs Assessment 

Key Finding #1: Human dignity remains a key value for all 
three agencies and their clients and members. 

Key Finding #2: An Empowered stance toward all people is 
a key value of the partner agencies, but needs to be better 
understood to support people who have I/DD. 

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Key Finding #3: Stereotypes, biases, myths, and beliefs 
create barriers to people seeking and receiving services. 

Key Finding #4: Confidentiality is often misunderstood, 
not explained well, breached, or not applied consistently. 

Key Finding #5: Agencies silo their workers and 
knowledge, which creates a lack of collaboration in 
meeting the full needs of survivors. 

Key Finding #6: Lack of accessible communication creates 
barriers to services. 

Key Finding #7: Safety and access issues need to be 
addressed to better work with survivors with I/DD. 

Key Finding #8: MASS has not until recently made sexual 
violence against people with disabilities a priority, creating 
a gap in their agency knowledge and practices. 

Strategic Plan 

Our key findings gave all three agencies specific areas to focus on, in 
order to help improve services and support for survivors. Given the 
amount of time left for this grant period, and the expertise of our TA 
from the Vera Institute of Justice, together we met virtually over a 2day 
period February 5 – 6, 2020 to discuss as a group what would be 
best to do for the remainder of our grant. 

We came up with an outlined strategic plan, and our team began to 
meet to agree on the rest of the details. This is when the Pandemic in 

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the United States began to be reported. As a result, since many within 
our team are vulnerable citizens, we stopped meeting in person in 
March. We began to meet virtually as a team to then regain our work, 
and focus on our strategic plan. Our team was able to re-organize and 
get settled, and had to re-evaluate our goals for our strategic plan. 
After getting some more information about what was available for 
models to build on, for some of our initiatives, we were able to come to 
the following plan to complete by the end of September, 2020. 

Below is a Table that shows our plan including initiatives and activities 
to be accomplished. The first initiative was developed from the Key 
Findings #6 and #7: Key Initiative 1: Promote access and enhance safety 
at all organizations within Mass Rights for change. This initiative 
responds directly to the safety and access needs of all organizations, 
but especially during a time of social distancing. We recognize that our 
original plan may look different during this time, and will review tools 
that allow us to consider remote safety and access. The second 
initiative was looking at Key Findings #’s 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8: Key Initiative 

2: Build staff capacity and comfort of MRfC partners to effectively, 
safely, and without bias, respond to and serve survivors with I/DD. This 
initiative will focus on staff capacity and comfort and address what we 
found in our needs assessment that bias and stereotypes are obstacles 
and barriers that people with I/DD face on a regular basis. This initiative 
focuses on practical changes to our systems – forms, policies, and 
training tools to increase access, comfort and capacity-building. The 
third and final initiative is in response to Key Finding #5: Key Initiative 3: 
Prioritize working together and learning from each other – both within 
and between agencies -through policy and practice at MRfC agencies. 
This initiative formalizes all of the collaboration building Mass Rights for 
Change has achieved over the course of the grant program, ensuring 
that we maintain a commitment to collaborating in years to come. 
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Table for Initiatives and Activities for MRfC 

Key Initiative 1: 
Promote access and 
enhance safety at all 
organizations within 
Mass Rights for change 
Who is 
Responsible? 
By When? 
Conduct Safety and 
Access Reviews 
All 
Review existing tools All/PD April/May 2020 
Adapt existing tools All/PD April/May 2020 
Group reviews final tools All May 2020 
Send Vera the changes to 
new tools 
PD June 2020 
Make any edits to new tools All/PD June 2020 
Send to OVW for 
approval/highlight new 
changes 
PD June 2020 
Assemble a team for safety 
and access reviews 
All June 2020 
Conduct the safety and 
access reviews at VRLC and 
Pathways 
Workgroup/teams July 2020 
Draft barrier removal and 
safety plans 
All/PD July 2020 
Review by group All August 2020 
Send to Vera for feedback 
and edits 
PD August 2020 

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Make any edits to barrier 
removal and safety plans removal and safety plans 
All/PD August 2020 
Send to OVW for approval PD August/September 
2020 
Revise MASS Facebook 
Page/Website for 
additional accessibility 
MASS 
Assemble work group MASS April/May 2020 
Review Current content of 
Facebook Page/Website 
Work group April/May 2020 
Facebook Group Creation – 
Adding in relevant topics and 
discussion board 
Work Group May 2020 
Reach out to contacts of 
websites found for input 
Work Group May 2020 
Draft workplan for new 
content sharing content 
found 
Work group May 2020 
If needed, draft new content Work group June 2020 
Submit plan for new content 
and content to MASS for 
preliminary approval 
Work group July 2020 
Review all new material 
specifically for access 
All/MASS July 2020 
Send to full collaboration for 
any feedback or edits if 
needed 
All August 2020 
Make any edits needed Work group August 2020 
Send to Vera for feedback PD August 2020 
Make any edits as needed MASS/PD September 20202 
Send to OVW for approval PD September 2020 

