Few Executives Realize Employees Face Abuse

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Seven in ten corporate executives do not perceive domestic violence to be a major issue at their companies, and nearly two in three believe its impact in their workplace is minimal – yet one in four female employees identifies as a victim or survivor of domestic violence, and 22 percent say that they have worked with a colleague who was a victim.

Those are among the findings from two new surveys, Corporate Leaders on Domestic Violence and America’s Workforce on Domestic Violence, commissioned by Safe Horizon, the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence (CAEPV) and Liz Claiborne Inc. They find that, while corporate executives estimate that just six percent of their full-time employees are victims of domestic violence, employees guess that 18 percent of full-times employees are victims.

Executives do, however, believe that domestic violence is a major problem in our society and recognize that violence in the home negatively affects a company’s bottom line.

Change in Attitudes

Executives’ attitudes have changed since 1994 when Liz Claiborne conducted a similar survey. The current survey finds that nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of corporate executives agree that domestic violence has a harmful effect on insurance and medical costs while, in 1994, only 44 percent did. More executives also realize it affects employee turnover – the current survey finds that 45 percent say domestic violence affects turnover while, in 1994, only 26 percent said it effected turnover.

“Society has made great strides in recognizing domestic violence as a critical issue – it’s now time for people to realize that domestic violence not just affects working life, but is a workplace issue,” says CAEPV Executive Director Kim Wells.

Other findings:

  • Fifty-eight percent of CEOs and 41 percent of employees are aware of employees/co-workers affected by domestic violence.
  • Only 13 percent of executives say corporations should play a major role in addressing domestic violence, while 84 percent of employees say that businesses must be a part of the solution.
  • Seventy-two percent of executives say their companies offer programs and services that address domestic violence but less than half of employees (47 percent) are aware of this fact.

More information on the survey is available at Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence.

Workplace Public Policy and Domestic Violence

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Domestic violence doesn’t stay home when its victims go to work. It can follow them, resulting in violence in the workplace. Or it can spill over into the workplace when a woman is harassed by threatening phone calls, absent because of injuries, or less productive due to extreme stress. Domestic violence in the workplace includes all types of behavior that affect a person’s ability to perform a job. Studies indicate that nearly three-fourths of employed battered women are harassed at work and more than a quarter of the 1 million women who are stalked each year miss work because of the harassment. Each year, domestic violence results in an estimated 8 million missed work days and causes up to 50 percent of victims to lose their jobs. Victims of domestic violence often cite financial concerns as the main reason for remaining in abusive relationships, making economic independence a critical part of violence prevention.

Addressing Domestic Violence in the Workplace

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Recently, Carie Charlesworth was fired from her teaching job in San Diego simply because she is a victim of domestic violence. Earlier this year Ms. Charlesworth’s abusive ex-husband appeared in the school parking lot to confront Ms. Charlesworth. He was arrested and subsequently incarcerated, but several months later the school decided Ms. Charlesworth’s mere presence created a “risk” that he would reappear, and fired her.

Sadly, this is a reality faced by survivors of violence across the country. This practice is unacceptable, but it isn’t illegal. Only six states have laws that prevent employment discrimination on the basis of being a victim of domestic or sexual violence—and California is not one of them.

In the other 44 states, the cycle of victim-blaming and stigmatization continues. The people who most need support and healing are told that they are the problem. And without a job, most victims find it difficult to escape an abusive situation.

Domestic violence is not a “personal” problem that stays at home. Approximately 60% of adults in the U.S. work, so chances are that in a given workplace, many employees are victims, perpetrators, or have a friend or family member who is a victim. In fact, more than 44% of working U.S. adults say they have experienced the effects of domestic violence in the workplace.

Unfortunately, most employers are completely unprepared to address these effects.

“More than 70% of workplaces in the United States do not have formal policies to address workplace violence,” said Maya Raghu, an attorney with Futures Without Violence. As a result, when incidents do occur, an employer‘s first reaction may be to penalize the victim because it seems like the easiest way to address the problem.”

We’re keeping a close eye on SB 400, a California bill that Futures supports that would ban the firing of employees just because they have been victims of violence. If it passes, the state will have taken the first step in the right direction. It’s up to employers, however, to develop a workplace anti-violence program to keep workers safe and productive.

“Employers can make a real difference if they are proactive, instead of waiting for something bad to happen,” said Raghu.

To learn more about the workplace effects of violence, including how to develop a program to address it, visit Workplaces Respond.

TOOLS AND TIPS FOR IDENTIFYING WOMEN WHO ARE BEING ABUSED

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Women who are experiencing abuse may not feel comfortable openly disclosing this information, for a variety of reasons. This is why health care providers must have good tools for detecting and assessing abuse.

  • What are some indicators that a woman is being abused?
  • When should I ask about abuse?
  • A Doctor’s Recommendations on Building Trust for the Disclosure of Violence
  • What should providers ask?
  • A Social Worker’s Recommendations on How to “Find out What’s Really Going on”
  • Midwives’ Tips on Detecting Abuse in Rural Indigenous Communities
  • Materials on detecting abuse

What are some indicators that a woman is being abused?

  • Secrecy or obvious discomfort when interviewed about relationship
  • Unexplained injuries or injuries inconsistent with the history given
  • Delay between an injury and seeking medical treatment
  • Physical injury during pregnancy, especially on the breasts and abdomen
  • An unusually high number of visits to health care providers
  • High number of STI’s, pregnancies, miscarriages, and abortions
  • Repeat vaginal and urinary tract infections.

When should I ask about abuse?

  • Orally as part of a face-to-face health care encounter
  • As part of a routine health questionnaire
  • Using direct and nonjudgmental language that is culturally/linguistically appropriate
  • In private: no friends, relatives (except children under 3) or caregivers should be present
  • Confidentially: prior to inquiry, patients should be informed of any reporting requirements or other limits to provider/patient confidentiality
  • Assisted, if needed, by interpreters who have been trained to ask about abuse and have been trained on maintaining confidentiality, especially in small and rural communities.

What should providers ask?

Health care providers can develop their own style of asking questions, and can adapt to the particular cultural patterns of their communities. It is important to adapt your assessment questions and approach in order to be respectful to individual patients. Listen to patients, pay attention to words that are used in different cultural settings and integrate those into assessment questions. These are some examples of how to raise the issue of family violence and ask questions about it.

1. After you have established a rapport with the patient, raise the issue:

  • “Because violence is so common in many people’s lives, I’ve begun to ask all my patients about it”
  • “I am concerned that your symptoms may have been caused by someone hurting you”

2. If it feels appropriate, ask directly about violence:

  • “Are you in a relationship with a person who physically hurts or threatens you?”
  • “Has your partner or ex-partner ever hit you or physically hurt you?”
  • “Do you ever feel afraid of your partner? Do you feel you are in danger?”
  • “Has your partner ever forced you to have sex when you didn’t want to? Has your partner ever refused to practice safe sex?”

3. If the patient discloses violence, assess the risk:

  • “Are you in immediate danger?”
  • “Is your partner at the health facility now?”
  • “Do you want to (or have to) go home with your partner?”
  • “Do you have somewhere safe to go?”

4. Assess the patterns of abuse:

  • “How long has the violence been going on?”
  • “Have you ever been hospitalized because of the abuse?”
  • “Has your partner forced you to have sex, hurt you sexually, or forced you into sexual acts that made you uncomfortable?”

5. Provide validation and support:

  • Listen non-judgmentally
  • “I am concerned for your safety (and the safety of your children)”
  • “You are not alone and help is available”
  • “You don’t deserve the abuse and it is not your fault”

6. If a patient says “no”:

  • Respect her/his response
  • Let the patient know that you are available should the situation ever change
  • Assess again at previously recommended intervals
  • If patient says “no” but you believe s/he may be at risk, discuss the specific risk factors and offer information and resources in exam and waiting rooms, or bathrooms.

Materials on detecting abuse:

A Doctor’s Recommendations on Building Trust for the Disclosure of Violence

Dr. Rufina Gonzalez Reyes believes that building trust between healthcare providers and patients is essential. In her extensive experience working in rural indigenous communities in Oaxaca, she has worked hard to develop the trust that will allow women to disclose abuse to her. Her recommendations for other health care providers include:

  • Be patient and recognize that developing relationships takes time.
  • Try to downplay the divide between yourself as “doctor” and the women you’re working with.
  • Visit women in their homes, eat their food, accept and use gifts that are offered to you, dress similarly to the way they dress. Try to enter into the culture and share it.
  • Try out traditional healing methods and demonstrate openness to them. Experience them yourself in order to understand the reality of the women you’re working with.
  • Listen to comments within the community and try to understand community dynamics.
  • Make sure women know they’re not alone and make them feel that you see them as a friend and someone who’s just like them. Click here to listen to Dr. Rufina talking about building trust and detecting violence, in her own words.

A Social Worker’s Recommendations on How to “Find out What’s Really Going on”

 

Margarita Martinez Aguilar, the social worker at Tlacolula Hospital in Tlacolula de Matamoros, Oaxaca, prides herself on her ability to ask good questions, and says that doctors and others at the hospital send patients to her when they are trying to figure out “what’s really going on.” Margarita’s suggestions for other healthcare providers include:

  • Do not make assumptions about what a woman is going through. Ask questions to find out what’s going on.
  • Recognize that psychological and verbal abuse is common, and that violence may be present even if there is no physical sign. Ask women how they feel at home.
  • Ask questions about family structure, health conditions, family economics, etc. These questions can give you a sense of the family dynamic without asking directly about abuse.
  • When women present with physical problems, ask them what they think is causing these problems.
  • Don’t be afraid to delve into a difficult situation. Don’t be afraid that the abuser will retaliate against you. Remember that asking good questions is part of your job, and follow your own sense of ethics to serve people responsibly.
  • Have empathy, and allow this empathy to come through in the tone of voice and the approach you use.
  • If a woman discloses to you, ask follow-up questions so that she knows you are concerned and want her to feel safe telling you more.
  • Make sure you follow up on the case. Schedule follow-up meetings with the patient. Ask her doctors what they are doing to follow-up on her case.
  • Make sure that you yourself are feeling well and strong so that you will be able to help other people.

