The Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence (The Alliance) is a 501 (c)(3) statewide coalition of nine individual sexual assault crisis programs – or “member centers”– that encompass all corners of the state with headquarters in East Hartford, Connecticut. Since its founding in 1982, The Alliance has grown to be a pivotal organization in the movement to end sexual violence and expand high-quality trauma-informed services to sexual violence survivors throughout the state of Connecticut.
The Alliance is proud of the many strengths it has built over the nearly 40 years of its work: a strong reputation as the go-to expert on issues related to sexual violence, a solid funding base of government support that increased even during the recent years of government cutbacks, a victim-centered focus throughout its work, a consistent track record of legislative wins, robust community partnerships and alliances, a new prevention-focused brand, outreach to and engagement of men and marginalized communities, high-quality and active training and education efforts, significant work in the Latinx community and on college campuses, significant investments in task forces and collaborations with the justice and health care systems and a nationally-recognized post-conviction victim advocate program.
The Board of Directors of The Alliance now seeks a new executive to build on its considerable strengths, successfully address its challenges, work toward securing an even more resilient future and lead the effort to realize its mission to end sexual violence. The new leader of this flagship organization will take the reins at an exciting time and has the opportunity to lead The Alliance to a new level of leadership in the movement to end sexual violence.
Overview of Programs and Operations
The mission of the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence is to create communities free of sexual violence and to provide culturally affirming, trauma-informed advocacy, prevention, and intervention services centered on the voices of survivors.
The Alliance works to fulfill its mission through the following core activities:
Support of nine member centers
The Alliance supports its nine member centers by providing them with pass-through funding, training, and coaching and advising. It also designs and promotes standards for member centers and key stakeholders. Each member center provides intervention and advocacy services to people of all ages through 24-hour crisis hotlines in English and Spanish, crisis counseling, safety planning and accompaniment, advocacy and emotional support through the criminal justice and health care systems. These services operate free of charge 365 days per year.
Public policy advocacy
A keen focus of The Alliance is on impacting state policy related to sexual violence. To that end, a full-time policy director, with strategic support from the executive director, is very active in advocating for system change through legislative action.
Post-Conviction Victim Services Program
The Alliance has developed a statewide Post-Conviction Victim Advocate Program that provides support to victims after their offenders return to the community. This program is nationally recognized for its highly collaborative model that brings together probation and parole officers, sex offender treatment providers and victim advocates.
Prevention through education, training and outreach programs
The Alliance is the state’s leading provider of sexual violence prevention education and training programs with specialized campaigns and programs for men and youth that have reached over 50,000 people throughout the state each year. The Alliance’s new Training and Advocacy Center focuses on professional skills and best practice for certified sexual assault crisis counselors and advocates, first responders and allies.
Legal Services Program
The Alliance recently acquired the Victim Rights Center of Connecticut, or VRCCT, which brought legal services of four attorneys in-house to survivors and capacity building to member centers to help assess the legal needs of the victims they serve.
Movement building
The Alliance spearheads caucuses and councils where sexual assault victim advocates and allied professionals can discuss and learn from their unique perspectives, identify emerging trends and make recommendations on policy and community issues: Queer Caucus Against Sexual Assault, Women of Color Caucus Against Sexual Assault, Men’s Advisory Council, Member Advisory Committee and Victim Survivor Advisory Council. The Alliance also continues to coordinate the Connecticut College Consortium to End Sexual Violence, a partnership between private and public universities and The Alliance and its member centers.
Approximately two thirds of The Alliance’s 6.7 million-dollar budget is passed through to support front line member center services. The additional funds support statewide operations and programs. The majority of The Alliance’s revenue is from state and federal government grants including Department of Justice and Office for Victims of Crime funds.
The Alliance is governed by a 12-member board of directors. Board composition includes ethnic, gender, age and racial diversity, as well as expertise in communications, marketing, higher education, sexual assault and trauma-informed interventions, psychotherapy, government relations, workforce development and risk assessment. The Alliance employs 31 staff that include a team of 14 post-conviction victim services advocates.
Executive Transition
The Alliance’s executive director of seven years is exiting the organization to pursue a new professional opportunity. An eight-member search committee comprised of both board and staff members have assumed the responsibility of managing the search.
In order to support this important transition in leadership, The Alliance’s board engaged the services of TSNE MissionWorks to facilitate an executive transition process that would be thoughtful and inclusive. Participants in the process include the entire Alliance staff and board, as well as directors and managers from the member centers, and a number of community partners/stakeholders. The Alliance’s strengths, challenges, priorities and more were identified through this process, and this information will inform the organization’s next leader, with the goal of ensuring a successful executive transition and success of The Alliance well into the future.
Established in 1984, The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI) is a nonprofit, community-based planning and organizing entity rooted in the Roxbury/North Dorchester neighborhoods of Boston. The Board of Directors of DSNI has launched a search and is actively seeking the next executive leader to build upon the organization’s esteemed history, community legacy and successes to date. This is a compelling opportunity for an innovative, collaborative and culturally astute executive level nonprofit leader with a deep understanding of community and urban place-based initiatives and a desire to lead and facilitate sustainable growth and success for all DSNI endeavors, its residents, and community partners.
Organization
DSNI’s mission is to empower Dudley residents to organize, plan for, create and control a vibrant, diverse and high-quality neighborhood in collaboration with community partners. The organization was born out of the desire of residents to reclaim and take control of their neighborhood which at the time was suffering from illegal dumping, lack of city services, and overall disinvestment and neglect caused by local and national policies that encouraged redlining, speculation, and segregated housing patterns.
DSNI’s strategic plan focuses on Development without Displacement with robust objectives that include getting additional land and development under community control, supporting resident leadership to ensure community priorities and benefits are reflected in local development projects, and utilizing creative placemaking strategies to strengthen community voice and participation in development planning processes. The organization is also focused on advocacy efforts at a local and city-wide level to create affordable housing and economic opportunities for low-income families.
As part of the recent designation of the Upham’s Corner neighborhood as an Arts Innovation District, and the City of Boston’s decision to select the neighborhood to begin implementation of the Imagine Boston 2030 strategic plan, DSNI has been selected as the City’s lead partner. This will ensure efforts to prevent displacement, to maintain housing affordability and to support small business owners. The vision is that the Dudley neighborhood sustains itself as a vibrant urban village where low- and moderate-income families can thrive and prosper and enjoy the benefits of combined efforts to revitalize the community.
For more information about DSNI and programs visit the website: www.dsni.org
Opportunity
The Executive Director (ED) oversees the overall strategy, business, programs and operations of DSNI. The ED is responsible for leading staff, community volunteers and strategic partners toward achievement of DSNI’s mission and strategic goals, and:
- Directs all fundraising efforts and financial functions
- Supports all board functions and operations
- Oversees program design, implementation, evaluation and quality
- Recommends and manages annual budget and financial functions
- Oversees real estate and asset management functions
- Manages human capital and resources for DSNI
- Represents the organization externally
The new leader will join DSNI at a critical time of complex challenges and dynamic opportunities. Rents and housing prices in Roxbury and Dorchester are rising at a higher rate than other Boston neighborhoods. The destabilizing impact of the real estate market and the displacement of many long-term residents, threaten to negatively transform the community for generations to come.
The ED also oversees and supports the strategic direction of Dudley Neighbors Incorporated (DNI) Community Land Trust, the subsidiary organization of DSNI that moves forward the community’s vision of resident control of land and permanently affordable housing.
