This is Kim Nash with the IAFN. The FAST TA Project would like to welcome you and are thankful to have Fatima Hayoma join us today for the presentation, SART 101, Strategies for Success. If you have multiple people watching today's webinar, please share the link for the evaluation with everyone who is in attendance. Please also send a list of all attendees that have not been formally registered to us at IAFN. You can send that information to Projects at ForensicNurses.org, which is in the, the address is in the chat box. Today's webinar is being recorded. You will receive an email from Kerry Knadel once the webinar is posted on the SAFETA.org website and is ready for viewing. Following the webinar, you will receive an email with a link to the evaluation. Once you complete the evaluation, you'll be able to download a certificate of completion. Nurses should follow the instructions to be directed to an evaluation for nursing CE. IAFN is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. We use your feedback to plan future webinars, so please add suggestions in the comments area of that evaluation. This webinar is being brought to you today as a part of the FAST Technical Assistance Project, an Office on Violence Against Women funded project. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women. The presenters have no conflict of interest to disclose. Today we have Fatima Hayoma, Rural Project Coordinator at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, one of our partners on the FAST-TA project. Fatima joined the Sexual Violence Justice Institute at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault in May of 2020. As the Rural Project Coordinator, Fatima connects with and supports rural communities in improving their response to sexual violence. She provides training and technical assistance across the United States and territories. Fatima earned her BA in Gender, Women's, and Sexual Violence Studies from the University of Iowa. Fatima, we welcome you and turn this over to you. Perfect. So, hi, everyone. Welcome to this webinar titled SART 101 Strategies for Success. This training will focus on building a baseline knowledge of systems change sexual assault response teams. So, this is kind of an introduction to SART work. So, as Kim already mentioned, my name is Fatima Hayoma. My pronouns are she and her. And I am one of two Rural Project Coordinators at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute at MNCASA. My primary role at the Institute is to provide training and technical assistance to rural SARTs and other multidisciplinary teams across the states and territories. Just some quick background, as Kim mentioned, I started working at MNCASA in May of 2020. So, I've been with the organization for about a year. And prior to joining the organization, I worked in the state of Iowa where I was doing direct services and prevention education programming. So, I did this in both rural and urban spaces and mostly in eastern Iowa. So, I'm happy to be here with you all today. Okay. So, let's get started. So, I'm most familiar with Zoom, so I'm hoping Adobe Connect works similarly. It's always so nice to know who is in the room. So, this is entirely optional, but if you want to, please share your name, role, and how long you've been doing SART or multidisciplinary teamwork in the chat section. So, I'll leave folks maybe 30 seconds or a minute to do this. Okay, it looks like we have some folks who do not currently have a SART or some that have been around for a little over a year. So we have some folks who don't have experience, and that's absolutely okay and perfect because this is an introduction. Folks with five years, two with their current. Okay, so we have a pretty good mix, and please, today, as you've utilized the chat section now, feel free to utilize the chat option throughout this webinar. I will have questions towards the later half of the presentation, and that is space for you to answer and share your experiences with SARTworks. I think the best experts of SARTworks is SART coordinators or people doing SARTwork or part of SARTs themselves. So as you're utilizing it now and continue to, please feel free to do so throughout this webinar. Okay, so like I said, I work at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the organization that I work at. So SVJI is a project of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. So we provide expertise in the criminal justice and community response to sexual violence. So at SVJI, we use a systems change approach to support communities in improving systems responses and the outcomes for victims and survivors of sexual violence. So what do we actually do at SVJI? So as I mentioned in the last slide, SVJI is a project of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. So in addition to our Minnesota-based work, we do national work. So about half of our staff is funded to do Minnesota work, and the other half is funded to do more of the national level work. Our work shows up through trainings. So we do webinars, workshops, conferences, and training around special topics. So one of our bigger conferences, actually our national conference called the National Institute for SART Leaders, is actually happening in June of this year. So I'll be sure to send that information over to IAFN so that you all have access to register for that conference. Additionally, we also create and share resources. So we have many resources available on our website. I believe on our website, we currently have templates around mission and vision building, creating MOUs, or planning team meetings, or setting agendas. So we have various templates available for you to download and adjust to better fit your SART. We also have various fact sheets available that talk about what systems change is. And one is actually available in the materials and resources section of this webinar. And we also post blogs once a week that tend to explore what I consider our most frequently asked TA questions. So we receive TA questions from all sorts of SARTs across the country, and we try to write blogs based on those TA questions. So in the next couple of weeks, we will have a short blog series on engaging new team members. So I highly encourage you to check that out. And we also have toolkits and guidebooks. So on our website, we have what's called the SART Starter Kit. So that is a toolkit for new SARTs or new SART coordinators. We also have the Case File Review Guidebook for SARTs who are interested in doing case file review. And we also have various evaluation resources and many other resources available. And I'm going to make a quick note that while we do have a lot of resources available, some are a bit difficult to find on our website. So if you have any questions about any of our resources, please do reach out. And I will share my contact information at the end of this webinar. And the final two boxes. So this is, I think, one of the biggest parts of our work is that we provide support and points of connection. So at SBGI, we