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Indiana Domestic Violence Coordination Framework

DV coordination and partnership guidelines for Indiana-based shelters and agencies.

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STATE PROFILES

Indiana

Regional networks

Indiana’s domestic violence response landscape is organized through a mix of statewide entities, regional collaborations, and county-level partnerships. Agencies commonly align regional work with judicial districts, workforce regions, or existing health and human services catchment areas.

Typical regional coordination structures in Indiana include:

Statewide coalition–anchored networks
- Coalition-led workgroups that convene domestic violence programs, shelters, legal providers, and social service agencies.
- Issue-specific subcommittees (e.g., housing coordination, lethality assessment implementation, rural access, language access).
- Use of statewide meetings to align funding strategies, training calendars, and policy positions.
Regional service coordination hubs
- Lead agencies (often larger service providers) that coordinate referral pathways and shared protocols for neighboring counties.
- Service-area agreements that clarify which counties are primarily served by which organizations.
- Joint case conferencing models with clear boundaries and confidentiality expectations.
County- and court-centered networks
- Formal and informal partnerships linking civil courts, prosecutors, probation, and domestic violence service providers.
- Coordination around protective order processes, court-based advocacy, and information handoffs between court partners and community agencies.
- Regularly scheduled coordination meetings to review trends, not individual cases.
Cross-system collaborative bodies
- Task forces that include law enforcement, health systems, child- and family-serving agencies, housing authorities, and community-based organizations.
- Working groups focused on specific goals such as coordinated entry to housing, language access, or transportation solutions in rural areas.
- Use of written charters or MOUs to define membership, meeting cadence, shared priorities, and decision-making processes.

For agencies operating in multiple regions of Indiana, it is useful to:

Map all current regional coalitions, task forces, and workgroups in which staff participate.
Identify where duplicative meeting structures can be streamlined through joint sessions or shared agendas.
Clarify which staff represent the organization in each forum and how information is reported back internally.

Statewide partners often align Indiana work with broader national technical assistance resources and cross-state initiatives. Additional coordination resources are available through the broader ecosystem hosted at DV.Support.

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria in Indiana partnerships generally relate to organizational role, capacity, and compliance with applicable standards, rather than individual case circumstances. When developing MOUs or partnership frameworks, entities commonly specify:

Organizational eligibility for regional participation

Organization type
- Nonprofit domestic violence programs, shelters, and advocacy organizations.
- Government agencies at state, county, municipal, or tribal levels.
- Legal aid providers, civil legal clinics, and bar-related pro bono programs.
- Health and behavioral health providers with a defined domestic violence coordination role.
- Community-based organizations that provide complementary services (housing, employment, transportation, language access).
Programmatic capacity
- Established staff roles for partnership participation (e.g., designated liaison, data contact).
- Minimum participation expectations for meetings, trainings, and workgroups.
- Operational procedures that support coordination (e.g., referral policies, documentation protocols).
Policy and compliance alignment
- Commitment to applicable confidentiality, privacy, and ethical standards.
- Adherence to nondiscrimination obligations and access policies.
- Willingness to participate in basic reporting or data contribution as outlined in local agreements.

Eligibility for specific coordination initiatives

Many Indiana initiatives define narrower participation criteria based on project scope, such as:

Grant-funded collaborations
- Lead applicant and subrecipient roles defined by funding announcements.
- Requirements for financial management and basic data collection capacity.
- Geographic service area commitments tied to the award.
Data or information-sharing projects
- Ability to comply with technical and procedural safeguards described in project documents.
- Participation in training related to data quality and privacy.
- Agreement to use shared data only for specified coordination, planning, or evaluation purposes.
Training and technical assistance networks
- Designation of point persons to attend sessions and disseminate information internally.
- Commitment to integrate relevant practices into local procedures where appropriate.
- Participation in periodic needs assessments or feedback processes.

When organizations in Indiana develop or revise partnership eligibility criteria, it is useful to document:

The purpose and scope of the network or project.
Minimum and preferred characteristics for participating agencies.
Onboarding steps for new partners and conditions for continued participation.
Processes for reviewing and updating eligibility over time.

Data-sharing notes

Indiana partnerships use a range of models for sharing information for coordination, planning, and evaluation. Approaches vary by region and project; agencies typically align information-sharing with existing privacy and funding requirements while emphasizing limited, purposeful use of data.

Typical data elements used in coordination

Aggregate service data
- Counts of individuals or households served within a period.
- High-level demographics (e.g., age ranges, general geographic areas) in non-identifiable form.
- Service types provided (e.g., emergency housing, legal information, civil court accompaniment).
System-level coordination indicators
- Referral volumes and directions between agencies.
- Service capacity and waitlist trends.
- Utilization of specific coordination tools, such as standardized referral forms.
Process and performance measures
- Time between referral and first contact from a partner agency.
- Completion rates for specific coordinated interventions.
- Participation in cross-agency training and protocol implementation.

Operational practices in Indiana collaborations

Written data-sharing understandings
- Use of MOUs or similar documents to describe the purpose and scope of data exchanges.
- Clarification of which data are shared in aggregate only and which, if any, might involve client-level information under defined conditions.
- Procedures for revisiting and updating data elements over time.
Minimum necessary and role-based access
- Sharing only the level of detail required to support coordination objectives.
- Defining which staff roles may access shared datasets or dashboards.
- Documented processes for requesting additional information where needed.
Technical and procedural safeguards
- Use of secure channels for transmitting reports or data extracts.
- Retention and destruction practices aligned with organizational policy and project agreements.
- Designated data contacts at each partner agency for managing questions, corrections, or updates.
Use of data for planning and improvement
- Regular review of aggregate data in regional meetings to identify gaps or overlaps in services.
- Development of shared indicators for monitoring multi-agency initiatives.
- Documentation of decisions made based on data trends, such as re-aligning referral routes or adjusting hours of operation.

As Indiana entities refine their data-sharing practices, many adopt templates and checklists to ensure clarity on purposes, roles, data elements, and review timelines, while remaining consistent with their own internal policies and funding requirements.