Click here to listen to Margarita talking about how she asks good questions to detect abuse, in her own voice.
Midwives’ Tips on Detecting Abuse in Rural Indigenous Communities

Marcelina, a traditional Tsotsil midwives in rural Chiapas, has developed her own techniques for detecting and assessing abuse. These are based more on intuition and a deep understanding of the dynamics of her community, rather than on following written checklists. They are examples of how these basic principles of detection can be applied to a specific community. To detect violence against her pregnant patients, Marcelina takes the following steps:

  • Never ask about violence out-right at first, as women may become offended or afraid to talk
  • Observe the woman’s physical appearance, and notice any changes since the last time you saw her.
  • While touching her belly, start asking questions like “what is life like in your house?”
  • If the woman talks about her problem, tell her what resources exist.
  • If the woman doesn’t talk about her problem, Marcelina creates more excuses to see her again. She will say “I need to see you again soon for another check-up. Why don’t you come back so I check you again?”
  • If the woman is not alone, Marcelina doesn’t ask anything. She suggests that the woman return. If necessary, she makes up a medical reason why she should return—for example, “I’m a little bit concerned about the position the baby’s in. Why don’t you come back so I can check it again.”

Tools For Developing Public Education Material

Posted by Kyle Coleman

In addition to creating resources and support for healthcare providers, we have also created materials to educate the public in general about the effects of violence on maternal — and broader community — health. Read here about how we have created and used audio dramas and posters.

Audio Recordings and Audio Dramas

Both ACASAC in Chiapas and the Rosario Castellanos Women’s Research Group in Oaxaca have successfully created and used audio dramas as public education tools for many years. The benefits of audio dramas as a community education tool include:

  • Radio is a key source of information and entertainment in many indigenous and rural communities
  • Audio recordings are good training tools for groups with low literacy levels
  • Recordings can be adapted for use in many settings: for broadcast over the radio, for playback on CD or tape during a training session, or over loudspeakers such the perifoneos (loudspeakers mounted on trucks) commonly used to make community announcements in Oaxaca and Chiapas
  • Stories told by an anonymous narrator can be safe ways of introducing controversial information into a community without causing any particular individual or group to be targeted.

Audio Dramas

ACASAC created Violence and Maternal Health in Multicultural Contexts: Improving Women’s Response (Violencia y Salud Materna en Contextos Multiculturales: Mejorando la Respuesta de las Mujeres), a four-part audio drama that can be either broadcast over the radio or can be used in a training setting. By telling the story of a young woman who was abused in childhood and victimized by her husband before successfully seeking help, the audio modules create a familiar, dramatic setting in which to impart important information to the public.

Module 1: Raising awareness of the socio-cultural issues that make women vulnerable to abuse.
Listen to Module 1 (Spanish)
Read the script of module 1 (Spanish)

Module 2: Identifying, addressing and preventing family violence during pregnancy. (Spanish)
Listen to Module 2 (Spanish)
Read the script of module 2

Module 3: Documenting violence during pregnancy
Listen to Module 3 (Spanish)
Read the script of module 3 (Spanish)

Module 4: Safety plans and legal options.
Listen to module 4 (Spanish)
Read the script of module 4 (Spanish)

Facilitators’ manual (Spanish) to be used when is presented in a training context.

Tips for Developing Audio Dramas

Dr. Graciela Freyermuth

Dr. Graciela Freyermuth has the following suggestions for others who want to create audio dramas similar to Violencia y salud en contextos multiculturales (Violence and Health in Multicutural Contexts).

  • Use existing resources such as those produced by the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Take this underlying structure and adapt the content, rather than starting from scratch.
  • In order to create a storyline that feels real and believable, collect real life stories of pregnancy and violence. Record these stories and modify the details to protect confidentiality. Choose a story (or combination of stories) that illustrate the major points you want to get across, will resonate with your target audience, and can be broken down into several chapters.
  • Write a script as you would for a theatre piece. Make sure the script is short and that the stories are not too confusing.
  • Choose narrators who have a connection and commitment to the topic. Make sure that their voices are engaging, varied and project the kind of feel you are going for.
  • Gain access to a professional recording studio, sound technician and editing program such as ProTools. Community radio stations and universities can be good sources of these resources.
  • When possible, work directly with people from your target audience communities in order to make sure that the script is culturally and linguistically appropriate.
  • Conduct focus groups to try out initial versions of the radio drama. Have the group listen to the audio and then ask them questions about it. Tape record all of the conversation and comments on the experience, especially in the case that you don’t speak the same language. Afterward, translate all of the comments—not just responses to formal questions. Listening carefully to all the comments will tell you if the group hasn’t understood some part of the audio, even if they themselves haven’t noticed.

Tips for Translating Audio Dramas for Specific Populations

Eva and Angel

Eva and Angel, community health promoters in Chiapas, have translated the audio drama Violencia y salud materna en contextos multiculturales from Spanish into their native Tseltal. They have then broadcast the audio drama on their weekly radio program. They explain their process, and offer up the following tips for other translators:

  • You need to really think about how to give the material a new format so that it will be understandable. Tseltal works in a different way than Spanish does, so translating often means restructuring.
  • Tseltal has many variations: it’s spoken differently in different areas. So we had to figure out a way to use the right words so that it would be understandable to everyone.
  • We had to really understand the concepts so that the translations would be accurate translations of concepts, not just words.
  • We had to really feel the content so that we could translate the emotion behind the words and feel really present giving the information. Think about ‘how would I like to receive this information if I were suffering from this problem. What would motivate me to make changes? What would not offend me? That’s the biggest challenge: knowing what words will allow you to raise the topic in a way that will be effective.
  • We decided to have a man and a woman telling the story, not two women talking to each other. We decided to do this because we think it’s really important that men get involved as well in this situation. The man can give information to other men that they have no right to abuse women. That dynamic really works well in our radio show.

Listen to Eva and Angel talking about the challenges of translating an audio drama from Spanish to Tseltal.

Posters and Other Visual Displays

ACASAC and the Rosario Castellanos Women’s Research Group have both found that creating posters and other public displays is an important way to convey information visually and subtly send the message that violence is not tolerated and support is available for people who are being abused.

Posters and other visual displays in a healthcare setting can:

  • Remind healthcare providers of their responsibility to take action against family violence
  • Ensure that women know that they can talk openly with their healthcare providers about abuse, and get the support they need.

Sample posters and other visual displays:

Poster (Spanish) to be hung in healthcare settings. The poster’s message geared at health care providers is that providers can address abuse through four simple steps: respectfully ask, listen, inform and refer. Produced by Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer Rosario Castellanos.

Desk calendar (Spanish) designed to provide a constant reminder for healthcare providers of the concrete steps they can take to address violence. As a two-sided “tent” format, on the patient’s side of the calendar, images of women of all walks of life remind the patient that “we all have the right to live without violence.” Created by Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer in Oaxaca.

Poster for patients (Spanish). ACASAC adapted this Family Violence Prevention Fund

Poster on reproductive health issues and domestic violence (English)

Poster on reproductive health issues and domestic violence (Spanish)

Tips on the Graphic Design of Posters and Other Visual Displays

Laura Jimenez Garcia, a staff member of the Rosario Castellanos Women’s Research Group in Oaxaca, did the graphic design work to prepare the poster and desk calendar mentioned above. She has these recommendations for people who are creating similar displays:

  • Make sure the materials have visual impact. The images should be clear, bright, and not too text-heavy.
  • Make sure the materials will be used. Try to create something that healthcare providers will need out on their desks, not in a drawer (like, for example, a calendar).
  • Make sure that the images presented allow healthcare providers to see themselves represented as part of a team—all of whom share the responsibility to take action to prevent and address family violence.
  • Make sure that the materials also include images of women—and that these images are inclusive (young/old, urban/rural, indigenous/non, etc.).
  • Make sure the materials include concrete steps for health care providers to take (detection, documentation, intervention, etc.).
  • Try to do graphic design in-house so that you can take full ownership of the design, can make sure it feels right, and can make as many changes as you need to.
  • Test the materials in focus groups before mass distribution.

Tips on Gaining Institutional Support for Trainings and Materials Distribution

It is not enough to just produce well-designed materials. The next challenge is to make sure they are distributed to the right places, hung up and used. This means gaining the commitment of health center directors and other high-level staff, as well as of individual doctors. The Grupo de Estudios sobre la Mujer has had success in distributing their posters and desk calendars. Ximena Avellaneda has these suggestions for successful distribution:

  • Make a list of institutions in a particular municipality that might have contact with women surviving domestic violence.
  • Personally meet with the directors of these institutions. Present your concerns about the issue of domestic violence and maternal health, including some statistics and anecdotes about the issue.
  • Make a formal presentation on what you would like to do. This presentation should include:
    • An explanation of your organization’s work and impact
    • A sample of your poster and other materials
    • An explanation of how you have assessed the need for this work within the healthcare community
    • An outline of the training in which you will present the materials
    • What resources the hospital or clinic will need to provide
    • What skills and resources will participants acquire?
    • How will the impact be measured and how will this information be shared with the directors of the institutions?
    • How will the institutions be able to replicate this training themselves for further distribution (so that they become trainers)?
  • Sign an agreement with the directors that outlines your agreements of what you will provide and what support they will offer.
  • Make initial connection with people through workshops. Don’t just hand out materials and expect people to use them.
  • In the context of a training, take time to really review the materials and define the terms together. Ask the providers what does it mean to them to “orient”, “inform,” etc. Have people think about what they will really do to take these steps.
  • Present materials to the healthcare providers as part of a campaign: “let’s check back in 6 months and see what the impact of these materials has been.”

As a trainer of traditional midwives in isolated rural communities, Sebastiana Vazquez has had to negotiate with local authorities to gain support for her work. She suggests:

  • Always introduce yourself to the local council and elders
  • Never hang up a poster or distribute materials without asking for permission first
  • Try to understand what the local leaders priorities are for their community.
  • Be aware of the local customs, language and traditions
  • Allow people in the local community to speak for themselves and explain the need for your work, but also demonstrate that you have support from the outside as well.
  • Be aware of security concerns in remote rural areas and take steps to protect your self

Leadership Development for Immigrant Survivors of Violence

Posted by Kyle Coleman

The Immigrant Women’s Rights Project recognizes the unique challenges facing immigrant women as they struggle for safety in this country. The program educates women about their rights and develops their leadership so that they can become involved in changing policies that affect them. As emerging leaders, they play a critical role in supporting other women, informing institutions on their needs, demanding accessible services and teaching their peers how to address domestic violence and sexual assault.

