Organizational & Systems Assessment

Using the Model to Change Systems

At Safe & Together Institute we are committed to real systems change that involves transforming your agency and your partnerships with other players in the child wellness ecosystem to become more domestic abuse-informed and child-centered.

A domestic abuse-informed agency will see improved outcomes for adult and child survivors, but also internal practice improvements leading to greater worker safety, satisfaction, organizational stability, and increased efficacy in working with community partners. Our shared success sees both child and adult survivors, as well as your professionals, become more safe, stable, self-determined, and satisfied.

What can happen when we become domestic-abuse-informed?

Systems that become more domestic abuse-informed move toward:

Keeping more children in their own homes with their non offending parent
Improving their partnerships with survivors and their advocates
Improving interventions with perpetrators, especially fathers
Reducing their ability to be used by perpetrators to control the adult and child survivors
Moving closer to equity goals
Improving staff morale, retention, safety and performance
Reducing costs associated with out-of-home placements
Providing better supervision and support for their staff
Meeting agency key performance measures

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Kimly Sills

Kimly, a 26-year child welfare veteran in Ontario, Canada, has been a passionate Safe & Together advocate since she discovered it seven years ago. Her journey began when she was tasked with supervising a specialized domestic violence protection team, developing the program and acting as the community liaison to improve relationships between Child Welfare and Violence Against Women sectors. Since that time, she introduced the Safe & Together™ Model to her agency and has grown the practice within by actively using it with every family impacted by domestic violence that she supervises. Kimly has dedicated her child welfare practice to becoming more domestic abuse–informed by coaching staff, supervisors, members of the legal department, and community partners to implement the Safe & Together principles, tools, and skills into their daily practice to improve outcomes for families and cross-system collaboration.

Kimly is bilingual and has worked in child welfare as a frontline worker, team supervisor, and program manager. Kimly’s experience as a supervisor/manager includes intake, clinical assessments, and ongoing family services, as well as working with foster families, children/youth in care, and public relations. She has been trained in the Signs of Safety (SOS), strength-based approach and guides staff to increase the implementation of SOS in their child welfare practice. Kimly understands first-hand the similarities and differences between the two models (SOS and S&T) and how they can work together clinically to reach optimum results in child, survivor, and/or worker safety, as well as increased engagement with fathers in a child welfare system.

Kimly also runs her own private practice as a clinical social worker providing individual and couples therapy. She specializes in working with individuals impacted by domestic violence, including survivors, family/friends trying to support them, and perpetrators motivated to make better, non-violent/controlling choices.

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Kristi Burre, MA

Kristi began her professional career over 20 years ago in local and state government, community partnerships, and system transformation. Most recently, she served as the Director of Children’s Initiatives for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, focusing on child well-being and driving improvements with communication and coordination across all state agencies providing services to children and families. In this role, she prioritized system enhancements and advancing policy with early childhood education, early intervention and prevention services, maternal and infant health, child physical and mental health, and children services. Kristi has vast experience collaborating with local, state, federal, and private sector partners to align efforts and investments to have the largest possible impact on improving outcomes for children, families, and communities.

Kristi has worked extensively in the child protection and foster care system in the capacities of caseworker, supervisor, manager, and director. In addition to her public service work, she has held various roles teaching, training, and coaching for the last 22 years, including as a social and behavioral sciences adjunct instructor at Columbus State Community College and a trainer and executive coach with the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program.

Kristi has been a Safe & Together Institute Senior Faculty and Certified Trainer since 2011 and is committed to guiding child and family serving agencies to become more domestic abuse–informed. She has trained professionals in North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom from various disciplines, including child protection, domestic violence advocacy, law enforcement, education, behavioral health, juvenile justice, healthcare, and the legal community. She also coaches and mentors professionals from across the world involved with the Safe & Together Trainer Certification Program and observes training sessions for evaluation, feedback, and approval for certification.

Additional leadership roles have included chairing the Ohio Governor’s Children Services Transformation Advisory Council and Eliminating Racial Disparities in Infant Mortality Task Force. Kristi has also held leadership positions and appointments for many other state and local entities committed to protecting children and strengthening families, including the Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Board; Ohio Children’s Trust Fund Regional Prevention Council; Ohio Intimate Partner Violence Collaborative; and Ohio Early Childhood Advisory Council. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology, criminology, and psychology from Capital University and a master’s degree in sociology from Ohio University.

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Ruth Reymundo Mandel

As co-owner of the Safe & Together Institute and a lived experience expert, Ruth leads the design of digital resources and tools that transform domestic abuse–informed practice into accessible solutions. Drawing from her personal experience with religious institutional abuse, she brings a crucial survivor and cultural perspective to product development, creating user-centric digital tools that bridge the gap between domestic abuse intervention frameworks and real-world implementation. Ruth specializes in developing solutions that make domestic abuse–informed practice more accessible to global social care systems and their users. Her approach to product development is deeply informed by lived experience, ensuring solutions effectively support those experiencing domestic abuse while dismantling systemic barriers through accessible design.

Ruth’s career spans over 25 years, beginning as a middle school teacher in post-revolutionary Nicaragua in 1995, where she developed a foundational understanding of social justice and violence prevention. Her journey includes roles as Assistant Director of Admissions at the Bryman School and the Art Institute of Phoenix, helping learners overcome educational barriers. After focusing on raising her three children, she worked as a sales-based trainer and implementation specialist, translating complex holistic medical treatment methodologies into highly regulated practice frameworks. As a professional business coach and graduate of the Business Finishing School, Ruth specialized in system optimization and practice management, developing expertise in resolving operational bottlenecks and implementation barriers to complex treatment plans. Her human-centered approach consistently delivers meaningful outcomes while maintaining focus on end-user needs and impact.

Ruth is also a published poet, visual artist, writer, and public speaker. She remains dedicated to creating digital solutions that help survivors and allies understand the patterns of abuse and trauma responses while addressing systemic barriers to effective practice through technology. Her unique combination of lived experience and professional expertise makes her particularly effective in designing domestic abuse–informed digital tools that serve both practitioners and survivors.

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Organizational & Systems Assessment

Using the Model to Change Systems

What can happen when we become domestic-abuse-informed?

Systems that become more domestic abuse-informed move toward:

Want to assess your organization?

Safe & Together Institute

Jessica Sisler

Annie Dean

Kimly Sills

Rebecca Kalitz

Jackie Wruck

Donna Dukes

Nicola (Nic) Douglas

Kay Stevenson

Mandy Rousselle

Janet Penza

Kim Jurgens

Dorothy Striker

Casie Burke, MSEd, PC

Beth Ann Morhardt

Danielle Martin, MSW

Sarah L. Heuser

Lisa Fleischer, MSW, LSW

Lórien Castelle

Rhonda Dagg, BSc, BSW

Kristi Burre, MA

Ashley Bowers, MSW, LSW

Kari Akins

Alison Simari

Minh-Chau Truong

Colleen Jameson

Lindberg Chambliss

Jacob Linzenbold

Dana Schmersal, MSW – Resource Development Specialist

Peju Thompson

Leah K. Vejzović, LMSW

Ingryd Flores

Shelly Napoletano Flynn, MSW

Anna Mitchell

Ruth Reymundo Mandel

Brittany DiBella, MSW, DVS

Heidi Rankin, MPA – Associate Director

David Mandel, MA, LPC