approach training and technical assistance with a goal of supporting coordinating teams. So part of that is SARTs. We do this through helping and increasing knowledge and sharing expertise. So a lot of the support we provide shows up typically through brainstorming sessions, assistance on meeting facilitation, or meetings focusing on solely problem solving. And additionally, we are here as points of connections. So we're here to connect you to other experts, whether it be other SARTs, other SART coordinators and other leaders, or other TA providers. And that's just a bit about SBGI. I always like to start with this because I think it's helpful to share about the work and how we approach it. Because overall, it helps in understanding how we approach SART or multidisciplinary teamwork. Okay, so for those who like agenda items, here is what you should expect for the remaining time. Today, we are going to explore these three areas. So we're going to discuss SARTs, sexual assault response teams. We're going to talk about what a SART is, specifically, what is a systems change SART. And we're going to talk about who is part of a SART. Next, we're going to talk about the phases of systems change. So what this means is we're going to talk about how systems change SARTs work. And next, we're going to talk about and learn about the internal and external factors of effective SARTs. So I'm going to go through the findings from one of our reports on the habits of effective SARTs. That is available, again, in the materials and resources section of this webinar, but I encourage you to look at that after this webinar. And again, as noted, this is an introduction to SART work. So we're going to go over a lot, but I'm also only briefly going to talk about each topic area. But please know that if you have any further questions about anything we talk about today, please do reach out for further and also more targeted training or technical assistance. Okay, so Breanne, here's our first Zoom poll. So this question is, how familiar are you with SARTs and systems change work? A, I have no idea what that means. B, I've heard about SARTs and systems change, but can't give you a definition. C, I have limited experience. D, I've led a SART. And E, I can do this presentation, Fatima. Okay, so it looks like we have folks who have some experience with SARTs. So we have about 45%, so almost half of the folks who have limited experience. And then we have another part that is aware of SARTs and systems change, but can't necessarily give a definition. And we have some folks that might have more experience and have led a SART. Perfect. So we have a pretty good mix today, and I could kind of sense that from our introduction. So today we're going to go over and try to answer some of those questions, like what is a SART, who is part of it, and how do you do this work? Okay, so the first question, what actually is a sexual assault response team? So SART is an acronym for sexual assault response team. A SART is made up of multidisciplinary representatives who focus on collaboration for systems change. And I'm going to talk about what systems change means in a bit, but SARTs are devoted to improving systems response to sexual violence in their communities. So at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute, we use what's called a continuous improvement process. Something important to acknowledge is that SARTs are really just a single community strategy to improve the outcomes for victim survivors. So what I mean by that is that there are so many types of names and collaboration styles used to describe this work. SART is just one of them. That's a pretty general definition, but I will give you a better one in a little bit. So who is part of a SART? So a SART typically includes advocacy, so that could be community-based advocates, for example. SARTs include medical providers, so people who respond to sexual violence, whether it be SANE-certified nurses or trained nurses. SARTs also include law enforcement, prosecutors and DA offices, and corrections and probation. So these main five are what I consider kind of the typical core group or maybe five main disciplines that most often participate in a SART. And note that there are multiple agencies within a discipline, so there could be multiple agencies within each discipline of a SART team. Some of you might already see yourself on this discipline list. Additionally, some communities also invite representatives from other disciplines and related systems. So for example, there are colleges or Title IX offices. Maybe there's a campus in your community. So sometimes SARTs that have a campus in their community might include the Title IX office or might have a subcommittee that is focused on doing that work. Some SARTs also have folks doing from adult protection or community and culturally specific programs, CSPs, or pretty much any points of disclosure and entry to help seeking can be part of a SART. Generally, who is part of the SART depends on the makeup of your community, but this is just kind of a general description of who generally is part of a SART. So what do those disciplines actually mean for a SART? So the disciplines that I listed in the last slide actually make up a SART team or the members of a SART. Team members in a SART are actually agencies, or if you want to think about it more broadly, the disciplines. They are the ones participating in the SART. An easy way to think about this is that agencies are really empowering individuals of those disciplines or agencies to attend SART meetings and act as liaisons back to the whole agency or organization. So team members who are participating in SARTs are really speaking on behalf of their agencies or disciplines, and it's this way because this is how systems change occurs. When agencies are committed to participating in a SART, they are typically committed via MOU, so this allows SARTs to really be able to do long-term work because if it's the agency that's committed to doing the SART work, then that ensures for long-term work when individuals or individual or discipline experts leave their positions. And of course, in addition to SART members representing their agencies, they themselves are also individual discipline experts that contribute to the various tasks and discussions in the SART. So they are discipline experts, they contribute, and they also act as agency liaisons. So the reason, again, why I talk about this is because this helps in describing how SARTs need or how they get systems buy-in. So how do SARTs work with so many disciplines involved, or how does an agency liaison actually work? Team members are in what we call a feedback loop. So what this means is consider this person in the middle as the discipline or agency expert that represents an agency in a SART. This person does work with a SART, so participates in meetings, participates in making change. That person then does that work in a SART and then goes back to their agency to share the work that they've done and also receive