Why Should we Develop Women’s Leadership Skills

  • Immigrant women who have survived domestic violence have great leadership potential because they overcame numerous barriers to obtain access to services.
  • All of these women exhibit great strength of character when they decide to find assistance or to leave a violent home to save themselves and their children.
  • All immigrant women, especially those who lack secure immigration status, face numerous barriers to obtain services and to gaining access to the civil and criminal justice systems.
  • These women possess strengths, experience, and knowledge that qualify them to advocate for other battered immigrant women.
  • They can educate immigrant communities about domestic violence and advocate for changes in system policies and practices because they speak credibly and eloquently about the obstacles they face and how they overcame them.
  • Immigrant communities are more likely to trust them than “outsiders” because they have experienced the discrimination and stereotyping that is part of an immigrant’s daily life.
  • The best way to create dynamic partnerships among service providers and immigrant communities is to help immigrant women gain the confidence and skills they need to insist that service providers can articulate system problems and help those systems develop appropriate solutions.

Why a Women’s Leadership Group?

Supporting survivors as new leaders through a community-based immigrant women’s group can generate some of the following outcomes:

  • Provides support for women by women from their own community
  • Raises consciousness of shared experiences
  • Sponsors leadership trainings that raise self-esteem and teach skills
  • Educates women about their rights and other social and political issues relevant to their lives
  • Facilitates identifying the issues and problems affecting battered immigrant women
  • Helps women become involved in events and projects to change policies that harm them
  • Provides a vehicle for working as equals with institutions and service providers
  • Builds healthier and stronger families and communities by encouraging, self-confident women leaders
  • The community plays an active role in the prevention and intervention of abuse in the family
  • The effective responses to the problem in the home comes from leaders of the same community who have this experience and are based on their own cultural values
  • Provides a place to celebrate individual and collective accomplishments

FVPF Publications on Immigrant Women Leadership Development:

Building the Rhythm of Change: Developing Leadership and Improving Services Within the Battered Rural Immigrant Women’s Community

Breaking the Silence: A Training Manual for Activists, Advocates and Latina Organizers

FVPF Publications on Community Engagement and Organizing

Preventing Family Violence: Community Engagement Makes the Difference
Preventing Family Violence: Lessons from the Community Engagement Initiative

Organizations

Mujeres Unidas y Activas
Casa de Esperanza
MUNA Legal Clinic

WINNERS OF THE 2013 AVON COMMUNICATIONS AWARDS ANNOUNCED

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Announcing the Winners of the Avon Communications Awards Here at Futures, we love recognizing the groundbreaking work that others do to combat gender-based violence. And when we get to recognize five organizations at the same time, we are overjoyed!

Today, five organizations were recognized at the prestigious 2nd Avon Communications Awards: Speaking Out About Violence Against Women. Actress and Avon Foundation for Women Ambassador Salma Hayek Pinault awarded the recipients during an event at the 57th session of the Commission of the Status of Women at the United Nations.

The awards—which recognize outstanding communications campaigns that are helping change communities, policies, institutions, and behaviors to end violence against women—include a grant to fund the continuation of the winning campaigns. To be eligible for an award, organizations submitted material the Communications X-Change, a digital library that is managed by Futures and funded by Avon Foundation for Women.

Of the more than 425 submissions by 116 organizations in 46 different countries, an international panel of judges selected the following winners:

To learn more about the international panel of judges click here. To visit the Communications X-Change visit: http://xchange.futureswithoutviolence.org/.

Winners of the 2014 Avon Communications Awards Announced

Posted by Kyle Coleman

We’re thrilled to announce the grantees of the 2014 Avon Communications Awards! The awards recognize organizations worldwide whose strategic communications tools are changing our communities, institutions, policies, and behaviors to prevent and eliminate violence against women and children. View the  full list of grantees and finalists here!

This year’s grantees and finalists all submitted material to the Communications X-Change, a searchable database of material—from posters to iPhone apps—geared toward ending gender-based violence throughout the world.

The X-Change’s growing library underlines the unshakable belief that through targeted communications we can change behaviors, attitudes and laws and, together, end violence against women and children. This year together we’ve grown the X-Change to more than 870 materials, from 303 organizations, representing 79 countries.

The Communications X-Change is developed and managed by Futures, and funded by the Avon Foundation for Women. Watch the 2014 Avon Communications Award video announcement by the multi-talented singer, songwriter, actress—Avon Foundation Global Ambassador Fergie.

Teaming up with Avon Foundation for The Communications X-Change

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Futures Without Violence will work with the Avon Foundation for Women to create The Communications X-Change, the first interactive global hub for international communications materials that will promote efforts to end domestic and gender-based violence around the world.

Avon Executive Chairman Andrea Jung announced The Communications X-Change in February at the 2nd World Conference of Women’s Shelters in Washington, D.C. Ms. Jung and Avon Global Ambassador Reese Witherspoon were at the conference to present the inaugural Avon Communications Award: Speaking Out About Violence Against Women to rcognize exemplary communications campaigns by global domestic violence organizations. The four winning organizations – U.K.’s Women’s Aid, YWCA Canada, Rwanda Women Network and India’sBreakthrough – received financial support from the Avon Foundation to further their work. The winning materials and many others will comprise the X-Change, funded by the Avon Foundation and managed by Futures Without Violence.

“The Avon Foundation is proud to partner once again with Futures Without Violence on a critical new initiative,” said Carol Kurzig, President, Avon Foundation for Women. ”Futures has a strong history of producing extraordinary results from Avon Foundation funding and we know this new grant will create an important new tool for global efforts to end violence against women.”

“Their creation of the new Communications X-Change will provide free global access to the best communications materials and campaigns that educate about the need to take action to end the global epidemic of domestic and sexual violence,” she added.

Willie Mays, Joe Torre and Sergio Martinez join our National Summit

Posted by Kyle Coleman

On April 12, 2012, The Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention and Futures Without Violence will host an all-day national summit in San Francisco called The Y Factor: Men Leading By Example. The summit drew men from all across the country who are leading gender-based violence prevention and education programs in their communities, along with leaders and activists who work in business, sports, entertainment, new media, and international affairs.

In addition to provocative presentations and panel discussions, the summit also featured an All Star Tribute luncheon, where men who have been raising awareness and implementing gender based violence strategies will be saluted alongside legendary baseball icons, Willie Mays and Joe Torre. We are pleased that Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Top Middleweight Champion Sergio Martinez, Ted Waitt, and Cindy Waitt are also confirmed for the lunch. The Y Factor: Men Leading by Example is more than just another conference. Moderated by top journalists including Thomas Goetz (WIRED) and Joel Brinkley (Syndicated) it’s about bringing together the best and the brightest minds in conversation with other leaders, trailblazers, doers, and pioneers to advance the wisdom and strategy of our movement as a whole. Inspiration and insights from panelists in a variety of disciplines will expand what we know is possible.

First Ever Y Factor Summit: Men Leading by Example

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Our first-ever national summit, called the Y Factor: Men Leading By Example, launched on Thursday, April 12, 2012, and was a day filled with all-American heroes, unconventional advocates, committed public figures and journalists who helped us probe topics ranging from social media to the rise of sexual assault on college campuses. It was a day to salute the attendees – men throughout the world who are leading programs that teach youth about respecting women and girls, and ending gender-based violence. And it was the perfect occasion to thank Cindy Waitt (Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention) for the tremendous leadership support she has given to a movement that is teaching men and boys that violence does not equal strength.

Held in the new Futures Without Violence international conference and education center in the Presidio of San Francisco, the event was built around panel discussions, one-on-one interviews, and an all-star luncheon that paid tribute to baseball legends Willie Mays and Joe Torre.

 

  • The morning kicked off with welcome remarks from Futures’ Founder and President Esta Soler, soon followed by a conversation with world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, an Argentina-born boxer who was bullied as a child and is now actively engaged in promoting efforts to end violence against women.

 

  • Executive Editor of Wired magazine Thomas Goetz led a panel discussion exploring Social Media for Social Good, with a conversation about high-tech and low-tech tools that can help non-profit leaders built constituencies and meet young people in the popular culture/web-based world where they are most engaged.

 

  • Washington DC-based Tony West, who is Acting Associate Attorney General, made the day’s keynote speech and discussed the significance of the Justice Department’s commitment to “Defending Childhood” a program that provides both prevention and intervention for young kids who are impacted by violence in their home, as well as Engaging Men and Youth, the subject of our summit.

 

  • The All-Star Luncheon, which was held in The Open Square, was highlighted by a conversation with baseball greats Willie Mays and Joe Torre, led by KNBR broadcaster Marty Lurie. They focused on the importance of mentors – and the capacity for coaches to teach athletes about healthy behavior both on and off the field. Ron Barney, a high school athletic director and Luis Abarra, a student athlete from Sacramento, described the life-altering benefits of Futures-led program called Coaching Boys Into Men, and Malcolm Astley, whose college-bound daughter Lauren was murdered by her high-school boyfriend, told the audience what’s at stake if violence against women and girls does not come to an end. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi honored the history of individuals and groups who have crusaded to end violence against children and Vice President Joe Biden sent a heartfelt video featuring personal remarks that lauded the leaders in the room as well as the ongoing work. And finally, Futures’ Founder and President Esta Soler closed the luncheon program by recognizing the crucial role that advocate Cindy Waitt has made in building and sustaining violence prevention programs in the US.

 

  • The afternoon programs included a panel discussion about sexual assault on campus, led by Tamara Strauss, senior editor at The Stanford Social Innovation Review, followed by a conversation between Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist Joel Brinkley, now teaching at Stanford, and filmmaker Mikaela Beardsley, who teamed up with New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof to bring his best-selling book, HALF THE SKY, to PBS in late 2012. Brinkley segued to a discussion of gender-based violence problems and solutions internationally, engaging several conference attendees on the panel who are working on programs to engage men on the topic in foreign countries.

 

  • Our day ended with a brainstorm that invited attendees to help shape the practices and programs that will expand the impact of the violence prevention movement.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this inspiring event. For a full summit agenda, click here.

