Supporting Organizational Sustainability – SOS Institute

The Supporting Organizational Sustainability Institute (SOS Institute) offers resources, technical assistance, and hosts interactive, multi-day trainings to help U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) grantees, partner organizations, and community-based organizations, enhance their programming, organizational infrastructure and capacity.

Started in 2010, the SOS Institute has a national focus, targeting community-based organizations responding to all forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

SOS Institute Goal 

The overarching goal of the SOS Institute is to provide participants with core organizational competency through workshops, webinars, and tools that enhance their skills and improve their knowledge to maintain and sustain their organizations.

SOS Topic Areas on organizational development and capacity building include (but are not limited to):

• Review of mission, core values, and healthy organizational culture
• Strategic planning and short and long-term planning, to better serve survivors, including succession planning
• Managing change and growth
• Tools for board recruitment, development, governance, and engagement
• Promoting staff leadership, professional growth, and wellness
• Trauma-informed and anti-oppressive supervision
• Internal equity building strategies
• Communications, internal and external
• Financial management and leadership (internal controls, policies, and procedures)
• Organizational infrastructure needs assessment
• Strategic and equitable partnerships
• Human resources, including values-aligned internal policy development

See “Resources and Webinars” below!

Check out this flyer for more information about our technical assistance and other SOS Institute offerings and feel free to share!

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For information, resources, or technical assistance support, please contact Futures Without Violence, Attention: Mónica Arenas, E-mail: marenas@futureswithoutviolence.org

Professional Leadership & Advancement Network (PLAN) Program, a seven-week education series for executive directors including a blend of live virtual and self-paced sessions, group and individual activities, peer exchange, one-on-one technical assistance with experts in the field, and implementation planning. PLAN is an opportunity to engage with other survivor-serving organizations across the country and foster leadership skills rooted in the values of the anti-violence movement.

Applications for the PLAN 2023 cohort are now closed– please join our mailing list and select the preference “Leadership and Professional Development” to receive updates regarding future cohorts and additional leadership development opportunities and tools for staff across all levels of the organization. 

This cohort is part of a project entitled the SOS (Supporting Organizational Sustainability) Institute, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

This project is supported by Grant No. 15JOVW-21-GK-02206-MUMU, awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

Contact alarson@futureswithoutviolence.org with any questions.

Recent Webinar Series:

• Developing an Engaged Board of Directors to Advance Equity
  • The board of directors play an important role in the success of survivor-serving organizations, including advancing equity values.  Transitions and adaptations due to the pandemic have encouraged new approaches for board engagement and expansion with an equity lens. This includes relationship with the executive director, board recruitment for representation of people being served, and adaptation of policies that encourage equitable practices.

• Living Our Values:  Supervision and Feedback for Survivor-Serving Organizations
  • Part 1: Supportive Staff Supervision:  December 9, 2021
  • Part 2: Giving and Receiving Feedback: December 16, 2021
  • Part 3: Question and Answer Dialogue: June 9, 2022

COVID-19 Resources:

• Considerations in Adapting Organizational Infrastructure Within Survivor-Serving Organizations Due to the Pandemic
  • This document contains general tips and considerations for adapting infrastructure, recommendations for staff in leadership roles, and resources that may be helpful.
• Resources on Health Crisis Response for Domestic & Sexual Violence Programs
  • This resource includes tips and resources for survivor-service organizations to utilize during the health crisis.

