Collaborative History, Partners, & Impact

AS OUR NAME IMPLIES, THE OHIO IPV COLLABORATIVE HAS TRULY BEEN A GROUP EFFORT SUPPORTED BY A WIDE-RANGE OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL PARTNERS, EXPERTS, AND TRAINERS.

Brief History

The Collaborative was established in 2010 with the goal of reducing trauma to children experiencing violence in their homes and preventing avoidable entry of children into foster care by forging community partnerships to develop a collaborative and holistic response to intimate partner violence, especially within the context of a differential response child protection practice approach.

Under the oversight of the Supreme Court of Ohio Subcommittee on Responding to Child Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency and Differential Response leadership at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and with project management from the Family and Youth Law Center (FYLaw), the Collaborative enlisted David Mandel & Associates (now the Safe & Together Institute) in 2010 to train four demonstration sites on its Safe and Together™ model, a strengths-based, child-centered, and behaviorally focused approach to intimate partner violence. 

Based on positive feedback from the demonstration counties’ community partners and children service agencies, the Collaborative partners committed to a statewide expansion plan for county training utilizing Ohio-based trainers certified by the Safe & Together Institute (S&TI) for Safe and Together™ model training.  As of 2018, 52 Ohio county PCSAs have been trained in the Safe & Together™ Model.

Partners

• Casey Family Programs
• Children’s Trust Fund
• David Mandel & Associates and the Safe and Together Model
• Family & Youth Law Center (FYLaw)
• HealthPath Foundation of Ohio (HPFO)   
• Ohio Department of Job & Family Services (ODJFS)   
• Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN)   
• Supreme Court of Ohio     
• The Ohio Intimate Partner Violence Collaborative  

Impact

Agencies participating in Safe and Together have reported:

• Improved partnerships with non-offending parents.
• Increased identification of perpetrator patterns of behaviors as safety risks to children.
• Improved documentation of the impact of domestic violence on children.
• Improved plans for child and family safety based on specific behaviors.
• Enhanced communications with community partners.
• Access to new resources and additional training opportunities.

Additional research supporting Safe and Together-related outcomes can be found at https://safeandtogetherinstitute.com/evidence-resources/.