feedback from their agencies. When this person receives this feedback, they take that information back to their SART and share the feedback from their agencies. After that, they do work all over again. So that's kind of how individuals or agencies are able to participate in SARTs and how SARTs are able to involve so many different disciplines and agencies. Okay, so now we've talked about what a SART is and who is part of a SART. So before I dive into specifically what systems change is, I want to talk about the different types of SARTs. So typically when we talk about sexual assault response teams, we talk about two types. One is called an acute response SART. So acute response SARTs are SARTs that typically focus on singular cases and individual responders. So what I mean by this is these are single case, single and active cases. So with these types of SARTs, the change is occurring with individual responders who are participating in the case. So what that means is maybe there's a single case that is happening in your community and it's active. The only people participating in this SART are the people who are individually responding to this single case. So that means with these types of SARTs, the commitment is in the individual level. The process depends on each responder who is participating. So when changes happen with this type of SART, they tend to stay with those individual responders who participate. This is unless this information is communicated forward. Because these types of SARTs are set up that way, results of it are targeted and usually make pretty small scale change. And the other type of SARTs, and the one we will be discussing today, so I've mentioned parts of this type of SART already, it's called a systems change SART. So systems change sexual assault response teams focus on multiple cases and all of the processes attached to those cases. So this includes active and closed cases. So with these types of SARTs, systems change SARTs are typically looking for patterns amongst multiple, multiple cases. Changes here happen in agencies and systems processes. So this is why these types of SARTs need agency-wide participation and are typically committed via MOU, right? So they're not attached or committed to individuals, but rather the agencies or the system disciplines involved. Because these SARTs are set up that way, the results are seen as long-term and widespread. And again, that's because they're not tied to individual responders. So these are just two types of SARTs that people or communities typically use. Which type of SART you choose is up to your community. So each community will decide which type of SART works best for them. If you have any questions about the differences between these two, please feel free to reach out if you would like to chat more. But today we're going to talk about what I call the systems change. So systems change SARTs. So I've kind of introduced this already, but this is the type of SART that makes long-term change. So what do we mean by systems change? So I've mentioned it a few times. Systems change SARTs are a set of interconnected parts that make up a whole. So when we're talking about systems, generally we're talking about individual systems. We're talking about law enforcement, medical, prosecution, corrections, and probation and advocacy. So each of these parts are their own individual system. And as you probably noticed, we've already mentioned these folks in the member slide. When these individual systems are combined, we have what we call the criminal legal system. So when we combine law enforcement system, medical, prosecution, corrections, and probation, and advocacy, we have the criminal legal system. So it's its own individual and part of a bigger whole. So when we talk about systems change, we're talking about making changes in each individual system and also the larger system. And that's why when systems change SARTs, we have so many disciplines involved. At SBJI, our definition of systems change is that it's a continuous improvement process used by multidisciplinary professionals to develop, modify, and enhance practices, agency policies, and systems procedures that affect how we respond to sexual violence victims and survivors. Okay. So that is what a systems change SART is. So to break that down even more, like in the previous slide, I mentioned systems change is working towards improving individual systems' response to sexual violence while also increasing collaborations with systems. So what we mean by improving is that we're talking about improving and increasing collaboration between law enforcement, medical, prosecution, corrections, probation, and advocacy. How this works is focusing on enhancing the strengths of practice, policy, procedures, and collaboration with each of those individual systems, addressing the shortcomings, and ensuring support and engagement for victim-survivors throughout all the processes. So victim-survivors have to be part of this systems change work. Additionally, when we're looking at doing systems change work, there is a focus on continuously improving as times and communities change. So systems change SARTs focus on making changes as they need to best meet their community's needs. So this information is actually available in the materials and resources section. It's called the SARTs and systems change handout. Okay. So we've talked about what a SART is and who is part of a SART. So how does SARTs or how do these SARTs actually work? So at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute, we use a three-step continuous model that we call the phases of systems change. So here's a little image we have to describe that. The first phase is called assessing the status quo. So it's learning about the current response and experience of victim-survivors. The second phase is making change. So using what was learned in the first phase to target improvements. And the third phase is measuring the change, so checking the effectiveness or outcomes of changes made in the second phase. So this is the three-step model that we use to do systems change work. What this actually looks like. So, like I said, this phase focuses on asking questions and gathering information about the current response. So the goal in assessing the status quo is to find out what is actually happening for victims and survivors of sexual violence in your communities. So this step really involves all individual systems that are responding to victim-survivors and identifying the current strengths, gaps, and barriers in the current response. So something to do in this phase as you're starting SART work, for many of you, might be doing or taking inventory of existing service providers. When you're taking inventory, some good questions to ask would be, how is the community already addressing the needs of sexual assault victims and survivors? Who is currently involved in the response? And what are their roles? And how are providers or each responder interacting with one another? So, for example, it would be