The Center for Survivor Agency and Justice

Institute sessions included:
Defining Our Work - The context of intimate partner violence and how it affects our ability to be effective advocates. It addressed batterers' use of coercive control, the importance of context, how to distinguish between perpetrators and victims, and institutional and cultural forces that contribute to entrapment.

Survivor Risk Analysis, Decision Making, and Safety Planning - Used discussion, presentation, and case-studies to explain batterer-generated and life-generated risks, as well as how survivors make decisions about their relationship and choose particular safety strategies. The session also covered the development of safety plans, including assessing dangerousness, responding to life-threatening violence and risk to children, and advocacy when the survivor remains in the relationship with the partner.

Attorney, Advocate, and Survivor Collaboration - Explored what attorneys and advocate can offer to one another to further survivor centered advocacy. The session included feedback from a survivor on her perspective of how her attorney and advocate worked well together to provide her with effective advocacy.

Supervision, Support, Burnout - Provided guidance for practitioners to seek constructive supervision as well as be an active peer supervisor. Also discussed the individual, systemic, and political forces that lead to burn out - and effective strategies for remaining healthy advocates.

Advocating with System Players -Explored how to best communicate both the general context of domestic violence and the individual client's experience in order to achieve the outcome that the survivor desires. Learned how to optimize survivor agency, and used case-studies to explore potential advocacy situations where understanding the individual survivors' life context is vital.

Survivor Panel - Three survivors shared their individual stories, and commented on what advocates, attorneys, judges, and police officers did or didn't do effectively in their cases. The survivors also shared their recommendations for how the attorneys and advocates in the room could enhance the advocacy they currently provide to clients.

Interviewing Exercise - After being provided with a framework for interviewing survivors, participants practiced survivor centered advocacy skills in an extensive interviewing exercise.

All the institute materials, including faculty presentations, the institute agenda, and supplemental articles are online in our Resource Library (Category-Survivor Centered Advocacy-->Institute Nov 09). (If you don't already have access to the resource library, click here.) If you were interested in attending this conference, but could not make it due to the dates or it being full, be sure to sign up for our listserv for future training opportunities from CSAJ.


	CSAJ Holds Successful Survivor Centered Advocacy Institute On November 16 and 17, 2009, the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice, with support from the Office on Violence Against Women, led a conference for over 50 attorneys and advocates working with survivors of intimate partner violence. Held in Alexandria, Virginia, the conference entitled, "Survivor-Centered Advocacy: Critical Skills for Advocates and Lawyers," engaged participants in developing survivor-centered advocacy knowledge and skills. The following faculty facilitated sessions: Jill Davies, Greater Hartford Legal Aid; Jeane Decker, Women's Resource Center; Ambar Hanson, Casa de Esperanza; Tamara Kuennen, University of Denver Sturm College of Law; Carol Shoener, Women's Resource Center; and Andrew Sta. Ana, Sanctuary for Families, and Erika Sussman and Ana Ottman, Center for Survivor Agency and Justice. Institute sessions included: Defining Our Work - The context of intimate partner violence and how it affects our ability to be effective advocates. It addressed batterers' use of coercive control, the importance of context, how to distinguish between perpetrators and victims, and institutional and cultural forces that contribute to entrapment. Survivor Risk Analysis, Decision Making, and Safety Planning - Used discussion, presentation, and case-studies to explain batterer-generated and life-generated risks, as well as how survivors make decisions about their relationship and choose particular safety strategies. The session also covered the development of safety plans, including assessing dangerousness, responding to life-threatening violence and risk to children, and advocacy when the survivor remains in the relationship with the partner. Attorney, Advocate, and Survivor Collaboration - Explored what attorneys and advocate can offer to one another to further survivor centered advocacy. The session included feedback from a survivor on her perspective of how her attorney and advocate worked well together to provide her with effective advocacy. Supervision, Support, Burnout - Provided guidance for practitioners to seek constructive supervision as well as be an active peer supervisor. Also discussed the individual, systemic, and political forces that lead to burn out - and effective strategies for remaining healthy advocates. Advocating with System Players -Explored how to best communicate both the general context of domestic violence and the individual client's experience in order to achieve the outcome that the survivor desires. Learned how to optimize survivor agency, and used case-studies to explore potential advocacy situations where understanding the individual survivors' life context is vital. Survivor Panel - Three survivors shared their individual stories, and commented on what advocates, attorneys, judges, and police officers did or didn't do effectively in their cases. The survivors also shared their recommendations for how the attorneys and advocates in the room could enhance the advocacy they currently provide to clients. Interviewing Exercise - After being provided with a framework for interviewing survivors, participants practiced survivor centered advocacy skills in an extensive interviewing exercise. All the institute materials, including faculty presentations, the institute agenda, and supplemental articles are online in our Resource Library (Category-Survivor Centered Advocacy-->Institute Nov 09). (If you don't already have access to the resource library, click here.) If you were interested in attending this conference, but could not make it due to the dates or it being full, be sure to sign up for our listserv for future training opportunities from CSAJ. back to homepage					CRDVSI Holds Successful Tax Advocacy Webinar [read more] CSAJ Holds Successful Survivor Centered Advocacy Institute [read more] Domestic Violence Screening Tool for Consumer Lawyers [read more] Consumer Rights for Domestic Violence Survivors Initiative [read more] Support Our Work [read more] Legal and Advocacy Resource Library [read more]

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