Community Support Services' Women's Commission-United Family Services Partnership

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Women’s Commission – United Family Services Partnership is an on-going vibrant partnership among equals to meet the growing demand for domestic violence prevention and intervention services with relatively flat public and private resources. It developed out of the shared recognition that, given scarce resources, needs could be best met by delineating responsibility for the specific components of a continuum of services. From that recognition, the leaders of the two organizations worked together to formally define how they would serve and refer clients, and to find ways to pool resources in order to meet service gaps. This application discusses several ways in which their creative use of pooled resources resulted in expanded services for the community. Through this extensive partnership, Mecklenburg County has been able to assist 200 families, including 333 children, who were fleeing domestic violence, thereby increasing the safety of the community. Because the partner agencies have clearly delineated their responsibilities in the continuum of services, and have articulated how they work together through their written Memorandum of Understanding, they were able to develop a strong federal grant application that is bringing $500,000 in new resources to domestic violence services continuum.