The Vermont Network works with a wide range of partners to make Vermont a place where victims and survivors are safe and supported and where domestic and sexual violence can no longer thrive.
Current Projects
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Legal Assistance to Victims.
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Sexual Violence Prevention Plan: The Vermont Approach
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Safe Havens Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Project
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Economic Justice
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New “Stay-Away” Orders for Survivors of Stalking and Sexual Assault
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DIVAS – Program for Incarcerated Women
Recent Projects
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Cops and Kids
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Health Care Initiative
Ongoing Collaborations
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Training at the police academy
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Anti-Violence Partnership
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AHS
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Vermont Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Project
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Legal Assistance to Victims
The LAV Grant provides free legal assistance and advocacy to victims/survivors of sexual violence. The Office on Violence Against Women, Legal Assistance to Victims Grant funds in part the positions of the legal advocates at the 16 Network programs, and it funds attorneys to consult with and/or represent sexual violence victims/survivors. In eligible cases, LAV-funded attorneys can assist sexual violence victims/survivors in criminal proceedings as well as in certain civil and family court proceedings.
If you are a victim/survivor of sexual assault, click here for more information about legal resources that may be available to you.
In the aftermath of a sexual assault, the LAV Grant ensures that victims/survivors have legal information to enhance their personal safety; legal advice to assess their participation in civil and criminal legal proceedings; and, legal representation where needed. Over the years that this grant has existed in Vermont, the availability of legal counsel and advocacy has given sexual violence victims/survivors a sense of power, enhanced safety, and some level of control that has resulted in greater numbers of prosecutions and convictions of offenders. These legal services also make it possible for Network Programs and LAV-funded attorneys to assist and support victims/survivors in the healing process.
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Sexual Violence Prevention Plan: The Vermont Approach
Vermont's comprehensive, statewide sexual violence prevention plan grew out of a 2004 meeting of a multi-disciplinary group of practitioners to discuss the need for statewide leadership and coordination of sexual violence prevention work in Vermont. This meeting then set the stage in 2005 for a statewide conference on sexual violence prevention, which in turn formed the basis, along with focus group discussions and extensive research, for a comprehensive 5 year plan -- The Vermont Approach: A Strategic Plan for Comprehensive, Collaborative Sexual Violence Prevention in Vermont, 2006-2010 -- to significantly reduce sexual violence in Vermont by transforming those aspects of our culture that perpetuate sexual and related forms of violence and degradation against adults, teens and children.
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Safe Havens Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Project
The Safe Havens Project is a collaborative effort between the Vermont Network, the Department of Children and Families, the Vermont Office of the Court Administrator, the Anti-Violence Partnership, and10 Supervised Visitation Programs across Vermont. The Safe Havens Project purpose is to increase safety for victims and their children by increasing opportunities for supervised visitation and safe exchange in cases of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and stalking.
Supervised Visitation Centers provide a place where kids can visit with their non-residential parent or family members. Parents do not have to see each other when they are dropping off or picking up children, and the visits are monitored by trained staff with an understanding of the dynamics involved in Domestic Violence. The Safe Havens Grant Project goals include creating statewide practice standards, increasing the accessibility of services to underserved populations, and developing a protocol with the court.
Information coming soon!
Contact Jill Richard at the VT Network Office, jill@vtnetwork.org or 802-223-1302 ext 105
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New “Stay-Away” Orders for Survivors of Stalking and Sexual Assault
Beginning October 1, 2006 survivors of stalking and sexual assault perpetrated by someone who is not a family or household member will be able to apply for stay-away orders through Vermont superior courts. These new protection orders will begin to fill a long-standing gap in Vermont’s legal protections – previously only survivors of abuse at the hands of a family or household member have had access to relief from abuse orders through Vermont’s courts. For more information about the new orders, click here (comingsoon!)
The bill passed during the 2006 legislative session, thanks in large part to very courageous testimony and activism by survivors of stalking. Network Program Advocates will be available to support survivors interested in applying for these new stay-away orders, and help may be available from the Legal Assistance to Victims of Sexual Violence attorneys. Contact your local Network Program for more information.