looking at advocacy and communicating with law enforcement or looking at how hospitals are communicating with advocacy. So it's looking at how all individual disciplines or even agencies, how are they all communicating with each other? Additional strategies for this phase include completing a needs assessment, mapping out the current response and processes, or forming curious questions and learning about what you know or don't know. An important thing to remember about this phase is that it is essential to bring in the resources that you need to address the current needs of victims and survivors. It's important to bring in the voices of victim survivors when you're assessing the status quo. So when I talk about victim survivors, that includes survivors who have reported and also survivors who have not reported. So what I mean by that is victim survivors who have maybe gone through the criminal justice system and met with an advocate or other systems, other individual systems. Individuals who have not reported or engaged with any of those systems. It's important to make sure that you are including the voices of all victim survivors. So making change. So what we talk about at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute is once you've assessed the status quo, so once you've completed with phase one, and a SART has a greater understanding of their current strengths and challenges in addressing sexual violence in their communities, they can move on to phase two, actually making change. So phase two, making change, focuses on using information you collected from assessing the status quo and selecting what needs to change about the current response to sexual violence. So here you'd be using the information learned to make targeted improvements. Another way to think about this is based on what you know now after assessing the status quo, what changes need to be made in our response as a community. Changes here can be made in the individual level, the agency level, systems level, or community level. There are a lot of examples of what changes actually look like. So some examples of that look like SARTs developing or revising interagency protocol. SARTs doing training to meet knowledge and practice gaps. So this is actually something that we get called in for. We've done trainings for SARTs to build their knowledge on what a SART is. Some SARTs are focusing on making changes in individual practices or making changes to agency policy, and some are creating new programs, tools, or resources. When SARTs are working through the system's change process, most SARTs really want to jump straight into this phase without taking the time or learn or assess the status quo. So they want to skip assess the status quo and jump into making a change. Most do this because they do believe that they already know what their community needs or they already know the answers. In some cases, that is true. Communities do know their own communities. However, we encourage you to move on to the second phase only after you've assessed the status quo. And that's because this helps in making sure that you're making intentional changes that will overall have a lasting impact. So, additionally, some SARTs who are in the making change process also do cross-training with other team agencies. So they're working on learning from one another about their work or their response. Some of these SARTs are focusing on how to engage in information sharing. So, trying to figure out how they're sharing information with one another and improving that. So, these SARTs are typically focused on increasing the collaboration between each discipline. Some SARTs are focused on doing team development. So, these SARTs are typically doing more community-aware work. So, they're doing a lot of community-based work. So, these SARTs are typically doing more community awareness or awareness between the SART members. And I think one of the biggest things that I've seen SARTs do is they're working on creating innovative programs. So, SARTs that are doing changes like that are really focused on maybe doing reporting options and auditing or working on how exams are conducted. Or figuring out how exams are conducted. So, those are some pretty big things, but some SARTs also do smaller or smaller scale change like working on just building the SART or even adding the SART members or building relationships between each discipline. So, those are just some examples of how SARTs do systems change work. An important thing to note, though, is that it is important that you select a strategy that can be measured for impact. And as you can see, that's because the third phase is measuring change. So, the final phase is measuring change. This is where you measure the impacts and the outcomes from the changes you made in the second phase. This helps in understanding how the changes have overall impacted the response and victim survivors who have experienced the change. So, here you're doing evaluation of the changes made and based on those results are hopefully developing new exploration areas. So, as you see in the slides, during this phase, some SARTs might monitor or should monitor the implementation of change or are assessing gaps and barriers. So, what are the new gaps and barriers that exist because the change has been made? Or they might be completing surveys or hosting focus groups or doing case review. So, we see a lot of SARTs who are really interested in doing case file review. So, these are the three phases. For those who are new, which I know is some of you, please note that this is an introduction to systems change SART work. And I totally understand that it can be overwhelming to hear it all at once if you're new. So, this three-phase process is actually a really long-term process that takes a lot of time to do. So, it can take years to do systems change work. So, as I mentioned before I started talking about the phases is that this is a continuous model. So, once you're done measuring the change, that is not the end of systems change. These types of SARTs, systems change SARTs, use a continuous improvement process. So, what that means is now that you've measured the change, right? So, we assess the status quo. You've made those changes. Those changes have been measured. It's time to use what you learned and do the process all over again. So, you measure and then figure out what you learned, see how it's changed your community, and assess the status quo again to figure out new strategies or things to change. So, it is a continuous process. So, you're constantly assessing the status quo, you're constantly making change, and you're constantly measuring change, and you're constantly doing it all over again. So, a thing I like to talk about in SART 101 trainings is that SARTs are really all about the impact that they make. So, like I've talked about in the description of systems change SARTs, systems change SARTs can impact individual practices, agency policies, systems procedures, and interagency collaboration. But first, when we're