2020 - 2021 Annual Report
Embracing Evolution, Transformation and Progress
Embracing Evolution, Transformation and Progress
Fiscal year 2021 brought us many challenges. Those challenges provided an abundance of opportunities for transformation, growth, and improvement. We took change head on with our eyes and hearts wide open. We took criticism and learned from it; examined our weaknesses and changed strategies, identified areas with gaps and needs and filled them with possible solutions. Equally important we prioritized organizational health and personal healing. We cleared space and time to breathe, rest, reflect and imagine being better in 2022. We shifted our lens and reframed a year of transition as a year of transformation.
We invite you to take a moment to peruse our annual report and reflect over the past year’s accomplishments.
Transformation
Transformation
Christina Nicosia has stepped up as our new Membership Manager. Through her leadership we will be finding new ways to serve our members to ensure they have the resources they need to be successful and improve our members' engagement.
New Executive Director
Membership Manager
Dr. Aleese Moore-Orbih joined the Partnership in May 2021. She launched her tenure with a series of statewide listening sessions to open communication, begin building relationships, and hear what is most important to field. Her vision leads us to consistently focus, listen, refocus, and find innovative solutions. We are grateful for her leadership, vision, and support in challenging us to be our best selves.
2020 was a Transformative Year for Culture and Structure Within the Partnership
A new department, a new position, along with a new Executive Director, brought about many changes at the end of last year.
Virtual Annual Statewide Conference
The ongoing pandemic meant that Shifting the Lens needed to be virtual in 2020.
This transformation to a new, virtual space provided new opportunities to connect with more advocates. It also gave us new opportunities to create panels and keynotes from speakers all over the nation.
660 people registered
Our highest number yet!
4 workshop tracks
- Listening to Different Voices
- Reimagining Policies and Practices
- Harnessing the Power of Prevention
- Addressing Gaps in the Field
28 workshops
as well as 4 keynote speakers, 1 keynote roundtable, and
1 keynote panel
25 people accessed scholarship funds
and two-thirids of survivors accessed these funds
"We are trying to change a culture of 40+ years of the Battered Women’s Movement, led by white women, to dismantling racism within the systems in which we work, as well as our our agencies. Shifting the Lens helps us sharpen our skills, have those uncomfortable conversations and better equip ourselves to providing racially just domestic violence support to the survivors that most need us.”
— 2020 Shifting the Lens Participant
Growth
Growth
“This experience was incredible. I wish it were ongoing :). I felt such a level of acceptance and safety. My anxiety was overridden. I was able to channel my anxiety into productivity. CPEDV and RALLY really know what they are doing on the professional and personal fronts.”—Participant from the Media Advocacy Training for Survivors
Building an Ecosystem of Support to Foster Nuanced, Intersectional Coverage of Domestic Violence
Too often, we see stories of domestic violence exclusively focus on tragedies without attention to root causes, context, or solutions to prevent it. With the support of the Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Communications Team set out to change that by centering the voices of authentic messengers. Together with We Are RALLY, we conducted a series of trainings for survivors, advocates and preventionists working on the ground—and began regularly sending a newsletter to journalists with story ideas and sources.
An Increased Focus on Land Acknowledgements, led by Cibonay Jimenez
Colonization is a root cause of domestic violence, and continues to result in the erasure of Native cultures, separation of families, and lack of access to basic needs—but until recent years, the Partnership had not identified the ways we’d failed to show respect for the Original people of the land. This is the very foundation of addressing violence. Capacity Building Coordinator Cibonay Jimenez took a leadership role in deepening the team’s consciousness of land acknowledgements, beginning a process that has made them a standard part of Partnership events, webinars, and meetings.
Two Policy Wins to Keep Critical Work Funded
$100 Million for Victim Services
Over the past few years, the Victims of Crime Act experienced critical losses that threatened a 25% cut to California organizations serving survivors. This legislative session, the Partnership coordinated a coalition of victim service advocacy organizations including ValorUs, CALICO Child Abuse Centers, and Legal Aid Association of California to mobilize our respective memberships to backfill those diminishing funds. We asked the State of California to step up and prevent victim service providers from experiencing any funding cuts. The result? $100 million to meet survivors’ vital needs for housing, legal advocacy, counseling, and more.
