The Safe & Together Model Collaboration Kickstarter Project: Otero, New Mexico

This project report from the Safe & Together Institute’s Evaluation Team describes the results of a five-month Collaboration Kickstarter Project between New Mexico’s Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) in Otero County and the Center of Protective Environment, Inc. (COPE), the county’s domestic violence advocacy agency. The project paired online learning and live training in the Safe & Together™ Model with monthly agency-specific coaching and leadership meetings, aiming to improve both cross-agency collaboration and each agency’s confidence applying the Model in casework. Before the project, staff from both agencies described their working relationship as frustrating, minimal, inarticulate, and fragile; after it, they described it as improved, trusting, and marked by progress.

Based on a retrospective pre/post survey of 15 CYFD and COPE staff, agreement that staff communicated openly with each other rose from 27% to 60%, and agreement that they worked closely together to support survivors and families rose from 26% to 60%. Agreement that they trusted one another rose from 26% to 66%, and agreement that they honoured their commitments to one another rose from 46% to 73%. Agreement that both agencies shared a high level of commitment to survivors’ and families’ wellbeing rose from 47% to 80%.

CYFD staff reporting strong or complete confidence engaging perpetrators rose from 57% to 86%, and confidence partnering with domestic violence survivors rose from 28% to 86%. COPE advocates reporting strong or complete confidence discussing a perpetrator’s role in domestic violence with child protection workers rose from 38% to 75%, and those reporting complete confidence advocating for CYFD-involved clients rose from 13% to 38%. Both agencies credited the Perpetrator Pattern Mapping Tool with improving case documentation and giving them shared language to discuss perpetrator accountability.