talking about the impacts that SARTs make, it's important to talk about its largest impact, which is the victim-survivor experience. So, at the center of all SART work, whether it be acute or systems change, is the victim-survivor experience. So, because this is the center of our work, SARTs as service providers and points of disclosure have to center around and stay connected with victim-survivors' experiences with not only the individual systems, but also the larger system. The next place that SARTs make an impact is in individual practices. So, when thinking about where to start making changes, so you've already assessed the status quo, thinking about what else will positively impact the victim-survivor experience, many SARTs think first of individual practices. So, making an impact here focuses on the actions of the people who respond to sexual violence disclosures. The next area of impact is agency policies. So, this area of impact focuses on looking at policies established by individual agencies and making changes there. And then, systems procedures and interagency collaboration. So, by the time you're making changes in systems procedures and interagency collaborations, you're looking at how all related agencies are able to operate in a system. So, how they're all able to operate together. Okay, so I went over a lot right now. So, I just wanted to quickly highlight what I would consider maybe more tangible examples of what SARTs can do. So, how I've seen SARTs is sometimes they've done work around connecting marginalized survivors. So, making sure that they're centering the experiences of marginalized survivors. I've seen some SARTs developing new interagency policies. Some that are focusing on simply trying to make sure that they're involving victims and survivors' voices throughout the response and the processes. And we have some SARTs that are focused on accountability for perpetration. And we have some SARTs that are focused on increasing reporting. Or some that are focused on changing prosecutorial practices. So, I see a lot of these SARTs who are focusing on that, making sure that they are involving prosecution more in their multidisciplinary teamwork. So, we have some SARTs that have prosecutors lead the work. Or some that are just heavily involved and are participating. And there are some SARTs who are just simply trying to support their communities as changes are constantly happening in their communities. So, these are just some tangible examples of actual changes that SARTs can make and do. So, if your SART is interested in doing this work, then it is possible because it has happened with many SARTs across the country. Okay, so, last half hour, we went over a lot. And like I said, for some, what we've gone over may be new. And for others, this might have been a refresher. But now that we've reached kind of a baseline understanding of SARTs, do you recognize where your SART is in the phases of systems change? So, where in the phases of systems change is your SART? Is it assessing the status quo? Is it making change? Or is it measuring change? Looks like we have the majority so far in assessing the status quo. We have some in making change, and we have one group in measuring the change. That's great. So, I know some of the folks in this call are currently not part of SARTs, and that's totally okay for this training, because hopefully the information that you get from this is information that you can take back to your communities to build buy-in on having a SART or starting or restarting one in your community. Okay, so the past half hour, I've been talking very generally about what a SART is and what systems change is and who's part of it and all of that, but how does it actually work? So how do these SARTs actually function? We're going to transition a bit, and this might be really helpful for those who currently have SARTs or those who are currently planning a SART. So we're going to transition and talk about what actually makes an effective SART, or in other words, talk about the habits of successful SARTs. So again, I ask you to treat this as an introduction webinar. This is actually part of a larger three-hour webinar, but I decided to pull it from that because I think it's really helpful for those who are doing SART work and are new to it. This is also, I think, helpful for SARTs who are feeling a bit stuck in their work. On this slide, you'll notice the image of the cover of our 10-Factor Framework for Sexual Assault Response Team Effectiveness Report. Again, this resource is available to you in the Materials and Resources section and also our website. But basically, between the years of 2015 and 2016, some folks at our organization, SVJI, submitted 17 systems change SARTs across the U.S. and completed a consensus-building project to find out which factors were most needed for effective SARTs. The result of this is the 10-Factor Framework. So these 10 factors include six that are internal and four that are external. The internal factors are multilevel leadership, culture of learning and continual improvement, emphasis on relationships and teamwork, shared vision and model, and diverse membership. The four external factors are confident individual members, supportive member agencies, community support and input, and access to resources and networking. So these are the four, the external ones are the four large circles here. The difference or what the difference is between the internal and external is that the internal factors are parts of the structure, activities, and culture of the team itself. And the external factors represent things that members or agencies and community members can bring into the team from the outside. In no particular order now, I'll be going through the 10 factors. So very, very briefly, and I'm going to be posing some questions to think about. So in this part of the training, I'll have some questions after I introduce the Factor Framework. And if you would like, feel free to answer how your team does SART work. Okay, so the 17 SARTs met and agreed that shared vision and model was one of the internal frameworks that helps in making or having successful, effective SARTs. So what this means is that to have an effective SART, all members should agree on the model and vision of the team. So this is figuring out the vision. So what is the result of the team's work? And how will the response be different once the work is complete? This is also having agreement in the mission statement. So making sure that there is an agreement about what the SART does, who they are, and who benefits from the work. Additionally, the SARTs agreed, the 17 SARTs agreed that there should be a shared agreement on the team's model. So agreement in how the team is structured, how leadership is led, and what the purpose and scope of the team's work is. So here we have an image that talks about two different types of SARTs. So we have a SART A that might be community focused and focusing on systems change. We have a SART B that's focused on individual cases. The