The domestic violence program must have written policies or procedures on the following:
(1) Programs that provide emergency shelter must have procedures for the intake process, including that victims who are at immediate risk of harm or in immediate danger due to domestic violence must be given priority for emergency shelter;
(2) Confidentiality and protection of client records and communication;
(3) Nondiscrimination relating to staff, clients, and provision of services;
(4) The provision of bilingual and interpreter services to clients;
(5) Responding to calls from non English speaking and hearing impaired callers;
(6) Programs that are required to have a crisis hotline/helpline and use an answering service, or any other similar system to answer calls, must have procedures for providing training to the answering service staff and how you will monitor the services the answering service provides to your program;
(7) Responding to subpoenas and warrants;
(8) Reporting of child abuse as legally mandated;
(9) Client access to their files;
(10) Grievance procedure for clients;
(11) Prohibiting harassment of service recipients based on race, sexual orientation, gender identity (or expression), religion, and national origin, and procedures for addressing violations;
(12) Emergency procedures in the event of fire, disaster, and first aid, medical, or law enforcement intervention;
(13) Responding to disruptive or dangerous contact from abusers and other possible intruders or uninvited individuals requesting or seeking access to the domestic violence program;
(14) Records retention;
(15) Accounting procedures; and
(16) Personnel policies and procedures that include the following:
(a) Recruitment of staff and volunteers, including that programs recruit, to the extent feasible:
(i) Persons who are former victims of domestic violence; and
(ii) Persons from relevant communities to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services;
(b) Hiring;
(c) Promotion and termination of staff;
(d) Grievance procedure for staff; and
(e) Maintaining personnel and training files, including job descriptions for paid staff and volunteers.