$15 Million to Prevent Sexual and Domestic Violence
Rates of violence rose during the pandemic, and many youth returned to school with increased Adverse Childhood Experiences. Despite limited resources, organizations across the state innovated in essential work with youth to foster healthy relationships, consent, and inclusive communities. ValorCalifornia and the Partnership worked hand-in-hand with our members to secure $15 million to prevent sexual and domestic violence—the largest amount ever allocated in our state’s history for this purpose.
"The state funding through VOCA allows Asian Women's Shelter to maintain our services including a 24/7 residential shelter program and housing program support. The pandemic emphasized the need for stability of these funding streams, especially for the predominantly immigrant and refugee survivors that AWS serves who often face challenges in access to other mainstream support systems. One of the greatest needs for the survivors we support is housing, the Housing First program allows us to provide low barrier, flexible and stable housing opportunities for survivors to transition to independent lives free from violence. Cuts to these funding streams would significantly impact our capacity, staffing and other areas of programming and services. We are so grateful for the $100 million VOCA backfill funds to secure these programs and allow for the continuation of these essential services to survivors."
—Saara Ahmed, Community Resource Coordinator - Asian Women's Shelter
"So many of our youth don’t know what a healthy relationship looks like, because too often, abuse, bullying, self/deprecation and trauma are normalized in their homes, schools and communities. With the help of state funding secured by the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and ValorUS, Jenesse was able to highlight the difficulties youth face on the road from home to school and beyond, and provide tools to more than 800 elementary school, middle school, high school and college and university students, and their parents, that will allow them to break the cycle of violence in their lives. Trauma and violence have a devastating effect on the mental and physical well-being of youth. Prevention work is key, if we are really committed to ensuring that our youth heal, grow and thrive, not just in the present, but as they move towards adulthood."
—Dr. Angela Parker, Director of Training and Programs – Jenesse Center
How We Work Toward Equity is as Important as Getting There
Our Culturally Specific Collaborative Convening
Between June 15-17, 2021, the Culturally Specific Collaborative engaged in its first virtual convening: “Our Journey to Heal: Transformative Practices in our Communities” Together, they reckoned with the impacts of oppression in their bodies, minds and organizational practices. They envisioned possibilities for their well-being by moving toward shared goals of Collective Liberation, Equity and Justice.
Adapting
Adapting
Distributing Vital COVID Funds to Domestic Violence Organizations
The pandemic and uncertain federal funding caused significant hardships for domestic violence organizations in 2020 and 2021. As a result of the Partnership’s policy advocacy, the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) asked the Partnership to pass through $2,000,000 in relief funding to local agencies. In 2021, we significantly increased our outreach, held multiple Q&A webinars, and posted a list of questions and answers online to make sure that smaller organizations were more prepared to apply. This resulted in 44 applications coming through in only three hours, demonstrating growth from the previous year, where it took two days to receive 44 applications. Organizations felt much more prepared to apply.
"The grant from the CPEDV allowed us to provide emergency hotel rooms, PPE, and access to COVID-19 resources, vaccinations and testing for over 20 women who had no place to go - this funding allowed these women and their children to be safe from both their perpetrator and COVID-19. It was truly life-saving!"
—Melissa Hellums, Executive Director at Serenity House (Sister to Sister 2, Inc.)
Creating Beloved Communities among Advocates & Preventionists during the Pandemic
COVID-19 continued to magnify inequities for survivors and communities at the intersections of racial and gender violence. Advocates and preventionists working on the ground creatively increased access to support and opportunities for local activism, but they too were experiencing the trauma of the pandemic. The Partnership strived to create welcoming spaces for mutual support.
Support and Share Calls
Advocates shared ideas on how oganizations made pivots during COVID to continue providing services.
Self-Care Webinars
Multiple presenters discussed wellness, mental health, balance, and trauma, so that advocates could get the support they needed during this time.
Prevention Peer Network Webinars & Calls
A number of preventionists shared how they improved community engagement through virtual efforts.
Communities of Practice
Our Prevention Team joined ValorUS to foster connection in three areas: Prevention with LGBTQ+ Communities, Prevention in Spanish (Prevención en Español), andCreating Safer School Environments
Recent River Valley Grads Raised $1,801 for the Partnership
“On behalf of the committee, I would like to say that we donated because several students on the committee mentioned the impact that Casa De Esperanza had on their personal lives. With the Partnership’s support of local domestic violence programs like Casa de Esperanza, we felt that it was only right to give back to an organization so dedicated to keeping our community and high school students safe and providing them resources to get the help they need.”
