Serving the Underserved: Improving Program Impact By Successfully Identifying & Assessing Needs of “Underserved” Populations

SERVING THE UNDERSERVED:IMPROVING PROGRAM IMPACT BY

SUCCESSFULLY IDENTIFYING & ASSESSING NEEDS OF “UNDERSERVED” POPULATIONS

Aleese Moore-Orbih and Purvi Shah, Senior Consultants & Activists, Women of Color

Network

The Women of Color Network (WOCN), a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) is a national grassroots initiative dedicated to building the capacity of women of color advocates and activists responding to violence against women in communities of color. Through trainings, technical assistance, and advocacy, WOCN helps foster women of color in the advancement of their anti-violence work and leadership. The mission of the Women of Color Network (WOCN) is to provide and enhance leadership capacity and resources that promote the activities of women of color advocates and activists within the Sovereign Nations, the United States and U.S. Territories to address the elimination of violence against women and families.

WHO WE AREWHY WE ARE HERE

WWW.WOMENOFCOLORNETWORK.ORG

Welcome

Introductions

Shout Out

OBJECTIVESLearn how to use the WOCN 3-Tier System to better identify underserved” populations

Be able to expand “underserved” populations into the 3-tier populations

Better understand the resources and program needs of these diverse populations

Objectives


Be able to list concrete action steps for enabling stronger program impact with underserved populations

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TERMINOLOGY


VAWA DEFINITION

Geographic location, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, underserved racial and ethnic populations, special needs e.g., language barriers, disabilities, alienage status, or age…

Underserved Populations:

42 U.S.C. 13925(a)(33)(as amended by P.L. 113-4, Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2013)

Historical and Systemic Disenfranchisement Based on:Race Ethnicity Immigration

StatusSovereignty/Indigenous

Status

Sexual Orientation/

Gender Identity

Cultural, Language and Low Levels of

Literacy

Geographic Location

(Degrees of Isolation)

Faith, Spirituality or Religious

Identity

Age: Youth and Children

Age: Adults in Later Life

Mental Disabilities or other Mental Health Needs

Physical, Cognitive or

Sensory Disability

THE 3 TIER SYSTEM (3-TS)

The 3-Tier System is innovation in

Identification, Outreach and Service


The term “underserved” represents a wide spectrum of needs. Expanding and enhancing our understanding and approach to include the 3-Tier definitions (Un-served, Underserved, and Inadequately Served) enables us to specify historical or emerging systemic and societal or population-based disenfranchisement, then respond more precisely to these needs and barriers with effective services and advocacy.

Un-served,

Underserved, and

Inadequately Served


Un-served

No services available

Severe isolation

Underserved

Limited access

Moderate Isolation

Inadequately served

Over-represented

Access but limited quality

3-TS Expands and Enhances Our Approach Based on a Spectrum

of Needs

THIS CATEGORY IS DESIGNATED FOR THOSE POPULATIONS WHO ARE SO MARGINALIZED THAT THEY ARE NOT REACHED AT ALL. THIS IS ALSO INDICATIVE OF THOSE POPULATIONS WHO ARE EMERGING AND WHO ARE NOT YET VISIBLE IN OUR SERVICES OR WHO ARE THERE IN VERY SMALL NUMBERS.

Un-Served Populations

NO SERVCES AVAILABLE

POPULATIONS IN THIS CATEGORY ARE THOSE WHO ARE GROWING IN NUMBER IN OUR SERVICES AND HAVE MINIMAL ACCESS; BUT WHO NEED MORE SERVICES AND APPROACHES THAT MEET THEIR SPECIFIC NEEDS; THEREFORE THEY REMAIN ‘UNDER’-SERVED.

Underserved Populations:

LIMITED ACCESS

THIS CATEGORY SPEAKS TO THOSE HISTORICALLY MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES WHO MAY BE HIGHLY VISIBLE OR EVEN OVERREPRESENTED IN NUMBER, BUT WHO ARE STILL IN NEED OF IMPROVED QUALITY OF SERVICES THAT WILL HELP ADDRESS CYCLICAL CHALLENGES THEIR POPULATIONS FACE SUCH AS “ONE-SIZE FITS ALL” STRATEGIES THAT DISREGARD SPECIFIC DISENFRANCHISEMENT AND CULTURALLY-SPECIFIC EXPERIENCES.

Inadequately Served Populations:

OVER REPRESENTED

APPROPRIATING THE 3 TIER SYSTEM (3-TS)

• Provide a clearer distinction among un-served, underserved, and inadequately served populations.

• Help you recognize specific complexities of underserved populations.

• Enable you to improve the specificity of services for diverse populations.

Applying the 3-Tier System will:

• Give you new ideas for reaching underserved populations.

• Provide a new flexible framework for resourcing underserved populations.

• Help to better identify gaps and challenges in your current processes and strategies.

Applying the 3-Tier System will:

The 3-Tier System can help service providers in the strategic planning and implementation

process. • In the development of priorities and approaches to

better reach 3-Tier populations.

• In decision-making in a strategic planning process for relevant programming and services.

• It can be very effective in establishing priority-setting activities.

