H OTLINE D ATA C OLLECTION F ORM VAdata: Virginia’s Sexual and Domestic Violence Data Collection System

W HAT IS A H OTLINE C ALL A hotline call is any call were your provide crisis/support services by phone to a victim, family/friend of victim, parent/guardian of victim, or perpetrator. You will use the hotline form for all direct service calls, even those that come in through your business line.

I NFORMATION W E C OLLECT ON H OTLINE Caller Demographics Information on Presenting Sexual and/or Domestic Violence Relationship of Caller to Victim Type of Sexual and/or Domestic Violence Experienced Perpetrator Information

I NFORMATION C OLLECTED CONT. Risk Assessment Services and Referrals Provided Length of Hotline Call

W HY W E C OLLECT W HAT W E D O Demographics To show that sexual and domestic violence affects lots of different people Also, information such as, age, race, disability status, etc. may influence your service delivery Presenting Sexual and Domestic Violence Experience Allows specific information to be collected on both experiences for victims who have experienced both sexual and domestic violence

W HY W E C OLLECT W HAT W E D O Risk Assessment We include this on hotline because it is a reminder of potential safety risks with sexual and/or domestic violence We also hope that is promotes risk assessment and safety planning for ALL hotline calls Services and Referrals Capture the remarkable work you all do

I NFORMATION R EQUIRED TO S UBMIT F ORM For all hotline calls, these fields are required: Date Staff Name Gender Race/Ethnicity (you can select unknown) Approximate Age (it’s OK to estimate) Locality (you can select unknown) Referral Source (you can select unknown) At least one service Length of Call

I NFORMATION R EQUIRED CONT. For hotline calls with a presenting sexual and/or domestic violence experience, these fields are required: Relationship of Caller to Victim Type of Sexual and/or Domestic Violence Relationship of Perpetrator to Victim (unknown option available) Please note: all other perpetrator information is optional and need only be included if known

Q UESTIONS A BOUT H OTLINE What about calls from allied professionals about a specific victim? If the allied professional is seeking general information, then please complete a Community Engagement form. If they are addressing a specific victim or family, then proceed with a hotline form If you choose to report calls from allied professional on the hotline form, you will need to complete the demographics section using the allied professional’s demographics

Q UESTIONS CONT. Do we fill out a form for crisis calls that are not related to a sexual and/or domestic violence situation? Yes. There are places on the form to indicate that it is not a sexual and/or domestic violence related call.

Q UESTIONS CONT. What about all the other calls we receive on the hotline, such as requests for general information on our services, materials, donations, etc.? Record these calls on the Community Engagement form

Q UESTIONS C ONT. What about hang up calls? We let local agencies decide how to handle recording these calls. Two options to consider: 1. You don’t record the call since there was no information or service provided 2. Record as a non-sv and non-dv hotline call

I MPORTANT N OTE : On the Hotline Form, you will see these questions: Please respond to these questions for ALL survivors who request emergency housing/shelter (including those who may be from out of your area or who may not be in imminent danger). It is crucial that we document when survivors are seeking shelter but those shelters are full.

HELP OPTIONS You may note this symbol by several fields on the form: Click on the symbol to receive information about the field.

H ELP ! T HINGS ARE NOT WORKING AS I EXPECTED If you think something is wrong with VAdata, please always call us! We don’t use VAdata every day (like you do), so sometimes the only way we know that something is broken is when you tell us. We also like to talk with you by phone when you have questions, because we usually want a whole lot of information that you might not know we need.

W HO DO I CONTACT FOR HELP ? Please contact your assigned SDVA If they are unable to respond to your immediate concern, they will contact the VAdata staff for support.

R EALLY, I T ’ S OK TO ASK The Action Alliance staff urge you to contact us whenever you have a question or a concern about VAdata. We have a saying at the Action Alliance, “there are no stupid VAdata questions.”

C OMMENTS AND S UGGESTIONS This is a great place to make a suggestion or request support that does not need immediate attention. If you need immediate attention, please give us a call. Often we will need additional information from you, so a call is usually more expedient than an .