Domestic Abuse Intervention Services

Crisis intervention: includes the 24-hour help line, 24-hour text line, and leap (law enforcement advocate partnership).the help line is a free and confidential gateway through which clients can access all dais services. The help line, accessed via phone, is staffed by volunteers and paid advocates who provide support, information, referrals to other community agencies, and safety planning. During the pandemic dais excused volunteers from the building and internal staff took on added responsibilities to support the functioning of the help line. Leap (law enforcement advocate partnership) - the leap partnership quickly connects victims of domestic violence in the city of madison with the advocacy services provided by dais. Because of various barriers, many victims do not take advantage of victim advocacy services after a domestic abuse arrest. The leap program is a joint effort between the madison police department and dais focused on reaching out to victims to overcome these barriers and offer supportive services.community support services: the goal of dais community support programs are to decrease isolation and provide safety planning, support, information, referrals, and assistance to access community resources and supports to victims and survivors of domestic violence. Community support services encompass support groups, short-term response services, and case management for community clients. Case management for community clients provides clients with face-to-face emergency safety planning with trained advocates, basic restraining order assistance, housing information, support, referrals to other community resources, and assistance accessing community resources and services. Meetings can be held at dais as well as at safe, confidential partnership sites across dane county including hospitals, clinics, libraries, or other human services organizations.support group - dais support groups help members of the community decrease their isolation, increase their safety, and connect with other dais survivors. Dais typically offers two weekly support groups for anyone who identifies as a female victim of domestic violence. Additionally, other groups may be offered based on client interest including one for women over the age of 50, one for spanish speakers, and one for sexual violence survivors. Dais also may also offer support groups for family and friends of survivors.

Legal advocacy services - the dais legal advocacy program offers safety planning, support, information, and resources to victims of domestic violence in the areas of family law, civil restraining orders, criminal law, immigration law, and child abuse. Legal advocates are not lawyers and do not provide legal advice. The work of the legal advocates may include assisting clients in filing for restraining orders, developing safety plans with clients, preparing clients for injunction hearings, providing support to clients during hearings, and advocating on behalf of clients within the criminal, civil and family court systems or with law enforcement and other service providers.

Prevention, outreach, education & training: dais offers community education and skills-based training, working throughout the dane county community to raise awareness about domestic violence and promote healthy relationships. The cape (community awareness prevention education) program offers workshops, presentations and trainings tailored for specific groups including community groups, schools, businesses, law enforcement, health care providers and faith-based groups. In addition, this program helps to ensure that the organization's outreach efforts to both the community at large and to victims who may need services are coordinated and comprehensive. Dais also facilitates primary prevention programming in various schools and community based settings. Men encouraging non-violent strenth (mens) clubs provide adolescent men with a safe space to deconstruct the many mixed messages about masculinity that young men receive. Dais recognizes that statistically most batterers are men, but most men are not batterers. Mens club seeks to provide opportunities for young men to identify for themselves the kind of men they wish to be in their relationships, recognizing that healthy strong men are not violent. Mens club also gives the youth in the program the opportunity to learn bystander intervention skills and opportunities to become leaders in the anti-violence movement with their peers, their schools and their community.

Children's services: the dais children's program offers programming for children residing in the shelter and for children from the community whose parents are utilizing other dais services. At any given time, about half of our shelter residents are children and most are under the age of 6. The purpose of children's programming is to provide children from violent homes with physical and emotional safety, structure and consistency, opportunities to process their feelings through play and creative activities, experience with positive discipline techniques, and to experience and practice strategies for self-regulation and coping. Programming includes recreational groups, as well as educational and support groups. Parenting support and parent/child bonding activities are also provided to parents who are utilizing dais services in order to aid in healing the parent-child bond.