RESPECT! Challenge Action Toolkit

Posted by Kyle Coleman

RESPECT logoWe’re asking community members to get involved in the RESPECT! Challenge. Whether you’re a teacher or a parent, you have an important role to play in this campaign. Check out our RESPECT! Challenge Action Toolkit for additional resources and tools!

 

General Resources

Resources for Coaches

Resources for Teachers

Resources for Parents

Resources for School Nurses and Counselors

 

RESPECT! Challenge 2013

Posted by Kyle Coleman

In 2013, we received thousands of entries from people across America telling us who they wanted to thank for teaching them respect.

The national grand prize winner of a $10,000 donation, a VIP trip to New York City for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and $500 Macy’s gift card was Casey Chow of California. Casey submitted a spoken word video about his father, who he thanks for teaching him the meaning of respect. Casey will donate his prize money to the Donaldina Cameron House, a nonprofit serving the Asian communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. Eight regional winners received $2,500 for a school or nonprofit organization of their choice, a $2,500 scholarship, and a $250 Macy’s gift card.

To encourage participation in the contest, FUTURES collaborated with Maker Studios to produce a RESPECT! Challenge video featuring YouTube sensations such as Chester See and GloZell. Take a look below!

Meet the 2013 RESPECT! Regional Captains

  • Susan Brostrup-Jensen – Boston, MA
  • Caitlin Burke – Cincinnati, OH
  • Stephanie M. Clark – Miami, FL
  • Crystal Mozell – Los Angeles, CA
  • Melanie McQueen – Chicago, IL
  • McCandless Petty – San Francisco, CA
  • Shannon Sandrea MS, LPC – Austin, TX
  • Naliaka Wakhisi – New York, NY

Read more about the Regional Captains.

New Film Asks All to Give RESPECT!

Posted by Kyle Coleman

A new three-minute film urges everyone to sign the pledge in support of the RESPECT! Campaign, nationally sponsored by Macy’s. The film depicts the story of our very own Director of Public Communications, Brian O’Connor, as he tells of his journey from childhood to the world of New York advertising.

From there, Brian pursued his passion – working to end and prevent violence and abuse with Futures Without Violence.

In the film, underwritten by Dockers, Brian shares his personal story and commitment to being a resource for parents, teachers, and coaches in talking to young people about the importance of healthy relationships. His leadership of Coaching Boys Into Men has helped expand the program internationally, but you will see that it’s the everyday coaches and young men of Mesa Verde High School in Sacramento, CA, who are truly inspirational.

Watch the video now!

Like us on Facebook and  sign the pledge!

Give RESPECT Campaign

Posted by Kyle Coleman

The RESPECT! Campaign is a social action campaign to promote respect in relationships and increase awareness about the positive role everyone can play to help end and prevent relationship violence and abuse. It starts with something everyone can do: Give Respect to others.

Unlike many other problems in society, the Family Violence Prevention Fund believes there are concrete solutions to preventing dating abuse, domestic and sexual violence, and child abuse. Parents, teachers, coaches and mentors are living breathing role models who shape young people’s lives, and in doing so, can help shape a world free of relationship violence. By arming them with the tools and information they need to help children build and grow healthy, mutually respectful relationships throughout their lives, we can usher in an era of renewed responsibility and together, we can we can prevent and end relationship violence. We want to create a society that values respect in relationships, because healthy relationships, do in fact, keep us healthy.

The RESPECT! Campaign is a multi-year initiative supported by Macy’s, the national founding partner and exclusive retailer of the official RESPECT! bracelet. The RESPECT! Bracelet is an inexpensive but meaningful way to show that you care about the cause. The faux leather bracelet is available in select Macy’s stores across the country, and on macys.com, for only $5, with half of the proceeds from each sale benefiting the Family Violence Prevention Fund.

To learn more about ways you can help shape lives, and in doing so, shape a world free of relationship violence, visit www.GiveRespect.org.

DOJ Announces Report Findings

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Of the 76 million children currently residing in the U.S, an estimated 46 million can expect to have their lives touched by violence, crime, abuse, and psychological trauma this year. In response to starting statistics like this one, Attorney General Eric Holder’s Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence compiled an extensive report that addresses this national crisis. Task Force Co-Chairs Joe Torre (Safe At Home Foundation) and Robert Listenbee, Jr. (Defender Association of Philadelphia) presented the group’s findings and policy recommendations to Holder at a meeting this morning in Washington, D.C.

The report is a vital component of Holder’s Defending Childhood Initiative (DCI), a national program that has awarded grants to eight cities, counties, and tribal communities around the country to develop strategic plans for community-based efforts that will address and prevent childhood exposure to violence. Since 2010, Futures has proudly served as the lead technical provider for DCI, working to help implement programs in sites that range from the city of Boston to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.

Among the Task Force conclusions is that the challenge of children’s exposure to violence and ensuing psychological trauma is not one that government alone can solve. The crisis requires a truly national response that draws on the strengths of all Americans. One of their 56 recommendations is an increased focus on programs that help children develop healthy relationships with trusted adults in their homes and communities. The report also emphasized the need for early screenings that can determine if children have been exposed to sexual abuse, physical abuse, or intimate partner violence in the home—all of which place them at higher risk for serious and chronic health problems in later life, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, substance abuse and more.

Looking ahead, the Task Force recommends that steps be taken nationally, regionally, and locally to help every teacher, health care professional, police officer, judge, attorney, social worker, clergy member, therapist, advocate, and paraprofessional who serves children and their families to effectively protect and heal children exposed to violence.

To view the full Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence report, visit: http://www.justice.gov/defendingchildhood/cev-rpt-full.pdf.

Start Strong Releases Model School Policy

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Every morning, parents send their kids off from home to school. But are schools creating the kinds of healthy environments in hallways and schoolyards that we want for our children? Parents and teachers can play a big role in making sure healthy school environments are a reality in every school and that teen dating violence prevention is included in school policies and practices.

To support schools looking to foster a culture of healthy relationships and prevent teen dating violence, Start Strong developed the “School Policy to Increase Student Safety.” This policy toolkit is unique because it offers schools best practices around the prevention of dating violence, as well as guidelines for early intervention and crisis response.

Share the toolkit with your school district and ask them to adopt a policy to prevent teen dating violence and build healthy teen relationships!

One in three teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked, choked or physically hurt by their partner. Like millions of adults, teens are often victims of dating violence. School policies are critical for reinforcing positive messages while establishing expectations and codes of conduct that promote healthy relationships.

A positive school climate requires active promotion and modeling of individual healthy behavior and early intervention of unhealthy behavior by the entire community of teachers, staff members, parents, and students. Policies and practices that recognize the full continuum of prevention, early intervention, corrective guidance, and a protocol for active intervention are required to maintain a school environment that is free of violence, including teen dating abuse in all its forms.

Influencing both district policies and guidelines in student handbooks can establish a school environment where prevention of relationship violence is a priority, and where students learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors.

Students, parents, teachers, administrators and staff can work together to build a school climate that fosters healthy relationship skills in all students. Read the model policy developed by Start Strong to learn more about implementing a plan for your school, and visit www.startstrongteens.org.

Start Strong is the largest initiative ever funded to target 11- to- 14-year-olds and rally entire communities to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. It is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in collaboration with Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Blue Shield of California Foundation are investing $18 million in 11 Start Strong communities across the country to identify and evaluate best practices in prevention to stop dating violence and abuse before it starts.

Pressure to Share Passwords…Cool or Not Cool?

Posted by Kyle Coleman

How would you feel about getting pressured to share your online passwords with someone you’re dating?

This question is posed in the latest video to be released by That’s Not Cool as part of the speaking avatar application. The speaking avatar tool encourages teens to have their say when it comes to pressure and control in their relationships. After watching an animated prompt video addressing digital dating abuse on the homepage, users create a personalized character and voice to respond to the question posed in the video. Each unique video entry can be posted and shared on www.thatsnotcool.com.

The newest prompt video was released to coincide with National Teen Dating Violence Prevention & Awareness Month, and asks users to respond to the question: “Sharing passwords with your boyfriend or girlfriend…Cool or not cool?” The video offers an opportunity for the campaign to represent a diversity of youth relationships as it features a lesbian couple.

“The avatar tool is a personal and fun way for teens to engage in this important issue and talk about what is and isn’t cool in their relationships,” said Futures Without Violence Director of Public Education Campaigns & Programs Brian O’Connor. “We’re particularly excited to be featuring a same-sex couple in the newest prompt video because we know that any teen can experience digital dating abuse, regardless of sexual orientation and other markers like, race or class.”

That’s Not Cool was developed by Futures Without Violence in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and the Advertising Council. TheThat’s Not Cool campaign is an award winning national public education initiative that educates youth about healthy relationships, encourages them to draw their own digital line, and helps young people recognize, avoid, and prevent dating violence in their lives.

To learn more about the campaign, visit www.thatsnotcool.com, and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest campaign updates.

Teens “Talk Back” with New Avatar

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Pressuring someone for nude pics…cool or not cool? Teens can now create personalized talking avatar videos to answer that important question.

That’s Not Cool, a Futures Without Violence (formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund) public education initiative, has launched a new speaking avatar tool that allows teens to “Have Your Say” when it comes to relationship abuse. After watching an animated video addressing digital dating abuse on the homepage, users create a personalized character and voice to respond to the question posed in the video: “Pressuring Someone for Nude Pics, Cool or Not Cool?” That’s Not Cool uses text-to-speech technology that enables the teen-created character to speak the answer to the question in a voice style s/he selects. Each unique video entry can be posted and shared on www.thatsnotcool.com.

“This new tool is a personal and fun way for teens to engage in this important issue and talk about what is and isn’t cool in their relationships,” said Futures Without Violence Director of Public Communications Brian O’Connor. “It’s a way to get a dialogue going about an issue that many young people will confront.”

That’s Not Cool is an award winning national public education initiative that educates youth about healthy relationships, encourages them to draw their own digital line, and helps young people recognize, avoid, and prevent dating violence in their lives. That’s Not Cool was developed in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and the Advertising Council.

That’s Not Cool has also been recently honored as a Y-Pulse GennY Award Finalist. The GennY Award recognizes the best practices of those who have applied new and innovative techniques to connecting and communicating with youth. All competitors were evaluated on their creativity, innovation, results, and their authenticity in speaking to youth, among other criteria.

