SAFE’s Disability Services staff works collaboratively to create opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities to engage in healthy relationships; reduce risks of future violence; and to better ensure survivors with disabilities gain access to supports and services for healing and recovery.
New Disability Services videos: SAFE at Home
The Disability Services team has created a new video to talk with youth with disabilities about some of the challenges they might face during the pandemic.
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All Kids SAFE app
To support child abuse investigators and case managers working with child victims who have disabilities or who are Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, and hard of hearing, Disability Services has launched the All Kids SAFE digital guide. The guide is accessible at allkidssafe.org.
To load the All Kids SAFE app on your mobile device, click here for instructions.
Educational sessions for students and adults with disabilities may include:
- Healthy Relationships – Personal boundaries; understanding emotions; assertive vs. aggressive communication; what defines a relationship; choosing relationships
- Personal Safety – Safety planning; unsafe relationships; what constitutes abuse; how to get help; helpful bystander intervention
- Basic Concepts of Sexuality – Sexual anatomy; understanding consent; sexual behavior, including safer sexuality; sexual orientation and gender identity
- Cyber Safety – Public vs. private settings; online relationships
Training for professionals and family members may include:
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My Rights My Life – A FREE comprehensive curriculum on healthy relationships, personal safety, and sexuality for use with adults ages 18+ with developmental disabilities. Each My Rights My Life (MRML) class is focused on introducing and practicing skills that can help decrease the risks for unsafe relationships including sexual assault or exploitation. Lessons cover a range of topics that includes defining and setting boundaries, consent, cyberbullying, handling rejection, and qualities of respectful relationships. The curriculum can be taught in multiple settings, including public/private school special education 18+ programs, adult day programs, rehabilitation settings, and congregate living centers. Click HERE to access MRML.
Beyond Labels – This 240-page, 2020 manual explores the relationship between domestic and sexual violence, mental health, and substance use. Beyond Labels is a guide for domestic and sexual violence staff seeking to improve their response to survivors who have mental health disabilities and substance use issues related to violence and abuse. It is based on the wisdom of survivors, national leaders in crisis services and trauma recovery, and domestic violence and sexual assault staff. First edition 2007, updated and released in 2020. Click HERE to order today!
- …and Justice for All – Responding to Crimes Against People with Disabilities and Deaf People – This 4-unit training manual contains everything needed to provide up to 12 hours of training to law enforcement and Adult Protective Services staff on working with crime victims with disabilities, including a practical preparation kit for trainers. Materials also include online PowerPoints with extensive facilitator notes and videos of people with disabilities, handouts, pre- and post-tests, and certificates of completion for education units. These training materials cover working with people with disabilities who are at high risk for abuse and for miscommunication with officers: people with autism spectrum disorder; people with communication, intellectual, and mental health disabilities; and people who are Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, Late Deafened, and Hard of Hearing. Click HERE to order today!
- Safety Planning Guide – This is a safety planning guide for domestic violence, sexual assault, and disability services staff who are working with people with disabilities and people who are Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled, late deafened and hard of hearing. You can find the Guide here: Safety Planning Guide from SAFE Disability Services
- Support Cards – Discover strategies for supporting survivors of abuse with disabilities. Click here for Support Cards featuring art created by people with disabilities.
- This project was supported by Grant No. 2017-UD-AX-0008 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women,U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.
- Healthy Relationships and Sexuality – Explore practical strategies for talking about basic sexuality, responsible sexuality, and sexual safety with people with a broad range of disabilities. Click here to view the SAFE Respect Wheel. (This wheel was created to be used in conjunction with the Power and Control wheel, below.)
- Power and Control – Explore the dynamics of power and control in healthy and unhealthy relationships. To view our Power and Control Wheel, click here. To read the full text of the Power and Control Wheel, click here.
- Sensitivity Training – Gain information on disability culture, etiquette, and respectful language.
- Policy and Accessibility – Discuss practical strategies to ensure services are welcoming and accessible to people with a broad range of disabilities.
- Responding to Disclosures of Abuse – Learn how to respond to disclosures of abuse or suspected abuse.
- Warning Signs – Identify potential indicators of abuse or neglect and warning signs of potentially abusive relationships.
- Cyber Safety Education – Discuss the risks and rewards of social media in the lives of people with disabilities and ways to increase Internet safety.
The Disability Services Program offers fact sheets on a variety of issues, including:
- Building relationships between persons with disabilities, disability service or advocacy programs, crisis programs, or the criminal justice system
- Providing personal safety education to people with disabilities
- Safety planning with people with disabilities
- Sensitivity and respectfully responding to abuse disclosures
- Sexual abuse or assult, domestic violence and abuse by personal care providers
- Dynamics of power and control in abusive relationships involving people with disabilities
Request Disability Services Fact Sheets here, or for more information, please contact us at disabilityservices@safeaustin.org
