Strengthening Tribal Response to
Violence Against Native Women
Please Note: The grant period for this project ended in July 2020. This project was initially funded by Grant No. 2017-TA-AX-K073, awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including and without limitations, its content, technical infrastructure, policies, and any services or tools provided).
COORDINATED COMMUNITY RESPONSE
The resources below area available to assist tribes to build their capacity to successfully plan, design, implement and sustain:
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Coordinated Community Response (CCR) teams that will effectively address victim safety and offender accountability
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Tribal Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) development and implementation
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Community education and awareness
Coordinated Community Response and Sexual Assault Response Team Webinar
Coordinated Community Response and Sexual Assault Response Team Webinar PowerPoint
Below are Coordinated Community Response (CCR) and Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Resources for tribes and their justice systems to increase their capacity to respond effectively to sexual assault (SA), domestic violence (DV), dating violence, and stalking by the development of Coordinated Community Responses (CCR) and Sexual Assault Response Teams (SART) in their tribal communities.
What is a Tribal Coordinated Community Response Team?
A Coordinated Community Response (CCR) is a multi-agency collaboration consisting of those individuals who respond to domestic violence incidents within a tribal community, who coordinate and collaborate to develop and implement policies and practices in order to establish culturally appropriate, victim centered responses and ensure batterer accountability. Each agency represented on the Coordinated Community Response (CCR) plays a vital role to ensure a consistent response from advocacy, law enforcement, judges, prosecutors and probation officers. A tribe does not need funding to develop or implement a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) however, it is best practice if the team had a full time paid Coordinated Community Response (CCR) coordinator to carry out such duties as planning meetings, identifying location, taking notes, following through on action items, and keeping open lines of communication with team members.
What is a Tribal Sexual Assault Response Team?
A Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is one type of Coordinated Community Response (CCR). A Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) is a multidisciplinary, inter-agency, sexual assault intervention model. It is a team approach to implementing a comprehensive, sensitive, coordinated system of intervention and care for sexual assault victims. It can also be instrumental in developing policies and practices to hold offenders accountable.
What is the difference between a Coordinated Community Response (CCR), a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) and a Child Protection Team (CPT)?
Often these teams can co-exist within a tribal setting however, each team serves a unique purpose:
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A Coordinated Community Response's (CCR) function is to coordinate and collaborate to develop and implement policies and practices in order to establish culturally appropriate, victim centered responses and ensure batterer accountability to cases of domestic violence.
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A Sexual Assault Response Team's (SART) focus is to implement a comprehensive, sensitive, coordinated system of intervention and care for sexual assault victims and to strengthen cases for criminal prosecution.
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A Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) is a prosecution based team with representatives from a variety of disciplines or agencies which meet to discuss child abuse and neglect cases involved in the legal/judicial system. The people represented on the team may vary from community to community resulting in many different forms of a MDT.
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A Child Protection Team (CPT) has the responsibility to insure that children who are victims of abuse or neglect are protected from additional maltreatment. Child protection often involves civil action while prosecution is a criminal justice issue.
How is a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) different from a Child Protection Team (CPT)?
While Child Protection Teams (CPT) and Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT) may share members from the same agencies, there are important differences. Both Child Protection Teams (CPT) and Multi-Disciplinary Teams (MDT) have the common goal of developing a coordinated system to respond to child abuse and neglect cases. Explore more of the differences in Multidisciplinary Teams and Child Protection Teams, Information sheet By: Eidell Wasserman, PhD.
Tribal specific Coordinated Community Response (CCR) resources:
Tracking and Monitoring: Building a Coordinated Community Response in Native Communities
This manual was created to specifically outline the process of building a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) in Native communities. The many complex jurisdictional and
legal issues that exist in Indian country make it difficult to pose a single organizing model
that is relevant to all Native communities. This manual separates the creation of building a Coordinated Community Response into a framework for general use, suggesting ways to customize this practice to suit the needs of diverse communities.
Tribal Coordinated Community Response Worksheet (PDF)
This tool by Red Wind Consulting, Inc. helps tribes think about traditional coordinated responses as they identify their current practitioners involved in addressing sexual assault within their tribe or village.
The Oneida Tribe’s Coordinated Community Response
Oneida Tribe’s Coordinated Community Response (CCR) was developed to address a lack of coordination between the justice and social service agencies responding to domestic violence in the community. A symptom of this problem was that domestic violence offenders were mandated to attend the Men’s Re-Education Program, but there was no mechanism in place to monitor their participation in the program or respond to non-compliance.
Helpful non-Native Resources:
The Duluth Model - This is a web page with information about The Duluth Model
Since the early 1980s, Duluth—a small community in northern Minnesota—has been an innovator in ways to hold batterers accountable and keep victims safe. The “Duluth Model” is an ever evolving way of thinking about how a community works together to end domestic violence.
Wisconsin Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence CCR Toolkit – 2nd Edition, 2016
The Coordinated Community Response (CCR) Toolkit is a collaborative effort of the End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin (EDAW) and Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Asault (WCASA). Offered as a free resource to communities, it is meant to be a preliminary guide to the process of forming and running a successful CCR.
Building an Interagency Response to Domestic Violence Crimes
The Blueprint for Safety, originally developed and implemented by Praxis International in Saint Paul, MN, is a prototype that can be used by any community hoping to link its criminal justice agencies together in a coherent, philosophically sound domestic violence intervention model.
U.S. DOJ First Response to Victims of Crime brochure:
The way people cope as victims of crime depends largely on their experiences and on how others treat them immediately after the crime. As a law enforcement officer, you are usually the first official to interact with victims. For this reason, you are in a unique position to help victims cope with the immediate trauma of the crime as well as to help them regain a sense of security and control over their lives.
Tribal specific Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) resources:
The Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) manual was developed to assist communities
in instituting effective, integrated policies, and procedures for the investigation,
prosecution, and provision of services in sexual assault cases. As these policies and
procedures become institutionalized, tribal communities can expect increased justice for
Native women who are survivors of sexual violence.
The Tribal Law Enforcement Protocol Guide is a tool for improving the investigation
of sexual assault crimes through the development of an internal protocol for law
enforcement, and includes a model sexual assault protocol. Effective investigations
increase the likelihood of victim participation and increase the probability of
convictions in tribal, state, and/or federal courts. A law enforcement protocol can
enhance the efforts of all community agencies in addressing sexual violence. (2008) This publication was developed in partnership with the Southwest Center for Law and Policy.
The Prosecutor Sexual Assault Protocol is a tool for improving the prosecution of sexual assault crimes through the development of an internal protocol for tribal prosecution, and includes a model sexual assault protocol. Holding offenders accountable for their actions is a key part of making your community safe. A prosecutor protocol can enhance the efforts of all community agencies. (2008) This publication was developed in partnership with the Southwest Center for Law and Policy.
Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan Sexual Assault Response Team Policy & Protocol
This protocol provides goals and a mission statement for a tribal Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) in Michigan. The protocol includes a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) structure and processes for law enforcement officers, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs), and on-call advocates. (Source: National Sexual Violence Resource Center)
(Office for Victims of Crime(OVC), 2017)
This publication is a product of an OVC, Indian Health Service, and Office on Violence Against Women event in July 2016. The publication offers practical guidance to tribal governments who are interested in developing or enhancing their community’s response to sexual violence.
The Tribal Law & Policy Institute has developed a series of publications on sexual assault and domestic violence.
