Violence Free Minnesota

Programs: We do work in three main areas: public awareness, public policy, and capacity builidng. Our accomplishments in these areas are as follows:public awareness: -published 2016 femicide report and held domestic violence homicide memorial event. Report was published in january. Event was held on january 31, 2017. The report contains detailed information on domestic violence homicides that occurred in minnesota in 2016 with policy recommendations. More than 200 people attended the memorial. Funded by: coalition grants - mn ojp, fed ojp, fvpsa, and state stop. -live free without violence public awareness campaign was run in conjunction with the femicide report. Each time there was a domestic violence homicide, twenty-one time in 2016, the campaign had individuals, organizations and business display the lfwv image for one week and promoted awareness activities including social media campaign and press releases. Funded by: bremer foundation and coalition grants - mn ojp and fvpsa -real love is public awareness campaign for youth. Youth advisory board promoted the real love is campaign through local programs and through youth leadership summit that was held in february 2017 at mall of america. 75 youth attended summit. Funded by: verizon hopeline foundation, supervalu and coalition grants - mn ojp and fvpsa. Public policy: -mcbw worked on three appellate cases. Mcbw filed an amicus brief on a criminal case involving whether a defendant in a criminal case has the right to access the victim's property as part of discovery. Mcbw filed an amicus brief on a supreme court case on the issue of whether past abuse alone is sufficient for a protective order. Mcbw was co-counsel on an appeal case involving a 50 year protective order issued on behalf of a minor child. All of the cases are still pending. Funded by: state stop and coalition grants - mn ojp and fvpsa. -legislative work on funding for crime victim services and providing information to policy makers on the impact of various policies on domestic violence survivors. Lobbying work funded by: undesignated funds - donations. Educational work funded by: fvpsa -bringing awareness and information around domestic violence and homelessness to housing policy makers was done. Mcbw worked with mn interagency task force on homelessness to create a mechanism to measure those attempting to flee violence and abuse as part of the national point in time (pit) count for hud. The pit count is used to direct funding and policy around housing and provision of homelessness services. This is the first time that "attempting to flee violence" has been included in the pit count process. Funded by nrcdv contract and mn ojp -economic justice work through the allstate foundation grant that developed a training curriculum and three regional trainings on financial empowerment for survivors, working with two program partners and creating a survivor fund to provide low barrier access to one-time money to assist with housing stability and credit repair. Funded by allstate foundation and coalition grants - mn ojp and fvpsa -criminal justice system work included convening the criminal justice collaborative on a monthly basis to coordinate work amongst the various statewide criminal justice agencies and organizations. Funded by: coalition grants - mn ojp, fed ojp, and fvpsa, state stopcapacity building: -regional meetings held in six locations around the state three times. Regional meetings are 4 hours long and are a time for member programs to come together to share information, strategize solutions to local issues and to network with other programs. Funded by: coalition grants - mn ojp, fed ojp, and fvpsa. -annual meeting held the second week of september. 1 day meeting with member programs with more than 120 participants engaged in discussion and learning and helping set the coalition's agenda for the next year. Funded by: coalition grants - mn ojp, fed ojp and fvpsa. -training: mcbw developed on-line course on confidentiality for member programs and has continued to run a 5-week on-line course on protective orders. The on-line courses are offered on a quarterly basis to member programs. Funded by: mn ojp, fvpsa, equal justice works. -mcbw convenes three advisory groups on a monthly basis: youth advisory board, survivor advisory council and the women of color and native women's leadership project. These groups provide information to help guide mcbw's work. Funded by: mn ojp, verizon hopeline, supervalu, fed ojp, and fvpsa.