Primary Prevention:Primary Prevention:Working Together for a Working Together for a Violence-free Future!Violence-free Future!

A large portion of the following presentation was created by the DELTA

Training Subcommittee. Their commitment to creating an informative

and accessible primary prevention presentation that was made available

for DELTA collaborative states is appreciated greatly by FCADV staff.

Thank you to theDELTA Training Subcommittee!

What will it take in communities across the country to create the social change necessary to end domestic violence?

We cannot stop the overall flow of violence in women’s and girl’s lives by running shelters or men’s programs for batterers alone. We must address the root causes of domestic violence directly. With such a monumental task at hand, the full participation of our communities is required.

Donna Garske

Founder, Transforming Communities

The Current Reality:Assessing The Social Fabric

The Scope of the Abuse

Around the world, at least 1 in 3 women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime.

Intimate partners commit 40-70 percent of homicides of women worldwide.

Worldwide

Previous & CurrentApproaches to Ending DV

• 1970s Women start speaking out against rape and battering

• Mid to late 1970s Needs for individual safety recognized– Shift from private safe houses to shelters

• Mid to late 1980s and forward- demand for accountability in the system– Interaction with other systems leads to demand

for more coordinated community responses

What we learned from theWhat we learned from theBattered Women’s MovementBattered Women’s Movement

• The needs of the women and girls facing violence are diverse and complex

• Violence is a learned behavior– Batterer behavior changes when they decide to

change and when appropriate societal/community mechanisms are in place that hold them accountable for the violence they perpetrate

• Working with men and boys is essential to ending men’s violence against women.

Building the Loom:Building the Loom:Definitions & FrameworksDefinitions & Frameworks

What Is Prevention?

• In public health, prevention is activities which reduce the burden of mortality or burden from disease or health

• Prevention/social change is a long-term process that requires change at various levels of the community to prevent intimate partner domestic violence before it occurs

Prevention is Not

• A one-time program or event• One skill-building session• One protocol

Prevention ISPrevention IS• An on-going process, requiring

leadership and commitment• Integrated into community infrastructure

Prevention & Intervention:Both Essential

Prevention & Intervention: Both Essential

Intervention and primary prevention should complement, not compete with,

each other.

Preventing domestic violence before it occurs (primary prevention)

Preventing a re-occurrence of domestic violence (intervention)

+Prevention

Prevention continuum within each community

KABBsKABBs

• Knowledge

• Attitudes

• Beliefs

• Behaviors

Knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that come from institutional and day-to-day norms.

Prevention of Domestic Violenceas a

Public Health Issue

• WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY, Geneva, 1996

Resolution WHA 49.25:

DECLARED violence a leading worldwide public health problem– REQUESTED Member States to:

• Initiate public health activities that use a gender-analysis perspective, measure program effectiveness, and pay particular attention to community-based initiatives

• Present a plan of action for progress towards a science-based public health approach to violence prevention

The Public Health Approach to Prevention of Domestic Violence

Develop and Test

Prevention Strategies

Disseminate Effective

Strategies

Identify Risk and Protective

Factors

Define the Problem

The Social Ecological Model

Individual Relationship Community Society

Factors at each level of the social Factors at each level of the social ecology contribute to the ecology contribute to the perpetration of domestic violence in perpetration of domestic violence in our society.our society.

Why Prevention?

• Adolescents are influenced by many factors that support or condone domestic violence. Each of these factors need to be addressed in a consistent, systematic, and systemic manner.

• This recognizes that changes in the environment and long-term programs are needed.

An Example:A Comprehensive Approach

• Examples of this approach include:– Individual level

• Curriculums, counseling, mentoring

– Relationship• Support programs, mentoring, parent training

– Community• Social norms, community education, policy changes

– Societal• Media campaigns, policy changes

What Will It Take?

• Social Change• Collaboration

• Community mobilization• Leadership development

• Capacity building

DELTADELTA•Domestic violence prevention

•Enhancement and

•Leadership

•Through

•Alliances

DELTA means change

Who is DELTADELTA?

Why is this important for prevention programming?

• Community readiness – motivation and willingness

• Community capacity – ability to identify, address, and mobilize to prevent IPV/SV

• Community context – institutional/organizational culture; location; ethnic/racial identity; politics; religious identity; social context

The Men's Focus Group is talking with the younger kids about stereotypes.

The older group and the Men's Focus Group played a co-ed basketball game.

The Boys & Girls Club youth with the Men's Focus Group after the basketball game.

Miguel Ibarra and Zlinic Henry