September 19th, 2023 by
We’re excited to share several new resources that can help pediatric healthcare teams support intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors and their children. This includes updated clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), as well as training and practice resources from The National Health Resource Center at Futures Without Violence.
Pediatricians know that supporting parents and other caregivers is a critical part of how they support children’s health and wellbeing. Pediatric healthcare settings provide unique opportunities for families experiencing IPV to access support and resources. Research suggests that even when IPV survivors don’t see a doctor for themselves, they continue to bring their children to the pediatrician. Also, talking about IPV in the context of how it impacts children’s health and providing resources for IPV during a child’s health visit is something that most parents find acceptable.
It can be challenging to address IPV during a pediatric health visit. …
September 18th, 2023 by Esta Soler
Each year, back-to-school brings a mix of excitement and anxiety for children and families. This year, due to the pandemic, the epidemic of gun violence, and other factors, students are returning to school as we face a youth mental health crisis that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has called “the defining public health issue of our time.” LGBTQIA+ youth, racial and ethnic minorities, those traumatized by violence, youth with disabilities, and those in underserved communities are at particular risk.
That’s why, here at Futures Without Violence, we’re reaching out to help. Our Hanging Out or Hooking Up safety card urges teens and young adults to reflect on how they are treated by the people they date, and shows how to support friends experiencing relationship abuse.
July 25th, 2023 by Lisa James & Virginia Duplessis
There was a time when emergency department staff routinely treated domestic violence survivors and then sent them right back home to face further abuse, without the ability to offer referrals or other help.
When few OB/GYNs knew that pregnant women are at vastly elevated risk of homicide, often at the hands of a current or former partner.
When few physicians or nurses talked to young people about sexual coercion and rape.
For decades, Futures Without Violence has been working to change all that.
Our goal has been to ensure the health care community can become not just allies, but leaders, in the work to end abuse. And to support this change, we’ve created tools, trainings, and protocols that allow health care providers to support survivors of violence, promote prevention, and advance quality, equitable health care for all.…
June 28th, 2023 by Lonna Davis and DJ Peay
As members of the Children, Youth and Teens program, we’re proud to be part of the groundbreaking work Futures Without Violence has done for decades to prevent violence, create healthy families and communities, and facilitate healing for many of us who have been deeply impacted by violence.
This month, as we celebrate Pride, we’re also proud that our work includes partnering with and supporting LGBTQIA+ communities.
In the Children’s Program, we work to stop violence affecting children and youth and build conditions and experiences for them to thrive. This includes working with professionals to help them support LGBTQIA+ young people to feel safe, seen and loved, and to know that safety and love are possible for them in all kinds of relationships – with peers, community, romantic partners, and themselves
This work is both an imperative and a personal commitment for both of us.
Lonna, a queer mother raising two …
June 15th, 2023 by Esta Soler
As Father’s Day approaches, everyone at Futures Without Violence thanks the dads, granddads, uncles, father figures, and all the men who are helping us transform culture that too often emboldens harassment, assault, and abuse.
Many years ago when I began doing this work, I realized that much of the language being used in the urgent effort to prevent and respond to the crisis of domestic violence painted all men as the problem.
But I, along with the pioneering women and men I was privileged to have as partners, knew many men who wanted to be part of the solution. So our team at FUTURES began the important work of engaging men. We talked to supportive men from all walks of life – and more importantly, we listened. We made sure to invite, not indict them. And with their help, and help from allies who had been making hard-fought progress for …
