National Advocacy & Training Network

Hello everyone! We hope you came into the New Year with as much hope as we have arrived with. Welcome to our first attempt for a monthly blog. It will come out the second week of each month. We hope to use this blog to collaborate, share information and resources and discuss issues in service delivery to substance abusing victims/survivors of domestic violence/sexual assault and service delivery in general in the helping professions. The format will be current issues or challenges with questions encouraging your comment and feedback. The National Advocacy and Training Network (NATN) NATN has 3 main components, the SEEDs Houses, Cup O’Karma and Community Outreach and Education. The SEEDs Houses provide a safe, sober living environment for women who have experienced domestic violence and/or sexual assault and are struggling with substance abuse. The residents are provided with safety, support, resources and opportunities to achieve their goals. Cup O’Karma, Community Café for a Cause, is an environment some residents of the SEEDs program choose to be involved in to learn barrista and customer service skills. For some women, this may be the first time they have worked in years, for others it is a first work experience, for all it is an interesting, supportive environment. Cup O’Karma also provides a space for the community to hold meetings, play and listen to wonderful music and to gather in a place that is about making a difference. We also have really great coffee so come by for a cup! Our other function is community outreach and education. An informed community responds more effectively when domestic violence, sexual assault and substance abuse issues are understood. For more information or to schedule a training or presentation, please contact us. January 2009 Topic – Working Together It is imperative, a necessity, a must, if you will, that our agencies work together. To make that point, when a woman comes into a SEEDs House the primary need is safety in a sober living environment. That is not the only need however. Many women come to us from prison with a change of clothes, a few dollars if they are lucky and start rebuilding from there. We can provide some clothing, some toiletry items, some leads for employment and support. We have to work very hard to provide and locate any other needs the women have. Those needs include but are not limited to - food, medication, transportation, health and dental, assistive devices, counseling, legal services, identification, long-term affordable housing, literacy and GED instruction, resume writing, and the list goes on and is as varied as the women we serve. No one agency can provide all of the resources or fulfill completely the needs of the people who reach out to us and enter our houses and your programs. We must reach out to and develop working partnerships with other programs and agencies to meet the many and diverse needs of the women we serve. The questions this month are – Are our state leadership agencies encouraging and supporting collaboration? What challenges are you experiencing in working effectively with other agencies? What successes are you experiencing in working effectively with other agencies? Please comment and ask questions and you will get a response. This may lead us to next months’ topic! See you then………..