Webinars and resources on organizational capacity building, organized by FUTURES:

• Organizational Resiliency in Managing Challenges within Survivor-Serving Organizations
  • This round table webinar includes a panel discussions  on strategies and resources to help build and sustain organizational resiliency. Resource list.
• Strategies to Enhance Employee Resilience and Engagement within Survivor-Serving Organizations, May 2020
  • Strategies that survivor-centered organizations can utilize to attract and engage staff, mitigate burnout, and build strength and collective resilience.  Staff Engagement Toolkit

• Core Values Within Domestic & Sexual Assault Organizations 
  • Strategies to keep core values alive, and align them to workplace practices, systems, and culture. Resource Toolkit & Guide.
• Support for your Organizational Infrastructure: What We Can Do For You
  • Learn about resources and technical assistance support. Also, organizational practices and leadership styles that are key in maintaining and leading a healthy/successful organization.
• Workplace Policies and How they Support or Contradict Core Values
  • Importance of having policies that reflect the organizational mission and values & key components of a policy on domestic violence and sexual assault in the workplace.  Resources.
• Providing Support Through Organizational Transitions & Transition Curve Toolkit with Resources
  • Strategies to manage and facilitate successful organizational transitions within a DV/SA organization, and tools and resources.
• Succession Planning within Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Organizations, Part 2 & Ten Actions/Resources
  •  Ten key actions for a departure defined (planned) succession plan & showcase of  succession planning and boarding experience.
• Succession Planning Within Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Organizations
  • Key elements of a succession plan, process to plan for leadership transition for the near and distant future & tools and resources.
• Compassion Fatigue & Self-Care for Individuals and Organizations
  • Strategies to enhance health, healing, and stress reduction for individuals and organizations.
• Leading with Emotional Intelligence
  • How to apply emotional intelligence skills in the daily management of a domestic violence/sexual assault organization.
• The Benefits of Mentorship: Empower, Lead, Succeed in Organizations Serving Survivors of Violence
  • Mentorship strategies and resources for individuals who work to end domestic and sexual violence and stalking.
• Navigating Fund Development Strategies During Transition
  • Strategies to prepare for organizational transitions.
• Overview of Nonprofit Digital Strategy
  • Basics information on managing your organization’s digital presence, including sample strategies from two organizations .
• Assembling the Pieces: Tools to Build an Effective Board
  • Approaches to building and sustaining a the board of directors, including recruitment, engagement, and communication.
• Measuring Trauma-Informed Practice: Tools for Organizations
  • Strategies for implementing trauma-informed principles and practices.
• Secondary Traumatic Stress 
  • Similarities and differences between burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary and vicarious trauma & self-care strategies, for the work and home environment.

Resources

• Considerations in Adapting Organizational Infrastructure Within Survivor-Serving Organizations Due to the Pandemic
  • This document contains general tips and considerations for adapting infrastructure, recommendations for staff in leadership roles, and resources that may be helpful.
• Resources on Health Crisis Response for Domestic & Sexual Violence Programs
  • This resource includes tips and resources for survivor-service organizations to utilize during the health crisis.

• Mini Strategic Planning Process Toolkit 
  • This toolkit can be useful for planning and leading discussions to prioritize, reach consensus on direction for the organization, or other decision making needs.  It includes a process for developing goals, creating an action plan, and planning resources.
• Ten Strategies to Enhance Employee Resilience and Engagement Within Survivor-Serving Organizations
  • This tool provides key practices that leaders of organizations can incorporate to build strength, resilience, and engagement for individual employees and the entire organizational body. These efforts will enhance organizational health and sustainability and thus, improve outcomes for survivors.
• Mission and Core Values Toolkit
  • This resource includes activities and resources to help your organization examine your mission and core values and check for their continued relevance and connection to all aspects of the organizational operation.
• Ten Actions for a Successful Leadership Succession & Resources
  • List of key strategies and resources for planning a “planned” leadership succession.
• Organizational Transition Toolkit
  • This tool can support organization leaders to facilitate successful transitions.  It includes a guide and a list of resources.
• Organizational Transition Toolkit – Instructional Video
  • This five minute video includes an overview and  introduction to the “Organizational Transition Toolkit.
• Organizational Review and Needs Assessment Form 
  • This form can help organizations assess the infrastructure and identify strengths and gaps, as well as request for support.
• List of Resources on Organizational Capacity Building with Links, Compiled by FUTURES
  • Extensive list of resources for organizational capacity building, including leadership, staff development and wellness,  internal and external communication, and board strategies,