—Bhavna Mahi from the Hollywood Prom Committee
1,200
Participants enrolled since December 2020
Creating Accessible Opportunities for Learning
The pandemic has not stopped our movement from growing. As local volunteers and staff members are onboarded to become certified domestic violence counselors, they must participate in a 40-hour training on fundamental intersections of domestic violence. For three years, the Partnership's Distance Learning Program has supported this process with a virtual, interactive curriculum that saves organizations time and resources--and creates an alternative to in-person gatherings during the pandemic. Our program has grown substantially in just one year.
2,600
participants enrolled to date
Supporting Organizations on their Journeys toward Cultural Responsiveness
60+ Organizations have participated in the CROS process
California’s domestic violence field continues the work of challenging one-size-fits-all approaches that are embedded in white supremacy—instead working toward equity and cultural responsiveness through shared decision-making among staff, survivors, and communities. Last year, as a part of these efforts, 27 organizations engaged in a process of examining their policies, procedures, and outcomes through the Partnership’s Culturally Responsive Organizational Self-Assessment (CROS) and 16 organizations participated in Peer Learning Circles.
“The CROS project has been an insightful learning opportunity that I am not only working towards applying in my organization and my work but also in my life, while living and working in the very same institutions I am critical of. I feel like I gained skills to be able to think critically about my work and our organization and how our work impacts communities without losing hope. In addition to being given the opportunity to learn from different perspectives, I appreciated the discussions on how we can address these issues we are bringing to light.”
Telling our Story
Telling our Story
Storytelling is an important tool that has been a part of many cultures and healing practices for generations. At the Partnership, we’ve utilized storytelling to capture the many voices across California to lift up, inspire, and share the experiences of those at the margins.
We launched a second interactive story through our CDC Delta grant, focusing on the importance of trusted adults, especially for youth experiencing isolation at home during the pandemic.
We supported youth across California in telling their stories of survivorship, healing, and leadership through a workshop with StoryCenter during Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month.
We released a new series of blog posts this spring: “Alternatives to the Criminal Legal System”, which included the powerful story of Cat Brooks.
“I was finally acknowledging what happened to me all those years ago... And for that [storytelling] program I am truly grateful for everyone that allowed me the opportunity to share my story and start taking those first steps into my road to recovery.”
– Marissa Williams, Youth Leader & survivor
Marissa's Experience
Marissa Williams is a youth leader and survivor who participated in our Youth in the Lead storytelling workshop with StoryCenter as a part of our 2021 Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month campaign. This program allowed selected youth and adult advocates to go through the process of scripting and editing a video that told their personal stories as a way of healing and connecting with one another. Following this workshop, Marissa participated in the Partnership's Orange Day of advocacy speaking with legislators and was invited as our first ever youth keynote at Shifting the Lens for the following fiscal year, all because she was given the opportunity to share her story.
Stories of Success
Generous and flexible sponsors like Our Family Wizard allow the Partnership to get creative when it comes to event sponsorships! There is mutual value in featuring the stories of real advocates in the field who use their tools.
Sustaining our Work
Sustaining our Work
Our work is not easy — it’s often emotionally challenging and demanding, leading to high rates of burnout and turnover in our field. We educate our communities about healthy relationships and boundaries, but do we practice that often enough with our own relationships to work ourselves? As leaders of the state, we’ve been modeling and building capacity around creating healing, sustainable, and healthy work environments in the following ways:
"I’m happy this event highlighted the need to do self-care and making time for myself is essential. Overall, my takeaway message is that we must take care of ourselves first before we can take care of our clients.”
– Katherine Ngo, DV Rapid Rehousing Advocate from Asian Women’s Shelter
The 4th annual Central Valley retreat — “Healing as a Family” — was created through collective collaboration. This retreat addressed working with whole families, grounded in our values of equity, cultural responsiveness, and centering the margins.
The Bay Area retreat was co-created by a committee of advocates from the region and centered on self-care and collective wellness. Topics included “Radical Self Care for Helpers, Healers and Changemakers”, “Caretaking the Caretaker”, and “Self-Care and Trauma Management while Sheltering in Place”.
The Culturally Specific Collaborative regularly held space for critical conversations open to everyone.
We hosted two to four trainings every month, including seven specifically focused on self-care and wellness for advocates.
Tina Rodriguez facilitated a guided talking space “Responding to Crises While in a State of Crises” during Candid Connections, which allowed for advocates and preventionists to discuss how the pandemic impacted them and their roles as DV service providers.