structure of SART A and SART B are different. One is formalized and the other is informal. With a team, if half the team believes that it's SART A and the other half of the team believes that it's SART B, that obviously creates lack of agreement or clarity about the team's overall work. And that leads to not only confusion, but sometimes conflict between team members. So those 17 SARTs agreed that when teams ensure and make sure that they have a shared vision and model, that helps in leading to success. So in the chat section, if you want to, feel free to share. Does your team have a mission or vision statement? Or is this something that you've been thinking about having? And another point to think about is what is your team's decision making process? So does your team have a clear process in how it makes decisions? So is it written down somewhere that this is how we complete or accomplish these different tasks and goals? These are just some things to think about. The next internal factor that I'll be talking about is diverse membership. So there are multiple ways of thinking about diverse membership. First is multidisciplinary diversity. So thinking about if your SART has representation of various disciplines. This is important because everyone plays a unique role in the response. So victim-survivors are engaging with multiple individual systems, so each of those systems should be involved when doing this work. So every discipline, institution, and individual overall brings their own unique networks, experience, and knowledge to the team. The second way to look at this is figuring out if your team reflects your community. So teams should reflect overall their community. So there should be membership that reflects the full spectrum of community members being served by the team. Things to think about here. So these might be questions to bring back to your team or think about as you're starting a team is, is your team representative of your community? And how do you know it's representative of your community? Is this something you did in the assessing the status quo phase? Two, who else should be on your team? Three, how do you add new team members? So these are just some things to think about. Additionally, it's important to also think about how you're engaging new team members, especially now with virtual spaces, it can be hard to build relationships if building relationships virtually is not something you're used to. So making sure that you're also exploring how you're currently engaging new team members or new collaborative partners. The next internal factor that makes up successful or effective SARTs is multi-level leadership. So while many SARTs have a designated coordinator or facilitator built into their team's model, all team members and member agencies should overall play a role in team leadership. Overall, this helps in making sure that there's equal distribution and power within the SARTs. Acknowledge mentor space, so acknowledge the power imbalances that might exist. And it helps in consideration that of all perspectives and knowledge that different members, disciplines, and agencies bring to the team. Here as you're thinking about how multi-level leadership shows up in your work, here are just some things to think about. Are power imbalances currently addressed on your team? Or if you currently don't have a team, have you started thinking about how you might address power imbalances? And two, how is leadership shared amongst team members? So something we suggest at SBJI is forming subcommittees to share leadership. Okay, so the next internal factor is culture of learning. So what we mean by culture of learning is that every victim survivor is unique, every community is unique. So it's absolutely important that SARTs and SART members are constantly seeking out further knowledge and understanding of individual and community perspectives. So the existence of a culture of learning within a SART emphasizes the importance of seeking to understand the unique context of every situation. Documenting and examining successes and setbacks, identifying emerging strategies for systems change and being able to bring it to your team, and applying new information to the team's work in order to continuously improve. Additionally, by establishing a culture of learning in your SART, you can create an environment in which mistakes and setbacks are really seen as opportunities for accountability and growth. So things to think about with this framework. How do you celebrate successes on your team? So I know some SARTs, and we have it written down in the slide, will do an award or spend time recognizing the work of members and their agencies at SART meetings. Two, how are issues talked about on your team, if at all? So when there's conflict or there's an issue within a team, does that get brought to the site coordinator or does that get brought to the large team at first? So making sure you're thinking about what happens when conflict does arise. Is there a way that we can talk about it and bring it to the team? The next internal factor is continual evaluation improvement. So this framework is actually very closely tied to the three phases of systems change. So continual evaluation of SART work and the community needs allows teams to really stay tapped into the evolving needs of the community. This also helps in being able to do work that is overall more responsive and adaptable to those needs. So this framework allows teams to determine the effectiveness of the changes they make, identify unintended effects or emerging issues, and also identify room for improvement. So the goal here in doing evaluation improvement and bringing that to your SART work is to be able to have long-term collaboration. So I've kind of talked about this in the making change or the evaluating portion of this webinar, but for effective SARTs, it's also important to make sure that this is part of everything you do. And I know and completely understand that evaluation is not always the most exciting, but it is very important to make sure that you are doing evaluation of your work. So here are some things to think about. So if you currently are or maybe aren't doing evaluation, here's some questions to ask. How comfortable are you with doing evaluation? Is it something that you are comfortable doing all the time or is it something that you might need a third party help, assistance in? And two, how much capacity do you have to do evaluation? So does your team currently have capacity to do this work? This is mostly trying to figure out if this is a place or a part of your work that you place importance in. And like I said, it's not everyone's favorite, but it is so important to make sure you're evaluating the work that your team's doing and the work that you're doing to make change in your community. So making sure you're evaluating the making change process. The final internal factor is emphasis on relationships and teamwork. So this along with other internal factors might seem completely obvious. Like