How Can You Use the 3-TS

The 3-Tier System can help service providers assess the needs of marginalized populations

• Build relationships with Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) that directly serve these communities.

• Improve and increase sustainable and effective partnerships with CBOs serving all marginalized populations

How Can You Use the 3-TS

The 3-Tier System framework enables us to distinguish specific needs across populations in order to more effectively shape service and advocacy strategies and responses. In particular, this approach offers a closer attention to demographics, the needs of small and emerging populations, and ways to form and sustain direct productive partnerships to ensure community connections and respond to the varied needs of diverse populations.

What is the Impact?: Avoid a “one-size-fits-all” approach to

reaching all survivors

The process of increasing and improving effective and collaborative relationships and partnerships with CBOs serving culturally-specific communities will also greatly increase everyone’s capacity to provide effective and relevant victim services that specifically work to end violence against women and families in ALL communities.

What is the Impact?

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS

EXERCISE:APPLYING THE 3-TIER DEFINITIONS TO THE POPULATIONS: STATE, REGION _________________

POPULATION Un-served Underserved Inadequately Served

API Black Disabilities Immigrant / Refugee Later Life Latino / Hispanic LEP LGBTQI Multi-ethnic Native Rural Undocumented Youth and Teens

•

UN-SERVED POPULATIONS THAT TRULY DO

NOT HAVE ANY SERVICES AVAILABLE.

NO SERVICES AVAILABLESEVERE ISOLATION

Review definition: un-served


INADEQUATELY SERVED POPULATIONS

ARE HISTORICALLY MARGINALIZED

& MAY BE OVERREPRESENTED


Review definition: Inadequately Served

UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS THAT HAVE MINIMAL ACCESS AND ARE IN

NEED OF MORE OUTREACH AND SUPPORT.

LIMITED ACCESS MODERATE ISOLATION


Review definitions: Underserved

STOP Administrators identified a number of core barriers and challenges in reaching and supporting 3-Tier populations. In particular: lack of sufficient time, resources, and funding.

CHALLENGESState Administrators’ Challenges

WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU SEE?

TIME

FUNDING

REOURCES

MORE…

Promising Practices

Reaching out to other STOP Administrators to learn from and share best practices and successful methods on identifying, reaching, and including 3-Tier populations and CBOs.

State Administrators

State Administrators

• Focusing on the development of sustainable relationships and building stakeholder groups through site visits to diverse localities to better determine the core needs across communities;

• Expanding the roster of those who attend strategic planning meetings and re-strategizing the quality and content of the goals and outcomes of these meetings;

Promising Practices

What Opportunities do You See?

Promising Practices

• Outreach

• Focus

• Expansion

• More…

NEXT STEP EXERCISES


Better Identification

Reach

Needs Assessment

RESIST THE “WE ARE ALL

UNDERSERVED” RATIONALE


Don’t: Take the easy way out

Don’t let, “We tried to reach them”

serve as your final answer!

WOCN’S 9-STEPS • Step 1: Reflect: Integrate ongoing “inward-

outward” reflection exercises in your program planning.

• Step 2: Use A Social Justice Lens: Frame the work utilizing social justice approaches to examine oppression, identify areas of equity and non-equity, be more aware of systems of power, and consider ways to level the playing field for all survivors.

• Step 3: Expand the Definition of Underserved: Utilize the 3-Tier System to deepen your understandings of marginalized populations.

WOCN’S 9-STEPS • Step 4: Become an Aspiring Ally: Make a plan to

build and/or improve relationships with representatives from 3-Tier System Populations through self-examination and an evaluation of how privilege and dis-privilege based on identity impacts survivors and is reinforced by those who serve them.

• Step 5: Collaborate: Join forces with survivors and community representatives from the 3-TS Populations to enhance outreach and support for marginalized

WOCN’S 9-STEPSStep 6: Utilize Technical Assistance: Draw upon the expertise of national, state, or local technical assistance providers to assist in your efforts.

Step 7: Build Up Your Resources: Develop a library of relevant and culturally sensitive information on barriers/challenges, promising practices, and case studies/tips for supporting survivors from marginalized communities.

WOCN’S 9-STEPSStep 8: Get Ongoing Education: Continue seek out and participate in any needed skills-building opportunities and relevant trainings to increase your knowledge of reaching and serving marginalized populations.

Step 9: Build Capacity: Develop and implement a plan to improve your capacity to work with CBOs serving 3-Tier System communities, and to raise the capacity of the CBOs write and submit winning grant applications and to successfully administer federal funds for their programs.

Final Questions and Comments

HOW TO CONTACT US

CHECK US OUT ON THE WEBwomenofcolornetwork.org

Contact WOCN Lead Consultants:

Aleese:Aleesewocn@ gmail.com

Purvi: [email protected]

HOW TO CONTACT US

CHECK US OUT ON THE WEBwomenofcolornetwork.org

Contact Staff:

Tonya [email protected]

Chelsea Cox orRebecca Balog 800-537-2238

Documents

Serving the Underserved: Improving Program Impact By Successfully Identifying & Assessing Needs of “Underserved” Populations