Reading time: 2 minutes Please circulate the following message as widely as appropriate. If you received this message as a forward and would like to be added to our email distribution list, please follow the “Join Our Mailing List” link below. The information in this message contains references to domestic violence. If you or someone you know faces domestic violence, you can call the national domestic violence hotline at 800-799-7233 or text the word BEGIN to 8878. It takes a great deal of courage and strength for a survivor of domestic violence to flee their abuser. Those who perpetrate domestic violence do so through physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, and/or financial abuse. This abuse is specifically intended to disempower the target of the abuse while giving the survivor dependency upon the abuser. I can only imagine facing increasing threats of abuse should I attempt to flee this violence, and making the decision to do so in spite of the risk! The hours around the time a survivor chooses to flee and acts upon that choice is the most dangerous and the most frightening. These are the times when most have their first encounters with a domestic violence shelter. They have come to feel supported and be kept safe. Those of us who use service dogs regularly face discrimination by being turned away from other businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, and retail stores; however, if a domestic violence shelter turns someone away because of their service dog, the survivor may have no choice but to return to their abuser. Imagine how their abuser will react when they come back after fleeing? Both the survivor and their service dog are in even greater danger as a warning to not flee again! The abuser is likely to become even more emboldened now that the shelter has limited the survivor’s options. Avoiding or quickly resolving service animal access challenges is as simple as creating sound, written, legally compliant policies and protocols concerning service animals and ensuring all staff, contractors, and volunteers read and understand the policies and protocols. Without sound guidance, including specific written policies and protocols, shelter staff may turn to policies and practices more familiar to them, such as the shelter’s pet policies and protocols or, lacking such, what they believe these policies and protocols ought to be. Coupling the failure to create specific service animal policies with the inaccurate online misinformation found while researching this issue, the need for a comprehensive written policy and protocol statement becomes evident. Absent proper guidance and accurate information, the failure to develop such detailed written policies and protocols can lead to well-meaning, unintentional, but nevertheless, illegal discrimination. This discrimination, perpetrated by people in positions of power and influence over marginalized populations, leads to internalized disability stigma, which exacerbates cross-sectional health, wellness, and safety disparities. It is in the best interest of both the domestic violence shelter and the survivor seeking safe shelter to have compliant policies and specific protocols to guide shelter personnel. Advocates for Service Animal Partners has created a training manual to assist domestic violence shelters in the creation of sound, compliant policies concerning service animals. This discussion is not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of every eventuality one might face in a domestic violence shelter. No such resource can do so. What is offered here is broad guidance and illustrative examples. The settings are meant to be general principles to be applied to most circumstances in a domestic violence shelter. Our goal is to provide enough information to understand the principles so staff can apply these guidelines to any situation that arises. Each situation must be addressed on a case-by-case basis, and decisions should be compliant not only with the law and your code of ethics but with the best interest of the individual you are there to serve. Should a situation occur needing more expert guidance, Advocates for Service Animal Partners offers a dedicated hotline to answer questions from our supporting partners to apply state and federal laws to a particular circumstance. This document is not written from a theoretical, imaginary, or fictional perspective; rather, it is based upon actual interactions with survivors who use service animals and the domestic violence shelters from which they sought safety and support. As you read this information, consider how your shelter staff would respond to some of the specific challenges brought forth in these pages. This technical assistance manual is scheduled for release in mid-August. You can request your copy of this invaluable guidance by visiting our "Become a Partner" section. Please indicate in the comments section that you are ordering your copy of “Service Animals in Domestic Violence Shelters”. If you need more information or specific guidance, please feel free to reach out to us. Advocates for Service Animal Partners Inc. (ASAP) 386-ASAP411 (386-272-7411) Advoc...@gmail.com https://ServiceAnimals.info | 