For more information about this project, or for regular legislative updates contact Sarah Kenney at the Vermont Network Office, sarahk@vtnetwork.org or 802.223.1302 ext. 116
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DIVAS – Program for Incarcerated Women
The DIVAS program provides education and support to incarcerated women who have suffered physical and sexual violence. Advocates from programs of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence facilitate educational support groups at the Dale and Southeast State Correctional Facilities and the Tapestry Program and provide individual advocacy and re-entry planning.
The reflection and skills fostered in the program help participants identify and manage the negative effects violence has had on their lives. DIVAS groups are a place for women to consider the relationship between abuse they have suffered and criminal behavior they have engaged in. Program Advocates help participants develop strategies for their safety and independence upon community re-entry, supporting them in transforming self-destructive coping techniques and establishing supports and connections to services outside the facility.
For more information, contact Chani Waterhouse at the Vermont Network Office, chani@vtnetwork.org or 223-1302 ext. 112
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In Fall of 2002, the Network in collaboration with the DCF DV Unit through the Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Project, organized the Kids and Cops Forum which brought together a multidisciplinary group to discuss and decide a best practice protocol for Police responding to children at domestics. This forum was facilitated by Loretta Frederick, Legal Council for the Battered Women’s Justice Project in Minnesota. The resulting protocol was distributed to all police agencies in Vermont followed up by one day trainings for police officers around the effects of domestic violence on children, best practice system response, and the protocol.
The Vermont Network Office worked with a statewide leadership team of health care professionals to create a plan to make Vermont’s health care system more responsive to the needs of victims and survivors or domestic violence. They created a websiteon domestic violence for health care providers which is hosted by the Vermont Medical Society. A comprehensive Vermont Curriculum on Intimate Partner Violence for Health Care Providers was published in 2004 and is available as a binder or CD (contact library@vtnetwork.org).
For more information about this project contact Jill Richard at the Vermont Network Office, jill@vtnetwork.org or 802.223.1302 ext. 105.
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Training at the Vermont Police Academy
The Network collaborates with the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council to provide training to law enforcement officers around the state. The Network provides extensive training on sexual assault and domestic violence during the BasicAcademy for all new law enforcement officers. Additionally, we collaborate with the VCJTC to provide “update” trainings on dating violence, predatory drugs, and legislative changes to Vermont laws relating to interpersonal violence.
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Anti-Violence Partnership
More information coming soon about this project!
More information coming soon about this project!
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Corrections Commissioner’s Advisory Board
The Network sits on the Citizens’ Advisory Board to the Commissioner of the Department of Corrections. Participation in this forum helps us to keep up-to-date on the scope and breadth of activity within the state’s corrections system. Our presence also helps the Network to continually inform the work of the DOC and keep the voices of victims and survivors at the heart of conversations about offender accountability.
The Network has a seat on the state’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program Advisory Board. The Network represents the voices of community-based advocates and advocates for the rights and safety of victims and survivors as we strive to constantly improve the process for providing comprehensive, compassionate medical care and forensic evidence collection for sexual assault survivors.
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Vermont Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Project
The Network is fortunate to have been involved in this collaborative project since 1997. The purpose of the Rural Project is to enhance the safety of battered women and abused children, to increase resources to serve them, and to improve access to those services in the state’s most rural areas. The goal of the project continues to be to create a multidisciplinary, unified approach and response to domestic violence and child abuse in statewide. The project’s efforts have resulted in the development of positive working relationships and understandings between many domestic violence programs and DCF district offices, the establishment of a Domestic Violence Unit of consultants within DCF who consult with DCF Staff and Network Programs, and funding for Children’s Program Coordinators in five of the Network’s most rural programs as well as the Child Advocacy position at the Network Office.
For more information on any project contact the Network office at 802.223.1302 or vtnetwork@vtnetwork.org and we will get you in touch with the right person!
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