Support The Movement At Every Level
Donate To Sustain Local and Statewide Work
The ongoing pandemic has continued to shed light on inequities and struggles that many domestic violence survivors face. Social distancing, isolation, unemployment, rising housing costs, wildfires, and deep inequities have created barriers to safety and community building.
That’s why we’re asking you to support both the Partnership’s work and the work of domestic violence organizations in your communities.
"The donation process was very personal to me as I chose to do it leading up to my birthday. It also meant that I had the opportunity to share that domestic violence is personal to me, and it opened up a door for folks to know my own story of survivorship. It was both vulnerable and empowering."
— Frances Mulcahy, Member, survivor,
and donor
Current Work & Moving Forward
Current Work & Moving Forward
"I tried not to look at people as workers, but as full human beings. Gender identity, being parents, having partners, being commuters, having adult dependents rely on you, different faiths and cultures. All of the identities we carry. I tried to find a balance about what is best for us as people, what’s best at the organization, and the laws we have to follow."
—Melissa Guajardo, the Partnership's Administrative Director, discussing updates to the employee handbook
Equity in HR
When organizations are equitable and caring places for staff members, we challenge the dominant narrative that their value is only tied to their work--and instead, we strive to put people first. This is directly related to our efforts to interrupt the conditions that perpetuate exploitation and violence.
Our workplace policies and employee handbook are a work in progress, but we strive to keep the humanity of employees at the forefront as changes are made. Instead of viewing this as a checklist that we can complete, we see this as ongoing work--and note some milestones this year. We are grateful to Partnership Board of Directors for approving new equitable policies like 37.5-hour days, adding more cultural holidays and adding the paid Winter break. We are also grateful to HR Consultant Chrystal Ellis Sweazey for guiding us through many difficult HR processes and new and emerging policies and practices.
Our Milestones
Creating a 37.5 work week, with our next important step being to support the adjustment of workloads
In order to be to be more intentional about work equity in and across teams, assessing each team's workflow with desktop reviews
Making substantial progress in updating our HR handbook to reflect a fuller vision of staff members' lives and needs
Adding holidays that hold important cultural relevance to staff, including California Native American Day and Juneteenth
"For the last two months, the HR department has met with each team to discuss their workflow and day-to-day tasks to better understand where there are areas of opportunity. The workflow has been most helpful in hearing the voices and perspectives of the Partnership team."—Chrystal Ellis Sweazey
Organizational Healing
For the past few years, Partnership staff have engaged in conversations highlighting the importance of accountability to ourselves and our colleagues. Executive Director Dr. Aleese Moore-Orbih engaged all staff in selecting two consultants to assist us in this critical work: Jenn Wynn to support team health and interpersonal communication and Dr. Dayanara Marte to facilitate workplace healing.
"This session left me feeling closer to my colleagues"
"This is the beginning of real conversations."
Tap the arrow on the right to see more quotes.
The Creation of the Impact Strategies Department
"I hope that we will learn to think about data differently and really think about the fact that we're not just collecting numbers, but we're telling stories about our organization; we're telling stories about the people we serve, their communities, and everybody has a story."
"Programs have a story, people have stories, and that's what that data represents."
— Diane Gout, Director of Impact Strategies
The Impact Strategies Team exists to intentionally refocus and infuse the Partnership’s work with impact driven approaches; measure our progress; and tell our stories of transformation.
This team was created because evaluation is a critical part of understanding the alignment between our work and our values.
We are deeply grateful to Zoë Flowers for helping launch our evaluation efforts as the Interim Director of Impact Strategies.
Financials
July 2020 - June 2021
Revenue
Expenses
Membership Dues
1%
Private Grants
7%
Government Grants
87%
Fundraising
7%
Capacity Building
23%
Membership
6%
Administration/Operating
34%
Public Policy
22%
Systems Change Advocacy
5%
Member awards
% of Expenses
Funds Awarded to Members
Subawards
100%
Other Expenses
33%
Membership Benefits
67%
Balance Sheet
Grantors
- Bellweather Foundation
- Blue Shield of California Foundation
- Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), Department of Justice
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
- Women’s Foundation of California
- Pinpoint Foundation
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families, Administration on Children, Youth & Families, Family & Services Bureau, Family Violence Prevention & Services
- California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
Partnership Staff
We celebrate the ways new and former staff have contributed to our Beloved Community.