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Upload new content to 
Facebook/Website Facebook/Website 
MASS September 2020 
Create Confidentiality Form 
in Plain Language (VRLC) 
VRLC 
Assign VRLC staff to work on 
form -group or individuals 
VRLC April/May 2020 
Review current 
confidentiality form 
Work group April/May 2020 
Review any existing plain 
language confidentiality that 
exists -PD listserv 
Work group April/May 
Draft/adapt a new 
confidentiality form in plain 
language 
Work group May 2020 
Internal feedback at VRLC VRLC May 2020 
Make any edits needed Work group May 2020 
Review by whole 
collaboration 
All June 2020 
Make any edits needed Work group June 2020 
Submit to ED/Board for 
review/edits/approval 
Work group July 2020 
Submit material to Vera for 
feedback 
PD July 2020 
Make any edits needed VRLC/PD August 2020 
Submit to OVW for approval PD August 2020 
Create Confidentiality 
Packet in Plain Language 
(Pathways) 
Pathways 
Assign Pathways staff Pathways April/May 2020 
Review current 
confidentiality packet -all 
Work group April/May 2020 

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three documents 
Review any existing 
documents that may exist confidentiality, 
grievance, or 
clients’ rights 
Work group May 2020 
Draft new plain language 
documents of each policy 
Work group May 2020 
Internal Pathways review of 
new documents 
Pathways June 2020 
Make any edits needed Work group June 2020 
Full collaboration Review All July 2020 
Make any edits needed Work group/PD July 2020 
Send to ED for approval Work group August 2020 
Send to Vera for final 
feedback 
PD August 2020 
Make any edits needed Work group/PD September 2020 
Send to OVW for approval PD September 2020 
Create a “living 
document” to contain 
question re: disability 
status and request/need 
for accommodations 
VRLC 
Assign VRLC staff to work on 
from – group or individuals 
VRLC April/May 2020 
Review current intake 
questions/process 
VRLC May 2020 
Create interview questions 
to ask MASS partners about 
better questions for intake 
VRLC May 2020 
Conduct interviews with 
MASS members to include 
VRLC and MASS June 2020 

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feedback for better 
questions/content questions/content 
Create new living document 
for intake based on research 
and interview(s) 
VRLC July 2020 
Review by MRfC All July 2020 
Make any edits as needed VRLC August 2020 
Submit to ED/Board for 
review/edits/approval 
VRLC August 2020 
Submit to Vera for review PD August 2020 
Make any edits needed VRLC August/September 
2020 
Submit to OVW for approval PD September 2020 
Begin to use new tool for 
intakes with survivors with 
disabilities 
VRLC September 2020 

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Key Initiative 2: Build 
staff capacity and 
comfort of MRfC 
Who is 
Responsible? 
By When? 
partners to effectively, 
safely, and without bias, 
respond to and serve 
survivors with I/DD 
Revise/create release of 
information in plain 
language – MASS and 
Pathways 
Create working groups 
Review current process of how 
to work with information 
MASS and 
Pathways 
MASS and 
Pathways 
Work groups 
April/May 2020 
May 2020 
Review how other agencies 
work with information 
Work groups May 2020 
Draft workplan – Manage 
information clarity, content, 
how to use a ROI 
Work groups June 2020 
Create plain language draft of 
ROI that will work with 
Work groups June 2020 
agencies that you work with 
Bring it to internal review 
Make edits as needed 
Bring to MRfC Review 
Make edits as needed 
Send to Vera for Review 
Make edits as needed 
Send to OVW for approval 
Work groups 
Work groups/PD 
All 
Work groups/PD 
PD 
Work groups/PD 
PD 
July 2020 
July 2020 
July 2020 
August 2020 
August 2020 
September 2020 
September 2020 
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Use new forms after approval MASS and Ongoing 
Pathways 
Revise/create mandatory MASS and 
reporting procedures – Pathways 
MASS and Pathways 
Create internal workgroups MASS and April/May 2020 
within the agency Pathways 
Review current policies and Work groups April/May 2020 
procedures 
Create a workplan to clarify Work groups May 2020 
procedures for disclosures 
Update/Revise procedures Work groups May/June 2020 
Review by MRfC All June 2020 
Edit changes Work groups June 2020 
Review by Vera PD July 2020 
Edits changes Work groups/PD August 2020 
Provide draft to ED/Board for Work groups August 2020 
reviews 
Final review All September 2020 
Send to OVW for approval PD September 2020 
Revise onboarding VRLC 
procedures to include 
resources such as 
webinar/s, and/or 
opportunities to meet with 
experienced staff, to 
develop/ increase comfort 
serving people with I/DD – 
VRLC 
Assign VRLC staff to work on VRLC April/May 2020 

