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This factsheet summarizes new regulations issued by the Legal Services Corporation in April 2014 implementing access to legal services provisions mandated in VAWA 2005.

This fact sheet describes the Ada County Domestic Violence Mentor Court and is part of a series of Domestic Violence Mentor Court fact sheets. Selected by the Office on Violence Against Women, Mentor Courts share their expertise and assist other domestic violence courts in implementing promising practices and procedures, and building the capacity of state court systems to respond effectively to these difficult cases.

List of Address Confidentiality Programs by state. These programs provide an alternate address to protect survivor privacy.

Rural communities face unique challenges in responding to incidences of domestic violence, due to geographic isolation and a lack of resources, among other factors. Such challenges make it difficult for survivors in rural areas to seek safety. These 10 practices for criminal courts in rural communities offer strategies to protect survivors’ safety and well-being, engage with abusive partners and hold them accountable, and collaborate within the community.

This guide contains ideas, structures, information, and resources that can help campuses build partnerships to develop and adopt protocols and policies that more effectively treat various forms of gender-based violence (GBV) as serious offenses; ensure survivor safety and offender accountability; and implement comprehensive and culturally relevant prevention strategies. Institutions of higher learning will be equipped with the foundational knowledge necessary to build coordinated community response systems, programs, policies, and practices for effective prevention and intervention strategies that support a safe and healthy educational environment for students.

In reviewing your university’s response to stalking, consider the following questions:

• Does your university provide stalking-specific services to victims? For example, counseling services for victims of stalking, access to an advocate for safety planning, or information on campus no contact/protection orders and civil protection orders?
• How easy is it for a stalking victim to know they can seek services and from whom? For instance, is stalking mentioned specifically in outreach materials from your Title IX office, crisis center, gender resource center, office of residential life, and/or campus security/police?
• Do University policies and services address the needs of all victims of stalking, including those who do not primarily present as sexual assault victims and regardless of the victim-offender relationship, i.e. whether the stalker is/was an intimate partner, acquaintance, friend, stranger, family member, person of authority, etc.?
• Do University policies and services address stalkers and victims who are students, faculty, volunteers, alumni, and/or staff?

Because there are very few stalking-specific service providers, stalking victims rely on domestic and/or sexual violence programs to assist them with safety planning and resources. In reviewing your agency’s response to stalking, consider the following questions:

• Does your organization provide services to victims of stalking?
• If so, how easy is it for a stalking victim to know they can seek services from your organization? For instance, is stalking specifically mentioned in your outreach materials?
• Do your organization’s services address the needs of all victims of stalking – including those stalked by someone who is not an intimate partner?

Because there are very few stalking-specific service providers, stalking victims rely on domestic and/or sexual violence programs to assist them with safety planning and resources. In reviewing your agency’s response to stalking, consider the following questions:

• Does your organization provide services to victims of stalking?
• If so, how easy is it for a stalking victim to know they can seek services from your organization? For instance, is stalking specifically mentioned in your outreach materials?
• Do your organization’s services address the needs of all victims of stalking – including those stalked by someone who is not an intimate partner?

Our advocacy work must reclaim our traditional values of respect and cooperation and we must work to restore balance and harmony to our tribal communities. The Advocating for our Relatives factsheet provides ways for advocates to offer support, compassion, and patience to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

Effective, age-appropriate evaluation allows us to understand what is succeeding in the program, what is not, and if we are truly meeting our goals. Even though working with youth within a rural setting may create unique challenges, it is nothing that can’t be overcome with strong planning and support from partners.