Helping Teens Draw Their ‘Digital Line’

Posted by Kyle Coleman

With digital communication a central part of teens’ lives, the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) is launching a new national public service advertising (PSA) campaign to help teens recognize digital dating abuse and take steps to prevent it. At a congressional briefing  duringNational Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week, the FVPF launched ThatsNotCool.com. It is designed to start a conversation among teens about how controlling behavior and harassment from a boyfriend or girlfriend, online or via cell phone, can turn into abuse.

The new campaign was created in partnership with the Advertising Council and the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. At the briefing, experts from the FVPF, Break the Cycle and Youth Radio discussed programs and initiatives that can help stop youth dating violence, including the That’s Not Cool campaign.

ThatsNotCool.com

Created pro bono by the digital ad agency R/GA, That’s Not Cool is a multimedia campaign that includes an interactive web site, mobile component, television, radio, posters in schools and malls, and Web ads all designed to help teens recognize digital dating abuse and give them the platform to initiate conversations about it. The PSAs direct audiences to visit www.ThatsNotCool.com where teens can find tools to “draw their own digital line” and a forum to discuss this form of abuse and seek help.

“Our research confirms that teens often don’t know how to connect the dots and recognize when controlling behavior becomes abuse,” said FVPF President Esta Soler. “The That’s Not Cool campaign is designed to help start a conversation about textual harassment and digital abuse, give teens the tools to recognize and talk about it, and encourage them to define what is and isn’t okay.”

With the benefit of new technologies comes the risk of digital abuse, which can include unwanted, repeated calls or text messages, breaking into email or social networking accounts, or being pressured to send private or embarrassing pictures or videos. The Technology and Teen Dating Abuse Survey, conducted by Teen Research Unlimited for Liz Claiborne in 2007, found that one in three teens say they have been text  messaged 10, 20 or 30 times an hour by a partner wanting to know where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with. One in four teens in a relationship have been called names, harassed or put down by a partner through cell phones and texting. More than half of teen girls (51 percent) say pressure from a guy is a reason girls send sexy messages or images, and 18 percent of teen boys say pressure from a girl is a reason (Sex and Tech Survey, conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 2008).

“We are very proud to join with the Family Violence Prevention Fund and R/GA on this critical campaign to help prevent teen dating abuse,” said Ad Council President and CEO Peggy Conlon. “While teens often recognize the signs of physical abuse, digital abuse has many gray areas and its dangers are often minimized. This campaign will engage teens and give them the tools to draw the connection between the digital infractions they are experiencing and abuse.”

At the Briefing

Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) told the audience, “I appreciate the fact that you’re here trying to solve this problem.” Poe spoke eloquently about an influential figure in his life, his grandmother. “She always said you never hurt someone who you love, and we’ve got to communicate that message to teenagers.”

A representative from Congressman John Lewis’ (D-GA) office said the Congressman redoubled his commitment to preventing violence after a Congressional Fellow working for the Congressional Black Caucus was murdered by a former boyfriend after she returned to college. Lewis has introduced the Teen Dating Violence Prevention Act of 2009 (H.R. 789), which would authorize the Department of Justice to: develop targeted grants that provide counseling to victims and abusers; help youth victims who are runaways, homeless, in foster care or are youth offenders; offer legal services; and more.

FVPF Director of Public Communications Brian O’Connor detailed the research behind That’s Not Cool, and Break the Cycle Director of Policy Programs Juley Fulcher discussed how best to reach students on campuses and help schools address dating violence. “We want to make public and private schools allies in the fight against teen dating violence,” she said, noting that Washington, D.C. public schools are the model for the Safe Schools Project, a new program that aims to develop a comprehensive response to teen dating violence. It will include written school policies, educator and staff training, violence prevention curricula for students, and an expanded network of community services for youth. More information on the Safe Schools Project is available at www.breakthecycle.org/technical-assistance-for-schools.html.

Youth Radio’s Director of Health Programs, Tuere Anderson, said her organization engages teens and young adults by helping them develop radio programs, including a public affairs program and community-organizing efforts, that address teen dating violence. “We want to give youth a voice and really hear what young people have to say,” she said. Youth Radio reaches 27 million listeners through local and national outlets including National Public Radio. For more information, visit www.youthradio.org/.

All the panelists asked Congress to fund the teen dating violence prevention programs in the Violence Against Women Act.

The Briefing was sponsored by Representatives Lewis and Steve Israel (D-NY). Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed resolutions declaring February 2 – 6, 2009 to be National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week. The resolutions encourage local, state and national organizations, governments and private industry to call attention to teen dating violence.

Visit www.thatsnotcool.com for more information on the new campaign. Its television and radio PSAs will be distributed to media outlets nationwide later this month.

‘That’s Not Cool’ Wins Communicator Award

Posted by Kyle Coleman

That’s Not Cool, a Futures Without Violence public education campaign, has been recognized with an Award of Excellence by the International Academy of Visual Arts for outstanding educational website. The annual Communicator Awards honors innovative communications initiatives that make a lasting impact in their field.

Founded nearly two decades ago, The Communicator Awards receives over 6,000 entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world, and we’re thrilled to be among the honorees of 2012.

The That’s Not Cool campaign was developed in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and the Advertising Council. That’s Not Cool uses digital examples of controlling and abusive behavior online and by cell phone to speak to teenagers ages 13-15 about digital dating abuse. New digital technologies have created a landscape in which personal boundaries and ways to promote safety are sometimes far from clear. Digital abuse is growing and can include unwanted, repeated calls or text messages, privacy violations such as breaking into email or social networking accounts, and pressure to send nude or private pictures or videos. That’s Not Cool helps teens decide for themselves what’s okay, or not okay, in their relationships.

The International Academy of Visual Arts is an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms.

“Like” us on Facebook and join us in congratulating the That’s Not Cool team on a job well done! Or visit our award-winning That’s Not Cool web site.

‘That’s Not Cool’ Wins Youth Award

Posted by Kyle Coleman

That’s Not Cool, a Futures Without Violence public education campaign, has been recognized as aY-Pulse GennY Award Finalist. The GennY Award honors initiatives that use new and innovative techniques to connect with teens, tweens, and college students.

The GennY Award recognizes the best practices of those who have applied new and innovative techniques to connecting and communicating with youth. All competitors were evaluated on their creativity, innovation, results, and their authenticity in speaking to youth on their own terms, among other criteria.

The That’s Not Cool campaign was developed in partnership with the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women and the Advertising Council. That’s Not Cool uses digital examples of controlling and abusive behavior online and by cell phone to speak to teenagers ages 13-15 about digital dating abuse. New digital technologies have created a landscape in which personal boundaries and ways to promote safety are sometimes far from clear. Digital abuse is growing and can include unwanted, repeated calls or text messages, privacy violations such as breaking into email or social networking accounts, and pressure to send nude or private pictures or videos. That’s Not Cool helps teens decide for themselves what’s okay, or not okay, in their relationships.

MTV bested Futures Without Violence for the first place title with their “A Thin Line” campaign, which also targets digital abuse. “We’re thrilled to be getting so much recognition for That’s Not Cool,” says Esta Soler, President of Futures Without Violence. “And we’re just as thrilled that powerful brands such as MTV stand beside us in reaching youth in their very important work.”

Y-Pulse (Youth Pulse) is a leading authority on youth. Studying the opinions and behavior of tweens, teens, collegians and young adults, they provide news, commentary, events, research and strategy for marketing, brand and media professionals.

“Like” us on Facebook and join us in congratulating the That’s Not Cool team on a job well done! Or visit our award-winning That’s Not Cool web site.

That’s Not Cool Ambassadors Program

Posted by Kyle Coleman

We’re looking for a few good teens to join us as official That’s Not Cool Ambassadors. This is a unique opportunity to raise awareness on an issue that affects friends, family, and the community at large while having some fun in the process.

That’s Not Cool uses examples of pressure and control that occur in the digital world (online and via cell phone) to encourage young people to draw their own lines about what’s okay, or not okay, in relationships. Members of the That’s Not Cool Ambassadors team will gain valuable experience, national exposure, and meaningfully contribute to this award-winning initiative. Ambassador posts are open to boys and girls, age 13-19.

As a That’s Not Cool Ambassador, you’ll have the opportunity to

  • Provide valuable feedback on new concepts for That’s Not Cool.
  • Organize activities to raise awareness of digital dating abuse and That’s Not Cool.
  • Contribute your unique voice through blog posts, social media, videos, etc.
  • Engage with other Ambassadors from across the country.
  • Add skills and experience to your resume.

Ambassadors must be:

  • Collaborative and flexible, enthusiastic, and energetic.
  • Available for occasional conference calls. Reachable via e-mail or Facebook and phone.
  • Strong leaders.
  • Interested in online social networking.

How can I become a That’s Not Cool Ambassador?

Please answer the following questions (max 300 words per question) by email to:

thatsnotcool@futureswithoutviolence.org or Facebook message (page name: “That’s Not Cool”) with the subject line “That’s Not Cool Ambassador Program”.

Deadline: Ongoing.

We will contact you following your submission.

Please note that all That’s Not Cool Ambassadors commit to working with us for one year.

  • Name?
  • Age, & grade in school?
  • Where do you live?
  • What school do you attend?
  • Are you male or female?
  • Why are you interested in becoming a That’s Not Cool Ambassador? If selected, what unique characteristics and skills would you bring to the program?
  • What is one thing you like about That’s Not Cool, and what is one thing that you would change about it?
  • What ideas do you have to bring attention to That’s Not Cool and the issue of digital abuse overall in your school and/or community?
  • As part of the That’s Not Cool Ambassadors Program, we will ask you to recruit 2 – 3 friends to help you plan and carry out your activities. Please list the names of those friends who could be on your That’s Not Cool team if selected. They will be That’s Not Cool Ambassadors with you!

Promising Futures Launches

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Consider this staggering statistic for a moment: over 18 million children have been exposed to family violence in our country. That’s one in four childrenwho experience violence between their parents or caregivers.

Growing up in a violent home can be a terrifying and traumatic experience for child. It can impede on their growth, development, and overall quality of life. However, some research has shown that the non-abusing parent is often the strongest protective factor in the lives of children who are exposed to domestic violence. When properly identified and addressed, the effects of violence on children can largely be mitigated, and can have a life-changing impact. For this reason, anti-violence organizations and advocates play a crucial role in facilitating this mother-child healing process.