revising onboarding procedures 

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Review webinars currently 
offered as part of onboarding. offered as part of onboarding. 
Work group April/May 2020 
Review available 3rd-partyproduced 
webinars, that 
provide guidance on 
interviewing/ working with 
clients with I/DD. 
Work group April/May 
Select 1-3 webinars from those 
reviewed, to be included in 
onboarding materials for new 
staff. 
Work group May 2020 
Request review from MRfC of 
the webinars selected. 
All May 2020 
Make changes to selections, 
based on feedback, as possible, 
given available resources. 
Work group June 2020 
Draft written procedure for 
onboarding to include 
increasing knowledge and 
comfort in serving people with 
I/DD 
Work group June 2020 
Submit material to Vera for 
feedback 
PD July 2020 
Make any changes needed Work group/PD July 2020 
Submit written policy and 
proposed webinars to ED for 
review/ changes/ approval 
Work group July 2020 
Make any changes needed Work group/PD August 2020 
Submit to OVW for approval PD August 2020 
Implement new procedures 
and include new materials in 
onboarding of new/ future 
VRLC September 2020 

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VRLC staff. 
Create workplan and outline 
of facilitated questions for 
“AMA” panels – MASS and 
Pathways 
MASS and 
Pathways 
Create workgroup All April/May 2020 
Create outline for panels Work group May 2020 
Decide who attends Work group May 2020 and 
Ongoing 
Decide who asks questions Work group May 2020 
Decide how are questions asked Work group May 2020 
Create key questions to be 
included in panels 
Work group June 2020 
Create workplan for panel Work group June 2020 
Review by agencies MASS and 
Pathways 
June 2020 
Make edits as needed Work group/PD June 2020 
Review by MRfC All July 2020 
Make edits as needed Work group/PD July 2020 
Send to Vera for review PD August 2020 
Make edits as needed Work group/PD August 2020 
Review and submit to OVW PD September 2020 
Ready to implement panels with 
further funding 
All September 2020 
and ongoing 

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Key Initiative 3: 

Who is 

By When? 

Prioritize working 

Responsible? 

together and learning 
from each other – both 
within and between 
agencies -through policy 
and practice at MRfC 
agencies. 
Create MOU among all 
three agencies. 
MASS, 
Pathways and 
VRLC 
Assign people to working group 
to create new MOU’s. 
MASS, Pathways 
and VRLC 
April/May 2020 
Review current MOU’s between 
member agencies 
Develop agreements and 
commitments between 
Work group 
Work group 
April/May 2020 
May 2020 
agencies 
Review by agency leaders 
Make edits 
Review by MRfC group 
Make edits 
Submit to Vera for review 
Work group 
Work group/PD 
All 
Work group/PD 
PD 
May 2020 
May 2020 
June 2020 
June 2020 
June 2020 
Make Edits 
Send to OVW for approval 
Create survivor support 
packet to support 
collaboration between 
Work group/PD 
PD 
MASS, 
Pathways and 
VRLC 
July 2020 
August 2020 
MRfC agencies – and 
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supported access for 
survivors to the agencies 
Create working groups MASS, Pathways 
and VRLC 
May 2020 
Identify content for survivor 
support packet through group 
discussions and review of 
resources available from other 
agencies 
Work group May 2020 
Create content for packet Work group June 2020 
Draft packet Work group June 2020 
Review by MRfC All June 2020 
Make changes/edits Work group July 2020 
Send to Vera for review PD July 2020 
Make changes/edits Work group/PD July 2020 
Send to each agency for 
internal review 
Work group July 2020 
Make changes/edits Work group/PD August 2020 
Send to OVW for approval PD August 2020 
Begin to use survivor support 
packets within agencies 
All September 2020 

Some of our planning helps each organization be prepared to move into 
more implementation with future funding, along with some sustainable 
plans for on-going collaborations. 

Conclusion 

Our MRfC team has overcome many obstacles to get to the 
implementation phase of this grant. We have been able to create 
access and true partnership among the members of the team which 
now extend into each agency. We are very excited to begin to work 

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through our strategic plan and make meaningful and powerful changes 
to each member agency. We are so grateful to the Vera Institute of 
Justice for all the support in getting us to this place, as well as to the 
Office on Violence Against Women for giving us the opportunity to 
make real and permanent changes, that will help people with I/DD who 
are survivors of sexual violence, to get better access, support and 
services as a result of this grant. 

Over time, working together, our team has regularly used PowerPoint 
presentations as a way to create plain language presentations of 
information. We have found that it helps to engage with material and 
planning. Therefore, as a first act of implementation, we are submitting 
a version of our Strategic Plan in PowerPoint form to provide a more 
accessible version of our plan. We look forward to beginning our work 
to accomplish these initiatives, or as we call them “buckets”, with the 
activities that will lead us through to success. 

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