Session: Understanding and Improving the Landscape of Domestic Violence Services in Texas: Findings and Implications for Replication in Other States (Society for Social Work and Research 24th Annual Conference - Reducing Racial and Economic Inequality)

This interactive symposium will discuss a comprehensive study examining availability of and access to domestic violence services across the state of Texas. The Texas State Plan on the availability of services and the unmet needs of survivors of family violence is statutorily mandated and codified in both federal and state laws. The goal of the State Plan is to support community planning that would create greater access to services for domestic violence survivors across the state. This is accomplished by informing governmental funders, organizations, and Texas communities of the needs of survivors of domestic violence, and for use in planning future funding opportunities and support the growth of services available across the state. Although each state undertakes some level of a ‘state plan', the comprehensive model used in Texas provides a framework for future use by other states. Social workers are often on the front line of providing services to survivors and leading agencies in the public and non-profit sector to coordinate resources across agencies. This symposium will present findings and discuss methodological approaches for understanding the domestic violence services landscape within Texas and beyond. A mixed method research approach grounded in a community-based participatory framework was used to understand service experiences and identify gaps in service access and availability that led to the creation of an interactive platform for stakeholder use in identifying and prioritizing resources. This symposium will highlight four specific aspects of the state plan project including: 1) service access and response to survivors; 2) quantitative and interactive model indicating need and availability by county; 3) non help-seeking survivors; and 4) experiences of young adult survivors. The symposium will conclude with a discussion on findings and implications for practice, with a lens to racial and economic inequalities identified through the study, and will be led by a policy experts from the statewide coalition who organized the statewide research activities.