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DASO Obtains FOCUS Accreditation

FOCUS provides accreditation to service organizations that show exemplary service

WOODSTOCK - Domestic Abuse Services Oxford is being praised for the work they do through a highly coveted accreditation.

Executive Director of DASO Rhonda Hendel says obtaining FOCUS accreditation was no easy task to accomplish. "There were five people here for three days. So they met with practically every staff member, board members, a lot of the women who use our services met with them. They also had sent out surveys that for the last few months before they came women were filling out and those were kept confidential from us - those went right to FOCUS for them to review."

FOCUS gives accreditation to community service organizations who show exemplary levels of dedication to the people they serve and are effective in the work they do. Hendel says they were very thorough in their investigation. "They were very impressed by our strategic plan which is a big item, but they also looked at everything from how we keep our HR records and our interviewing and our risk assessments and safety planning that we do to small things like how we handle petty cash and our tax receipts, so it was everything that they look at."

This accreditation will stand for at least four years. At that time DASO can be reviewed again.

Hendel says she is so proud of all of the staff who work tirelessly at DASO. "It means a lot for us as an agency. It's a validation of we know we do good work but now an outside agency has come in and said, yeah you do really good work. We got 97% which is really high for a first accreditation. We're a small agency and size does matter when it coems to accreditation. We only have two managers."

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