Our Impact

The coordinated community response that Shared Safety establishes will ensure an appropriate response to relational violence, regardless of where a victim may first present for services, and whether a victim may immediately identify relational violence as the cause for their visit. When relational violence is appropriately screened for and responded to at the victim’s first point of contact, it prevents an ineffective and costly intervention in that system, as well as the many other systems that a victim may enter while looking for support: homeless systems, child welfare, behavioral health, the police, the school system, hospitals, prisons, health clinics, private and non-profit service providers, the court system, probation and parole, public housing authorities, Sheriff’s offices, etc.

We have seen the success of a coordinated community response in other communities, such as Newburyport, MA and Duluth, MN. However, these responses are not replicable in a city as large as Philadelphia. We are not aware of any existing large-scale community response in Pennsylvania. Given the critical nature of the project, and the specificity that comes with each state’s unique set of protections, a project in Philadelphia could be replicated in other Pennsylvania communities, as well as viewed as a model for large-scale change nationwide.

Development of a comprehensive screening tool for health and human service practitioners
A commitment from the health and human service systems to adopt an integrated data collection agenda that will measure the impact of relational violence on Philadelphia
Establishment of a first of its kind Director of Domestic Violence Strategies – a crucial investment from the Mayor’s Office that will solidify Shared Safety’s efforts