We launched a new website called Promising Futures: Best Practices for Serving Children, Youth, and Parents Experiencing Domestic Violence (Promising Futures), to help advocates and organizations support children and parents facing domestic violence. The website includes a variety of resources—including best practices, evaluation tools, research-informed strategies, and more—to strengthen the mother-child relationship and mitigate the negative effects of domestic abuse on the child.

We hope that our new Department of Health and Human Services-funded project will provide children and their families with the support they need and help break the cycle of violence.

Engaging Teachers

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Lessons from Literature is an innovative program that enlists English teachers all across the country to use the books and material they’re already teaching to facilitate discussion and build awareness about physical, verbal, and sexual abuse.

Teachers are natural influencers. As mentors and role models to students, teachers have a tremendous opportunity to impact how students grow to understand and appreciate safe and healthy relationships.

If teachers can shape the way young people think and act today, the social norms that currently perpetuate violence can be extinguished tomorrow.

About the Program

Lessons from Literature empowers teachers with actionable resources that help students learn the required material and build healthy, non-violent relationships. The program includes:

  • Lesson plans aligned with National Standards for the English Language Arts that address themes of abuse, violence, inequality, family/interpersonal issues, and more.
  • Materials to prepare teachers and students to discuss themes of abuse.
  • A Resource Library that offers books, poems, essays, photos, artwork, websites, and more to help build deep and meaningful lessons.
  • Opportunities for teachers to share lesson plan ideas with each other. With Lessons from Literature, teachers inspire youth to think and act differently about relationships and their lives. Share with a teacher, or start teaching today!

Lessons from Literature

Posted by Kyle Coleman

This innovative resource is helping teachers incorporate violence prevention lessons into existing curricula. Developed by Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund, and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE),Lessons from Literature is a free online resource that gives English teachers a framework to use the novels, poems, plays and stories they are already teaching to help their students build healthy, non-violent relationships.

Its web site – www.lessonsfromliterature.org – is the central hub of the program, where teachers can download a Classroom Manual and access other resources. The Lessons from Literature program includes:

  • Lesson plans aligned with National Standards for the English Language Arts that address themes of abuse, violence, inequality, family/interpersonal issues, and more;
  • A Lesson Template that serves as a guide for teachers to create or modify their own lessons;
  • Materials, including handouts and fact sheets on teen dating abuse, to prepare teachers and students to discuss abuse;
  • An online resource library of books, poems, songs, movies and more to help build creative and meaningful exercises into pre-existing lessons; and
  • Opportunities for teachers to share lesson plans, ideas, resources and experiences with each other and to identify professional development opportunities through this work.

“Teachers are powerful influencers, motivators and leaders,” said Futures Without Violence President Esta Soler. “Lessons from Literature is a groundbreaking tool that will make it easy for teachers to help students develop the skills to recognize and avoid dating violence so they can build healthy relationships. We are so proud to partner with the National Council of Teachers of English. Its reach will do so much to position educators to increase awareness about the damaging effects of physical, sexual and verbal abuse.”

Lessons from Literature is designed to easily integrate into a teacher’s existing curriculum. The new lessons empower teachers to encourage students to recognize abuse and its consequences and find alternatives to violence. Teachers in communities from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Bernardino, California are piloting lesson plans from the program this spring. The novels, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Lord of the Flies, are the first two lessons available.

“Teachers are in a prime position to motivate their students to think critically about social issues, and inspire youth to think and act differently about relationships that go beyond friendship,” said NCTE Executive Director Kent Williamson. “Lessons from Literature gives teachers resources they can use to help students strengthen their academic skills while at the same time learning to recognize abusive situations and choose alternatives to violence.”

One in three teens reports knowing a friend or peer who has been hit, punched, kicked, slapped or physically hurt by a partner. Teens and young women are especially vulnerable to violence. Females ages 16 to 24 experience the highest rates of rape and sexual assault, and people age 18 and 19 experience the highest rates of stalking.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA), Partnership for 21st Century Skills and a Curriculum Council of teachers helped develop Lessons from Literature. The Curriculum Council includes six high school English Teachers selected through a national search with more than 500 applicants. The six teachers from public schools across the country are masters in their field and dedicated to helping their students build healthy, non-violent relationships. The Curriculum Council has advised in the creation of every component ofLessons from Literature, including writing lesson plans and recommending strategies to engage teens and other educators.

More than 15 million children in the United States live in families in which partner violence occurred at least once in the past year. ASCA Assistant Director Jill Cook said, “Every day millions of lives are affected by violence in the home and the community. By engaging teens and helping them think critically about abuse, respect and relationships, we have the opportunity to interrupt the cycle of interpersonal violence that affects so many young people and puts them at risk for further violence later in life.”

“If teachers can shape the way young people think and act today, the social norms that currently perpetuate violence will change tomorrow,” Soler added.

Visit www.lessonsfromliterature.org for more information and to view the materials.

President Launches Task Force to Prevent Sexual Assault on Campus

Posted by Kyle Coleman

“It is estimated that 1 in 5 women on college campuses has been sexually assaulted during their time there— 1 in 5. These young women worked so hard just to get into college, often their parents are doing everything they can to help them pay for it. So when they finally make it there only to be assaulted, that is not just a nightmare for them and their families, it’s an affront to everything they’ve worked so hard to achieve. It’s totally unacceptable.”

-President Barack Obama, January 2014

Launching an initiative to combat sexual assault on college campuses, President Obama today signed a presidential memorandum creating a task force to protect students from sexual assault. He also delivered a report compiled by the White House Council on Women and Girls that confirms nearly 22 million American women and 1.6 million men have been raped in their lifetimes.

The report, “Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action,” says that one in five women has been sexually assaulted at college but that only 12 percent of student victims report the assault. Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, chair of the Council on Women and Girls, said men must be involved to combat the problem if we are to have a cultural shift. In an interview with the Associated Press, Jarrett said, “The president is committed to solving this problem, not just as president of the United States, but as a father of two girls who will soon be heading to college.”

Hailing the work of his White House Council as well as Vice President Joe Biden, President Obama said, “Some of you have worked on these issues for years. You know how long it took for our country to get to where we are now. And it didn’t just take new laws. It took a fundamental change in our culture—a shift in our attitudes about how we think about sexual violence, and how much we value the lives and dignity of our wives and sisters and daughters and sons.

Thanks to funding from the Avon Foundation for Women, FUTURES convened an advisory group that has provided an important report that will be relevant to the task force. The report, Beyond Title IX: Guidelines for Preventing and Responding to Gender-based Violence in Higher Education, contains information for educators and senior administrators who work in higher education.

Recommendations Released on College Sexual Assault

Posted by Kyle Coleman

April 2014 marks an important step in our nation’s progress toward addressing violence against women on college campuses. FUTURES staff Casey Corcoran and Maya Raghu were at the White House when Vice President Biden released a report from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault that addresses the dramatic changes that must take place if students are to be safe during their college years.

We collaborated with our partners—including the Gender Violence Program at Harvard Law School, National Women’s Law Center, National PTA, and Hollaback!—to submit feedback to the Task Force. We’re pleased to see some of our own recommendations make it into the final report, which calls for increased transparency and accountability, new tools for data collection, prevention programming, community partnerships, and trauma-informed responses that will help schools give students a safer college experience

However, we’re eager to see increased effort around several topics that weren’t as prominent in the recommendations:

  1. Partner with Parents
    Parents are national experts on their children, but they’re often left out of the conversation. Parents deserve complete transparency on prevalence of sexual assaults on college campuses—and they should know that the most at-risk time for a college woman is the first 15 weeks of her first year, when young students are most vulnerable.
  2. Know Your Numbers
    High or low numbers alone can be misleading—they need to be explained in context of reporting rates, prevention strategies, and more. Knowing and understanding the real numbers can help schools build the right prevention and response strategies, and accurately measure success.
  3. Speak Up and Bring Rape Culture Down
    Encourage schools to implement more programs, workshops, and solutions that promote respectful attitudes on campus—starting the day first-year students step foot on campus. Engaging all bystanders, especially male leaders in athletic programs and fraternities on campus, is essential to changing the culture that tolerates rape and sexual assault.
  4. Enforce the Laws
    Let’s ensure that schools are enforcing the existing laws—including Title IX and the Clery Act—to hold them accountable for violence and harassment that takes place under their watch. Make sure your school has a Title IX coordinator on staff, and is transparent with their reporting practices.
  5. Improve the Tools
    Not every college health center in the U.S. has been given the tools and training required to serve their students. Access to trained counselors on campus is crucial, and the health centers are well positioned to take a leadership role in preventing and responding to violence that occurs both on and off campus.
  6. Start Early
    The problem of sexual assault on campus doesn’t begin or end in college. An increased focus on K-12 programs to educate young people and their parents about healthy relationships can help prevent violence before it starts.

Releasing the report was step one. Now the real work begins!

Campus Leadership Program

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Since 1998, Futures Without Violence has hosted interns in varying fields: medical, legal, public health and social work. Working with staff members at our offices, interns have benefited from the mentorship of staff while gaining knowledge of strategies to prevent violence against women and children.

In May, 2014 we brought our inaugural Campus Leaders Fellowship program (2013-2014) to a close. This program sought to spur creative, student-led action to change university policy, enhance curriculum, raise awareness and shift campus culture around dating violence, domestic violence and the connection to sexual assault, and reproductive coercion.

In preparation for our 10th cohort, we are seeking graduate-level student applicants from diverse fields including medicine, nursing, public health, social work, psychology, public policy, health care administration, and other health care related concentrations. We will be holding an in-person training in San Francisco to mark the official beginning of the program year, followed by organizing work to prevent gender based violence on individual college campuses throughout the academic year. (All dates TBD)

Program description and application are currently in the works and will be available shortly. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Anisa Ali at aali@futureswithoutviolence.org.

Download or order the Question: Who’s Got Your Back Campus Safety Card (PDF).

New Effort to Address Sexual Violence in Schools

Posted by Kyle Coleman

For the first time, the U.S. government has specifically advised schools, colleges and universities that it is their responsibility to protect students from sexual violence. At an April 4 event at the University of New Hampshire, Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan introduced a comprehensive new guidance  designed to help schools better understand their obligations to prevent and respond to sexual assaults on campus.