it's clear that evaluation helps. It's clear that culture of learning helps. And this one I think is the one that sticks out the most because it seems the most obvious, but it can be really easy to lose sight of how important relationships and true collaboration really is. So this is especially true in the midst of preexisting tension that might exist between disciplines or agencies and overall the stress of our day-to-day work. So although teams are made up of all sorts of disciplines, it's really important that they're operating as a collaborative body. So operating as a collaborative SART. In order for that to happen, it's really important that the space that a SART creates is a place where there is honesty, a space where there is open and consistent communication, a space where there is respect for differences and a space where active listening occurs. Things to think about here is what does trust mean to you? So what does trust mean to you as an individual? How do you gain trust between individuals and how do you gain trust between agencies? At SBGI, we're super aware that conflict can exist and does exist within SARTs. So again, feel free to reach out to brainstorm solutions to address conflict. So we've gone over the internal factors of what makes up effective SARTs. And now I'm gonna talk about the external factors. So that is the four large circles in this image. It is confident individual members, supportive member agencies, community support and input and access to resources and networking. As a reminder, the external factors of effective SARTs represent things that members, agencies or community members can bring into the team from the outside. So again, I will go in no particular order, but I will go through the external factors and also pose questions to think about and bring back to your team. So the first external factor that makes up an effective SART is confident individual SART members. So when individuals are selected to represent their agencies on a SART, it really helps if they come into the role with a strong sense of confidence in themselves and the work they do. So that is along with just genuine interest in doing collaborative systems change work in the team. Each SART should really make sure that their members feel confident in their professional role as a member of the team. So it's a constant balance between being confident and humble and open and critical. So open and critical to learning. So this is one of the external factors that make up effective SARTs. The next external factor is supportive member agencies. So making sure that member agencies do feel invested and engaged with the work that the SART is doing. This can lead to better and more consistent implementation of the SART. So implementation of the changes that the SART wants to make. So this is a really important factor in the implementation of the changes that the SART wants to make. Placing an emphasis on this factor can help in the implementation of a SART's protocol. And it can increase the time and or resources allotted to the team by the member agencies. So something I always mention with this is that these are agencies, supportive member agencies are agencies that trust the work that is happening in the SART and in the community. Things to think about here is how do you build confidence amongst team members? Part of this, like I also mentioned a few slides ago is how do you engage new members? How do you bring new folks to the team? And how do you build confidence in that they're part of the process to make change? Two, how supportive are member agencies of your team? So going beyond the MOU and making sure that as you're doing SART work, you're also building and fostering the relationships that you build between agencies and the disciplines and overall the systems, the individual systems. The next external factor is access to resources and networking. So by making sure that all members of a team have access to various resources, whether it be training networks of support or funding, sources can increase a flow of new information and emerging ideas and strategies into the team. It can also help in heightening collaboration between teams and other organizations. And it can also provide opportunities for team members to develop new skills and ideas. So like I already mentioned, resources for SART members might look like training. So ability to attend conferences, funding, space and supplies. So this includes virtual spaces. And networking might look like community events or conferences or online discussion groups. So are SART members and their agencies able to communicate with one another and also externally to learn from one another? And the final internal, or sorry, external factor, but the final factor overall is community support and input. So what this looks like is SARTs receiving support and involvement from their communities and the communities also feeling invested and engaged in the work that their SART is doing. So this looks like creating opportunities for outreach at community events or local publications or outreach with community leaders or other leaders. Overall, this can help bridge the gap and build awareness in your community of your SART team and the work that you're doing. This also overall improves your team's ability to really stay connected and more immediately respond directly to your community's self-identified needs. So just some things to think about here is, has your SART looked into how you gather community inputs? Are you currently doing community inputs? And if not, can you think of ways that you can do that now? Or can you think of ways to bring back to your community or your SART? Two, how do you let the community know what you're doing? So how are you currently engaging with your community outside of the SART work or the making change process? So some teams use social media or will connect with their local media sources, whether it be local news or radio or newspaper. So these are just some things to think about. Okay, so I just went through all six internal and four external factors. Again, these are just findings of our report on which factors are most needed for the effectiveness of SARTs. This resource is available on our website and it's also available for download, again, in the resources section. And this actually reports and training is more interactive if you feel like you need targeted training on this specific report. So we do have a longer version of this training that includes a lot of audience participation. So going beyond just things to think about, but actually answering those questions and also coming up with action steps planning. Additionally, we also have this resource in addition to other resources available on our website, which is the SARTs.org. It's available on our website. Again, please do reach out if you have trouble finding or have any questions regarding any of our resources. And I think that is all I have for you today. Again, these factors are just the factors that make up successful SARTs. So think of