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About Us
The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WCADV), is a statewide, non-profit, membership organization of battered women, formerly battered women, domestic abuse programs, and individuals committed to ending domestic violence.
WCADV's four most common activities are:
- Networking and support for victims, their families and for professionals working with victims, batterers, and their children
- Technical assistance
- Policy development
- Education, training and quality improvement
WCADV goals are accomplished:
- through the direct services and advocacy efforts of local providers
- by WCADV staff
- through affiliations of WCADV staff and board, and
- by a rich and broad array of collaborations with diverse local, state, governmental, tribal and national partners.
History
WCADV was founded in 1978 as the Wisconsin Coalition Against Woman Abuse by local battered women's programs in Wisconsin. As was occurring in other states, volunteers in Wisconsin were meeting to discuss the need for a statewide advocacy organization that could play a central role in legislative advocacy on domestic abuse issues. Of equal importance was the perceived need for technical assistance and support to local communities that were starting to identify violence against women as a problem.
Since its inception, WCADV has served as a central point of contact for battered women, victims' advocates, domestic violence service providers and other health, social service, law enforcement and criminal justice professionals. Wisconsin now has a state-wide network of battered women's programs that provide safe shelter and advocacy for victims and their children many of whom are seeking assistance from health, legal and other systems.
WCADV is still firmly focused on domestic abuse, but our strategies and partners have broadened considerably since 1978.
Member Programs
Currently, WCADV is made up of over sixty member organizations that advocate for the rights of victims of domestic violence and/or provide services to ensure the safety and well-being of victims and their children in Wisconsin's seventy-two counties and eleven tribal lands. This includes eleven tribal programs, five Hmong family services providers, one African American program, and one migrant farmworker agency that provide direct services for victims of domestic violence and their children. Organizational members of WCADV must provide crisis services to victims of domestic violence.
Staff
WCADV has from 25-30 paid staff at a given time. Although our main office is in Madison, some of our staff are located in other areas of the state. In addition, we benefit from the involvement of several interns from the University of Wisconsin Law School and other University of Wisconsin schools and colleges.
Committees
WCADV committees play an important role in involving broad constituencies in the statewide effort to end domestic violence. They help us stay connected to local programs, to victims and their families and the real life issues they face. In addition to standing board committees that manage the work of the board of directors, there are standing and ad hoc advisory and program committees. WCADV works to ensure that committees maintain a diverse representation.
Affiliate Programs
WCADV is able to accomplish its work only because of close working relationships with local programs, state and national advocacy organizations, government agencies, legislators and other partners.
Collaborations
There are many allies and partners from related systems or advocacy organizations with whom we work on specific projects related to domestic violence. Current collaborations are focused on health care, prevention, disabilities, training for law enforcement on abuse in later life and elder abuse and a national elder abuse mandatory reporting research project. These collaborations include the American Bar Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy, the Wisconsin Women's Health Foundation, the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault and other state domestic violence and sexual assault coalitions, national elder abuse associations, and others.
National Affiliations
Although our efforts are directed toward ending domestic violence in Wisconsin, WCADV has strong partnerships with national organizations. These relationships enhance the work we do at home.
WCADV LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY POLICY
It is the policy of this agency to provide language access services to populations of persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) who use our programs. Such services will be focused on providing meaningful access to our activities.