Women face many barriers when leaving a violent relationship that people are often unaware of. These include lack of affordable housing, inadequate income, unavailable child care, and unresponsive justice systems. Shelters cannot address violence against women and children alone. It takes a whole community.
The V.O.I.C.E.S System (Voices of Women to Improve Communities, Education, and Services) is an exciting long term project to improve services to women and children fleeing domestic violence in Manitoba. V.O .I.C.E.S is a information management system designed by shelters.
V.O.I.C.E.S provides a standardized way of collecting data and provides shelters with accurate information on how to best use the limited resources that are available. Our system uses self reporting from the women and children who use shelter services in order to ensure that their voices are heard.
Key model components include:
- Case management for client care
- Intake, Departure and Bednight/Occupancy calculations
- Stand alone Crisis Line tracking system
- Client demographics, client activity in shelter programs and activities
- Assessment of client needs, reasons for service, client goals
- Issues and reasons for repeat utilization of shelters
- Linking capabilities to identify family relationships among mothers and their children
- Advocacy, Referral, and Public Education Tracking
- Capacity for cross shelter transfers and information sharing (with consent)
- Capacity for electronic reporting to Funders
- Multiple security safeguards that prevent unauthorized access including several levels of security access for staff, managers, and database administrators
For More Information:
Please visit the links provided to find out more about how MAWS and this website can help you. Remember, if you're in crisis and a victim of abuse, you aren't alone. And if you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, there is help. There is hope. And someone will listen.