“Today we are strengthening our response to sexual assault in schools and on college campuses,” Biden said in remarks at the event. “Students across the country deserve the safest possible environment in which to learn. That’s why we’re taking new steps to help our nation’s schools, universities and colleges end the cycle of sexual violence on campus.”

The 19-page guidance specifies that any school, college or university receiving federal funds under Title IX has a legal obligation to respond promptly and effectively to sexual violence.  The document explains that under Title IX – the federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities – acts of sexual violence such as rape, sexual assault, sexual battery and sexual coercion are considered discrimination.

According to the new guidance, once a school knows or reasonably should know of possible sexual violence, it must take immediate and appropriate action to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred. Schools are required to try to prevent the recurrence of sexual violence and address its effects, whether or not the violent acts are the subject of a criminal investigation. In addition, the document specifies that schools must protect those who lodge complaints of sexual violence and provide procedures that ensure that both parties in sexual discrimination and violence complaints have equal opportunity to present witnesses and evidence, equal rights to file appeals and notifies both parties of the outcome.

“Schools must provide an environment where all students have an equal opportunity to learn,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali.  “Schools are often in the best position to prevent sexual violence and to respond to it promptly and effectively if it occurs.  The Department’s Office for Civil Rights is already working with schools to help them in their fight against the harmful effects of sexual violence by providing technical assistance and seeking remedies designed to stop such conduct, prevent its recurrence, and remediate its impact.”

Biden has been a tireless champion of violence prevention throughout his career. As a senator he was an author of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, groundbreaking legislation that redefined the way domestic violence is handled in law enforcement, directed improvements in the criminal justice system and established shelters and services for victims.  VAWA has been reauthorized twice, most recently in 2005, and now it supports sexual assault and stalking services and prevention, and programs serving tribal and underserved communities, children exposed to violence, and more. As vice president, he has continued and expanded this work.

“Vice President Biden has been a leader in the work to stop violence against women for decades,” said Family Violence Prevention Fund President Esta Soler.  “We commend the Administration for its commitment to making schools and campuses safer and promoting policies to prevent sexual violence against women of all ages.  Including sexual assault as a form of discrimination under Title IX is a critical step to ensure that schools, colleges and universities take sexual assault seriously and do everything they can to make their campuses safe for students.  We hope that this guidance will encourage schools to recognize that sexual violence can also occur in dating relationships, and campuses need to respond effectively to those incidents as well as to stranger rape.”

In the United States, young women aged 16 to 24 experience the highest rates of rape and sexual assault. One in five young women will be a victim of sexual assault during college, the Administration said in releasing the guidance. It provides practical examples and enforcement strategies to aid educators in ensuring the safety of their students.

“Every school would like to believe it is immune from sexual violence but the facts suggest otherwise,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Our first goal is prevention through education.  Information is always the best way to combat sexual violence.  Our larger goal is to raise awareness to an issue that should have no place in society and especially in our schools.”

Click here for a fact sheet on the new guidance and here for a fact sheet on Title IX and sexual violence. For more information about the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the anti-discrimination statutes that it enforces, please visit its website.

Start Strong: Lessons Learned From A Four-Year Initiative To Promote Healthy Relationships And Prevent Teen Dating Violence

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Start Strong: Lessons Learned From A Four-Year Initiative To Promote Healthy Relationships And Prevent Teen Dating Violence

Date Recorded: May 15, 2013

Description: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships was a four-year, $18 million initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with Blue Shield of California Foundation to target 11- to- 14-year-olds and rally entire communities to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. 11 diverse communities across the United States utilized a variety of collaborative strategies to engage youth, parents and other influencers in the effort to foster healthy relationship skills in young teens. Hear about lessons learned from the Start Strong experience.

Learning Objectives:

  • Discuss strategies to help teens build healthy relationships utilizing Start Strong’s approach to teen dating violence prevention: engaging school personnel, parents and students; and affecting community-wide social norms change.
  • Discuss lessons learned in creating healthy schools, including the role of in-school curriculum; importance of a model school policy and positive school climate.
  • Identify key components of a model school prevention policy that addresses teen dating violence and healthy relationship promotion.
  • Describe new data on dating violence behaviors and attitudes among middle school students.

Speakers:

Addressing Domestic Violence in Home Visitation Programs

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Addressing Domestic Violence in Home Visitation Programs: Opportunities for Holistic Programming and Partnerships

Date Recorded: June 21, 2012

Description: The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 and included provisions to support America’s Healthy Futures Act, a $1.5 billion dollar 5-year national initiative to support maternal infant and early childhood home visitation programs. In addition to providing funds to support these services, the legislation also included new benchmark requirements for states. One such benchmark requires home visitation programs to measure a reduction in “crime or domestic violence”.

This benchmark presents a powerful opportunity and positive challenge for home visitation programs to foster better partnerships with domestic violence advocacy services in this arena.

Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund, has been working with home visitation programs and providing domestic violence training and education for more than a decade. In response to the new federal benchmarks, authors Linda Chamberlain and Rebecca Levenson have developed and piloted a research-informed curriculum that includes PowerPoint presentations with speaker’s notes and a supporting bibliography. Healthy Moms, Happy Babies: Train the Trainers Curriculum was created to support home visitation programs in developing a core competency strategy, ensuring that all home visitation programs are equipped to help women and children living in homes with domestic violence.

Learning Objectives:

  • Background on the benchmark and national context related to home visitation
  • Overview of the home visitation curriculum and tools
  • Discussion of role of the coalitions as partners and technical assistance providers
  • Discussion of partnership strategies and sample MOUs
  • Examples of state models for collaboration

Speakers:

  • Ken Noyes, ACF/Family Violence Prevention & Services Program, U.S. DHHS
  • Rebecca Levenson, Futures Without Violence
  • Surabhi Kukke, Texas Council on Family Violence

Teen Dating Violence and Reproductive Coercion

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Teen Dating Violence and Reproductive Coercion: Innovative Opportunities for Programs and Partnerships

Date Recorded: February 27, 2012

Description: One in four adult women and one in five teens girls report experiencing physical and/or sexual dating violence at some point in their lifetime. Victims of violence are more likely to suffer long-term negative health consequences, including unplanned pregnancy, poor pregnancy outcomes and sexually transmitted infections as well as depression, and substance abuse. Studies are also uncovering high rates of reproductive coercion (which includes pregnancy pressure and direct birth control interference in an attempt to impregnate a partner against her will) which has serious implications for efforts to prevent unplanned and rapid repeat pregnancy. However, there are interventions that are helping to identify domestic violence and reproductive coercion, increase safety and decrease risk for unplanned pregnancy and STIs as well as primary prevention strategies for these issues.

In this session, the presenter will give an overview of the research on violence and its impact on health and will offer promising programs on how to respond and promote healthy relationships. Specific clinic based interventions will be featured as well as strategies for adapting these tools for community and school based settings. Presenters will also offer strategies and resources on how to collaborate with domestic/sexual violence programs in ways that better support the staff in your program and provide stronger linkages to help young women exposed to domestic violence. Tools and resources for health care providers, perinatal and community based programs will also be shared.

Speakers:

  • Evelyn Kappeler, Acting Director, Office of Adolescent Health
  • Rebecca Levenson, Senior Policy Analyst, Futures Without Violence
  • Rebecca Odor, Family Violence Prevention & Services Program Administration for Children and Families
  • Morrisa Rice, Lieutenant Commander, United States Public Health Service
  • LeBretia White, Project Officer, Family and Youth Services Bureau

Tools and Resources:

New DHHS Recommendation for Domestic Violence Screening and Counseling

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: New DHHS Recommendation for Domestic Violence Screening and Counseling

Date Recorded: July 24, 2012

Description: In August 2011, DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued new guidelines under the authority of the Affordable Care Act to ensure that women and adolescents receive preventive health services at no additional costs to patients including screening and counseling for domestic and interpersonal violence. This recommendation provides an opportunity to reach women who may not currently be served or connected to support. If providers are properly trained then the potential for positive change with medical provider responses to domestic violence is significant. Expanding screening within healthcare settings also means there is a potential increase in demand for advocacy services.

This webinar will provide an overview of the new guidelines and discuss implications for domestic violence programs, share resources from the National Health Resource Centers on Domestic Violence that can help advocates meet the training needs of health providers in their communities and share models for collaboration between advocates and providers. Speakers will also brainstorm capacity building strategies.

Speakers:

  • Marylouise Kelley, DHHS/ACF/Family Violence Prevention & Services Program
  • Lisa James, Futures Without Violence
  • Nancy Neylon, Ohio Domestic Violence Network
  • Kirsten Faisal, Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Project Connect 2.0 State/Territory Application

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Project Connect 2.0 State/Territory Application

Dates Recorded: August 14th, 2012

Description: Futures Without Violence is selecting new sites for Phase 2 of Project Connect: A Coordinated Public Health Initiative to Prevent and Respond to Violence Against Women (Project Connect 2.0), supported by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office on Women’s Health (OWH) with additional support from the Administration for Children and Families. Since 2010, Futures Without Violence, OWH and ACF have worked in partnership with ten State and Tribal pilot sites to develop policy and public heath responses to domestic and sexual violence in women’s health programs. Futures Without Violence will work with the OWH and a selection committee to select six new States or Territories and five Tribal health sites that demonstrate a strong history of collaboration between domestic and sexual violence, health care, and public health systems, as well as a capacity and interest in the proposed program.

Speaker:
Virginia Duplessis, Program Manager, Project Connect, Futures Without Violence

School-based Health Services, Adolescent Health and Anticipatory Guidance for DV/SA

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: School-based Health Services, Adolescent Health and Anticipatory Guidance for DV/SA

Date Recorded: October 10, 2012

Description: For one in five U.S. teen girls, the most vivid memories of high school will not be her junior prom or a favorite history teacher. Instead, 20% of teen girls will remember the physical abuse inflicted by someone they were dating.

Teens experiencing of relationship abuse are more likely to report unhealthy diet behaviors, engage in substance abuse, and report having suicidal thoughts. Given these sobering facts, adolescent relationship abuse is a major health concern facing teens today, and health care providers have a unique role to play in preventing it. Not only can they provide valuable prevention messages to help their patients build healthy relationships, but medical professionals are also uniquely positioned to help those exposed to abuse access the resources they need.