Alejandra Aguilar, MA
Statewide Prevention Program Specialist
Paul Castro
Interim Executive Director
Krista Colon, MPP
Public Policy Director
Natalie Diaz Mondragon
Administrative Assistant
Michell Franklin, MA
Capacity Building Program Manager
Zoë Flowers
Interim Impact Strategies Director
Diane Gout, PhD
Director of Impact Strategies
Melissa Guajardo
Administrative Director
Michelle Huey
Communications Coordinator
Cibonay Jimenez
Capacity Building Program Coordinator
Jasmeen Kairam
Capacity Building Coordinator
Melodie Kruspodin
Prevention Specialist
New staff who joined in Fiscal Year ‘22
Former staff who transitioned in Fiscal Year ‘21 or '22
Jamila Lovelace
Project Management Administrator
Marcella Maggio
Prevention Coordinator
Jacquie Marroquin
Director of Programs
Jessica Merrill
Communications Manager
Dr. Aleese Moore-Orbih
Executive Director
Michelle Morales
Capacity Building Coordinator
Christina Nicosia
Membership & Events Manager
Christine Smith
Public Policy Coordinator
Valarie Smith
Executive Assistant to the Executive Director
Miranda Stiers
Prevention Program Specialist
Megan Tanahashi
Communications Coordinator
Mercedes Tune
Capacity-Building Program Specialist
New staff who joined in Fiscal Year ‘22
Former staff who transitioned in Fiscal Year ‘21 or '22
Partnership Board
We welcome newly-elected Board Members who joined us in 2021, and those who were re-elected for a second term!
Alejandrina Carrasco, Central Coast Regional Representative
Prevention Services Program Manager, Interface Children & Family Services
Elizabeth Eastlund, LCSW
Executive Director, Rainbow Services
Cristal B. Gleason, Central Valley Regional Representative
Emergency Services Manager, Haven Women’s Center of Stanislaus
Amanda Jancu
Senior Attorney, Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice
Melissa Luke
Domestic Violence Program Manager, Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI)
Elected/re-elected in 2021
Colsaria Henderson, President
Leadership Development Specialist, Center for Excellence in Nonprofits
Anna Conti, Vice President & Los Angeles Regional Representative
Executive Director, Su Casa - Ending Domestic Violence
Aiko Pandorf, Secretary
Non-Profit Consultant
Gayle Guest-Brown, Treasurer
Executive Leadership Coach, Trainer and Speaker, Guest Brown Impact
Saara Ahmed, Bay Area Regional Representative
Community Resource Coordinator, Asian Women's Shelter
Hisham Alibob
Policy & Communications Manager, Contra Costa County Alliance to End Abuse
Pamela Mejia
Senior Media Researcher, Berkeley Media Studies Group
Rebecca Nussbaum, Southern Regional Representative
Associate Director of Programs, Community Resource Center
Dina Polkinghorne
Executive Director, Project Sanctuary
Jennifer Ponce, MSW, CHES
Director of Special Projects, the Children's Clinic
Gina Roberson, North Regional Representative
Chief Program Officer, WEAVE
Jeanne Spurr, Far North Regional Representative
CEO, Empower Tehama
S. Suresh
Community Leader and Activist
Matthew White
- Associate Director, Alternatives to Domestic Violence
Elected/re-elected in 2021
Closing Statement from Colsaria Henderson, Board President
Closing Statement from Colsaria Henderson, Board President
It is hard to believe that 2022 is here. I find myself reflecting on the last two years and trying not to compare where we were then and where we may be now. Finding balance wherever possible has been my mantra. We have had a lot of loss and we have had a lot of growth. The Partnership reflects so many of the changes in the world, in nonprofits, in anti-violence organizations. Long time leaders are stepping aside, for their own growth and for their agencies. Traditional structures are being questioned and redesigned. Equity is being reimagined and organizations are prioritizing wellness. It feels like we are on the precipice of something though it is not fully clear when we will arrive. While all of the learnings over the last few years feel that they are starting to take shape, we are also navigating increasing Covid infection rates, loss, pain, and sustained complexity. The Partnership has not been immune to the challenges though it too is on a cusp of new horizons. The staff are
focused heavily on community, prevention, equity, and wellness. They are prioritizing the internal and executing rapidly on the external. It is our pleasure to support the staff and Aleese as they focus on broadening the conversation, supporting local programs, and elevating survivors’ voices. We are thankful for such attentive leadership from Aleese and the staff.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.
—Desmond Tutu (1931-2021)