them as habits that make up successful teams. So if you have any questions, I'm happy to throw it back to Kim, but before I do that, this is my contact information. Again, I am one of the two Rural Projects Coordinators at the Sexual Violence Justice Institute. Please do reach out if you have any questions related to today's webinar, any of our resources, or seeking additional technical assistance or additional training for your SART. Again, my name is Fatima Hayoma. My email is F-J-A-Y-O-M-A at MNCASA.org. I am also available via phone at 651-288-7448. We have some extra time, so I'm not sure if there's opportunities or any questions people would like to ask. This is Kim Nash with the IAFN. We encourage any of the participants or attendees on today's call to type in some questions or comments in the chat box so that Fatima can help us address them. While some people may be formulating their questions, I have a question for you, Fatima. Can you talk a little bit about some strategies for SART if there's a particular core entity who isn't consistently coming to the table or participating in a SART? Yeah, that is probably our most asked TA question. So with that, we always talk about, you know, making sure you are building relationships before you maybe invite a member. So making sure that there's already trust between, or you're already beginning to build trust between each discipline or agency before you start inviting and including them in your meetings. But I know that is often a really common issue with SARTs is that they're having trouble maybe engaging new disciplines or new agencies to participate in the work. Additionally, apart from building that trust or working on building relationships outside of the SART, we also suggest maybe just starting and doing the work. So I know we talk about certain SARTs always needing certain discipline involvement, but sometimes it takes those disciplines time to see the changes actually happening for them to be bought into the work. I'm not sure if that answers your question, but that's something that we always talk about when we provide TA regarding that question. Yeah, that was great. Yeah, that was great. Thank you. I just know we get a lot of questions around it too. And I know that it's a difficult question to answer because oftentimes the answer is a very individualized answer depending on the community and the reason maybe that discipline isn't coming to the table. Well, I'm going to talk a little bit about some upcoming webinars that we have, but that certainly doesn't mean that we're not still taking questions, because we do still have about 15 minutes for questions. If you are not comfortable posting your question publicly, you're welcome to send your question to one of the hosts or the presenters that are listed on your screen. And Tammy, just so you know, Fatima, Tammy says she loves the idea of gathering community input. She doesn't believe that her SART has ever done this. And then another, it is, IFN is asking if any of the attendees today are from a FAST site, and we listed them there, if you could go ahead and just let us know in the chat that you are a part of one of the FAST sites. It's certainly okay if people are on this webinar who are not a part of the FAST sites. We're just curious to know if some of the attendees are. All right, again, I'm going to talk about our next upcoming webinar, but we're still taking questions. Our next webinar for the FAST grant is titled Safety for All, Addressing Intimate Partner Violence and Lethality, which will be presented by Dave Thomas, who is retired from the Montgomery County Police Department and currently a program manager at the International Association of Chiefs of Police. This next webinar will be held May 13th at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Registration is open on the SAFE TA website. All right, any other questions? Okay, while we're waiting for other questions or comments to come in, I want to give you a little bit of information about evaluations and for those of you who are interested in nursing CEs. Just as a reminder, you'll receive an email from Carrie Knadel with a link to the evaluation within the next day or so. Once you complete the evaluation, you'll be able to download a certificate of completion. Nurses, you should follow the instructions to be directed to an evaluation, particularly for nursing CE. All right, Fatima, do you have any closing thoughts for everyone? You've done quite a bit of work in this arena and I know you do quite a bit of technical assistance in answering questions and problem solving. Any last thoughts or suggestions or tips for our attendees? Some have been doing it for a while. Hopefully you were able to take back some of the information I shared to your teams or to your communities as you find buy-in or build buy-in for your SART. Again, all of our resources are available to you in the resource tab. Please feel free to use them. I think report is really great to read. I know that we have also a blog series based on the report that is more, I think, reader friendly for those who don't like to read longer reports. Again, all of the information that I shared today can be found somewhere on our website, whether it be in reports or different templates or resources that we have available. As I shared, please do feel free to reach out if you have any questions regarding sexual assault response team or multidisciplinary teamwork, whether it be troubleshooting or problem solving existing TA or also figuring out how to start a SART in your community. For those who are new to SART work or don't currently have a SART, on our website we do have a resource called the SART Starter Kit. That is a resource for folks who are new completely to SART work, whether it's their first time coordinating a team or it's their first time their community is having a SART. That resource includes a lot of information about how do you plan a mission or how do you create a mission statement, how do you create a vision statement, how do you set up a meeting agenda, or how do you write an MOU. For folks who are new to SART work or very new to SART work, I highly recommend that resource, which is available on our website. Thank you, Fatima. And I don't see any other questions coming in. We also want to remind you that IAFN is a technical assistance provider for all things SARTs. Certainly, the Sexual Violence Justice Institute is one of the entities that we can send people to if we're unable to thoroughly answer your questions. So there are lots of resources out there. I would just like to say thank you so much, Fatima. That was excellent information, and I'm sure going to be helpful to so many. We would also like to thank TA to TA for hosting us and their behind-the-scenes assistance.

SART 101

strategies for success

sexual assault response teams

phases of systems change

effective SARTs

shared vision and model

diverse membership

culture of learning

resources for information and support

community support

continuous improvement