Blueprint for Safety

SPIP believes that appropriately and effectively addressing domestic violence is a life and death matter.

We further believe the elimination of battering requires continual critical examination of our own work, society’s attitudes and system practices.

To that end, in 2008 with the strength of our partnerships, we were motivated to push our collective work even further - to reach more victims and create policies and processes that fit the horrendous impact and complexity of domestic abuse crimes. It was an effort made possible by the generous support of the Minnesota Legislature and was grounded in what we were doing well in St. Paul/Ramsey County and the best practices of domestic violence programs and jurisdictions across the nation.

The City of St. Paul, the St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (SPIP), and Praxis International worked together - bringing key people from within the Justice System, national experts, community-based advocates and victims of domestic violence to create a model that would further challenge and improve the response to domestic violence - from 911 to final case disposition. In 2010 that vision was realized through the creation and implementation of the St. Paul and National Blueprint for Safety.

The Blueprint is built on six principles of intervention that research tells us make for an effective response in DV cases:

1. Adhere to an interagency approach and collective intervention goals
2. Build attention to the context and severity of abuse into each intervention
3. Recognize that most domestic violence is a patterned crime requiring continuing engagement with victims and offenders
4. Establish sure and swift consequences for continued abuse
5. Use the power of the criminal justice system to send messages of help and accountability
6. Act in ways that reduce unintended consequences and the disparity of impact on victims and offenders

Since establishing the Blueprint for Safety in 2010:

• Police can better determine who is being victimized and who is perpetrating the violence
• Incidents and behaviors are more skillfully connected to reveal abusers’ lethality and
  potential risks to the victims
• Cases are better prioritized, dangerous Gone on Arrivals have significantly greater arrest and charging rates, and evidence collection and victim engagement has greatly improved
• With the Blueprint for Safety, each arm of the justice system is better positioned to
  identify, assess and document risk and danger at each phase of case processing, and effectively build upon one another’s work
• And each arm of the justice system strengthens their partnerships with community-based advocates, who keep the real lived experiences of victims at the forefront of all the Blueprint’s work.

The Blueprint for Safety award is to honor an individual who is selected by the Blueprint Steering Committee, whose dedication and work towards ending domestic abuse reflects the collective approach and spirit of the Blueprint for Safety. Each year the Blueprint for Safety Award is presented to a recipient at SPIP’s annual Domestic Violence Awareness Event held in October.