Westchester County Implementation of the Safe & Together Model

An evaluation by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) research team found that four-day Safe & Together Model training, combined with ongoing coaching, significantly increased Westchester County caseworkers’ knowledge of domestic abuse–informed practice and produced a measurable shift in how domestic violence cases were documented in the state’s child welfare case management system. The evaluation, authored by Ava Berman, Jessica Brown, and Kristen Kirkland, covers training delivered across 17 cohorts between April 2024 and February 2025, reaching approximately 340 participants, alongside 26 coaching visits through 2024 and 2025.

What the evaluation measured

The study combined three methods: pretest, post-test, and three-month follow-up surveys of training participants; tracking of on-site coaching activity, including case consultations, supervisor consultation, and group case review using the Perpetrator Pattern Mapping Tool (PPMT); and a retrospective review of 25 closed cases from before county-wide training and 25 closed cases from after, coded against the Safe & Together Domestic Violence–Informed Continuum of Practice.

What changed in practice

Participant knowledge of Safe & Together principles increased significantly from pretest to post-test (p < .001), with matched-sample scores rising from roughly 66 to 85 out of 100. In the three months following training, most participants reported applying DV-proficient practices to their assessments (88%), engagement with families (90%), documentation (78%), and case plans (93%). Only 12% reported using the Perpetrator Pattern Mapping Tool, which the report flags as an area for further coaching. The case record review found increased documentation of 8 of 10 DV-proficient practice domains and decreased documentation of 2 of 3 DV-destructive domains following training.