Clinical settings that serve adolescents in particular, such as confidential teen clinics and school health centers, are strategic sites for adolescent health promotion, prevention, and intervention. Unfortunately, the standard-of-care within adolescent health settings does not currently include specified protocols to assess for or intervene to reduce ARA. This webinar guidelines will provide participants with strategies and tools to provide universal education on safe, consensual and healthy relationships, as well as models for trauma-informed responses to disclosure of ARA.

Speakers:

  • Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD, Chief of Division of Adolescent Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
  • Erica Bisgyer Monasterio, MN, FNP-BC, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Nursing, Division of Adolescent Medicine and Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco

Addressing Domestic Violence in Home Visitation Settings

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Addressing Domestic Violence in Home Visitation Settings: Screening, Assessment & Safety Planning

Date Recorded: November 19, 2012

Description: The new federal benchmarks for home visitation require that programs document screening, and track referrals. We know that many home visitation programs are continuing to prioritize domestic violence (DV) screening, referral, and building partnerships with local DV programs. Home visitors have a unique opportunity to improve positive outcomes for their families by building partnerships and learning more about tools and assessment strategies for integrating DV screening. This webinar will help home visitors understand how to screen, refer, and document these activities as part of routine programming.

Futures Without Violence, formerly Family Violence Prevention Fund, has been working with home visitation programs and providing domestic violence training and education for more than a decade. Authors Linda Chamberlain and Rebecca Levenson have developed a research-informed curriculum, Healthy Moms, Happy Babies: Train the Trainers Curriculum to support home visitation programs in developing a core competency strategy, ensuring that all home visitation programs are equipped to help women and children living in homes with DV. This curriculum was developed in concert with both researchers and experts in the field as well as home visitation front line staff. This curriculum was developed to combine both a strong evidence-based assessment tool for the non-clinical home visitation environment, and frame it in a way that makes sense on the ground.

Speakers:

  • Rebecca Levenson, Senior Policy Analyst, Futures Without Violence
  • Laura Alfani, Idaho’s Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program
  • Surabhi Kukke, Director of Prevention Programs, Texas Council on Family Violence

Strengthening Health Care-Based Domestic Violence Programs through Evaluation: Part 1

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Strengthening Health Care-Based Domestic Violence Programs through Evaluation: Part 1

Date Recorded: January 8, 2013

Description: Many health care facilities across the U.S. have hired domestic violence/sexual assault (DV/SA) advocates to provide on-site services or utilize trained social workers and other trained health care staff to provide DV/SA intervention and referral. These models also focus on system change through policy/procedure development and staff training. Ongoing evaluation is a critical component to measure the effectiveness of such programs. This webinar is for new and experienced DV/SA advocates, health care administrators/providers and students who want to learn more about evaluating health care-based DV/SA programs. This webinar will address the importance of understanding and developing quality improvement measures and annual goals that evaluate how the program is doing; where and how efforts should be targeted; alignment with organizational priorities; and overall program improvement. The presenters will also talk about their experiences in the health care settings and how evaluation helped make their programs successful.

Speakers:

  • Nancy Durborow, Retired, former Health Projects Manager, PA Coalition Against Domestic Violence
  • Krista J. Kotz, PhD, MPH, Family Violence Prevention Program, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region
  • Annie Lewis-O’Connor, NP, MPH, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Brigid McCaw, MD, MPH, MS, Family Violence Prevention Program, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region
  • Colleen T. Moore, Family Violence Response Program, Mercy Medical Center

Strengthening Health Care-Based Domestic Violence Programs through Evaluation: Part 2

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Strengthening Health Care-based Domestic Violence Programs through Evaluation: Part 2

Date Recorded:  January 31, 2013

Description: Building on Part 1, this webinar will focus on validated tools designed to evaluate the integration of a health care-based response to domestic violence (DV), and measure physician preparedness to support patients experiencing DV. Dr. Coben will discuss the Delphi Instrument for Hospital-Based Domestic Violence Programs. This tool has been used extensively, nationally and internationally and measures nine domains of program activities. Dr. Zink will discuss the Family Violence Quality Assessment Tool for Primary Care Offices, a modified version of Dr. Coben’s Delphi Instrument. The tool may be used to assess family violence efforts in primary care at the beginning and intermittently. It is meant to be a tool for identifying deficiencies so they can be remedied and the care to patients living with violence and abuse can be improved. Dr. Short will discuss the Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS) tool. It is a comprehensive and reliable survey measuring health care provider preparedness to manage patients experiencing intimate partner violence.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the importance of developing quality improvement measures and tools.
  • Identify specific validated tools to evaluate the integration of a health care-based response to domestic violence.
  • Understand the challenges and implications of implementing quality improvement measures and tools.

Speakers:

  • Jeffrey H. Coben, MD, West Virginia University Injury Control Research Center
  • Nancy Durborow, Retired, former Health Projects Manager, PA Coalition Against Domestic Violence
  • Lynn M. Short, PhD, MPH, Analytic Systems Associates, Inc.
  • Therese Zink, MD, MPH, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Minnesota

Accreditation:

  • Social Workers (California MFT, LCSW, LEP, and LPCC)
    This course, sponsored by Futures Without Violence (License #5155), meets the qualifications for 1.5 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.For social workers outside of California: This webinar meets the qualifications for continuing education by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. It is your responsibility to determine whether the course meets your state board requirements.
  • Physicians (MD or DO only)
    Futures Without Violence’s National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
    Futures Without Violence designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Instructions for receiving CEUs/CME credits:

  1. Register for the webinar.
  2. Login to join the live webinar on January 31, 2013. Your login and log out times will be automatically recorded by the online webinar system.
  3. Complete the online evaluation form in its entirety by February 8, 2013 (the link will be provided at the end of the webinar).

Certificate of Completion:
A Certificate of Completion will be provided after steps 1-3 have been completed. Please be sure to include your full name, address, and email in the evaluation form. You will receive an electronic copy of the certificate via email approximately 5-7 business days after receipt of your evaluation form.

Cost of Activity:
There is no cost to receive credit or to participate in this webinar.

Commercial Support:
This activity received no commercial support. This webinar is sponsored by Futures Without Violence’s National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence. The Center is funded by a grant from the Family Violence Prevention & Services Program, Family & Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Conflict of Interest Declaration:
A Conflict of Interest occurs when an individual has an opportunity to effect educational content about health-care products or services of a commercial interest with which she/he has a financial relationship. The planners and presenters of this continuing education activity have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any commercial interests pertaining to this activity.

Tools and Resources:

Addressing Domestic Violence within Home Visitation Settings: Children Exposed to Domestic Violence & Its Impact on Parenting

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Addressing Domestic Violence within Home Visitation Settings: Children Exposed to Domestic Violence & Its Impact on Parenting

Date Recorded: February 19, 2013

Description: Parenting is personal, subjective and can be difficult—especially if there is a history of violence or current violence. This webinar will introduce the issue of adults’ childhood experiences with violence. We will discuss the role of the home visitor in talking with parents about their childhood experiences, using the Loving Parents, Loving Kids safety card. We will explain how talking with parents about their experiences as children can be a platform for discussing safe homes, safe strategies for caring for children, and what it means to be in a healthy relationship.

Speakers:

  • Rebecca Levenson, Senior Policy Analyst, Futures Without Violence
  • Laurie K. Crawford, Sexual and Domestic Violence Healthcare Outreach Coordinator, Virginia Department of Health,
  • PJ West, Iowa Department of Public Health

Tools and Resources:

Promoting Healthy Teen Relationships: Preventing Teen Dating Violence

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Promoting Healthy Teen Relationships: Preventing Teen Dating Violence

Date Recorded: Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Description: For one in five U.S. teen girls, the most vivid memories of high school will not be her junior prom or a favorite history teacher. Instead, 20% of teen girls will remember the abuse inflicted by someone they were dating. Teens experiencing dating violence are more likely to suffer long-term negative behavioral and health consequences, including suicide attempts, depression, substance abuse, unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. However, there are interventions that are helping to prevent dating violence, increase safety and improve health. In this session, presenters will give an overview of the research on teen dating violence and its impact on youth, and will offer promising programs on how to respond. Specific clinic interventions will be featured and tools and resources for health care providers, teachers and parents will also be shared. Participants will have the opportunity to hear from community-based providers who have developed culturally responsive prevention and intervention strategies, as well as youth-driven and youth-led prevention programs.

Learning Objectives:

  • List three health consequences for adolescents experiencing relationship abuse
  • Implement a safety card-based intervention to address adolescent relationship abuse in the clinical setting
  • List two strategies for providing culturally-responsive teen dating violence
  • Describe two youth-driven and youth-led teen dating violence prevention resources

Speakers:

  • Erica Monasterio, MN, FNP-BC, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Nursing, Division of Adolescent Medicine and Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
  • Mona Farroukh, Adolescent Health Center Programs Supervisor, ACCESS, Community Health & Research Center
  • Jess Alder, Program Manager, Start Strong Boston

Accreditation:

  • Social Workers (California MFT, LCSW, LEP, and LPCC)

This course, sponsored by Futures Without Violence (License #5155), meets the qualifications for 1.5 hours of continuing education credit for MFTs, LPCCs, LEPs, and/or LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
For social workers outside of California: This webinar meets the qualifications for continuing education by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. It is your responsibility to determine whether the course meets your state board requirements.

  • Physicians (MD or DO only)

Futures Without Violence’s National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Futures Without Violence designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Instructions for receiving CEUs/CME credits:

  1. Register for the webinar
  2. Login to join the live webinar on February 20, 2013. Your login and log out times will be automatically recorded by the online webinar system. To receive full credit, you must participate for the full 1 hour and 30 minutes.
  3. Complete the online evaluation form in its entirety by February 25, 2013 (the link will be provided at the end of the webinar).

Certificate of Completion:
A Certificate of Completion will be provided after steps 1-3 have been completed. Please be sure to include your full name, address, and email in the evaluation form. You will receive an electronic copy of the certificate via email approximately 5-7 business days after receipt of your evaluation form.

Cost of Activity:
There is no cost to receive credit or to participate in this webinar.

Commercial Support:
This activity received no commercial support. This webinar is sponsored by Futures Without Violence’s National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence. The Center is funded by a grant from the Family Violence Prevention & Services Program, Family & Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Conflict of Interest Declaration:
A Conflict of Interest occurs when an individual has an opportunity to effect educational content about health-care products or services of a commercial interest with which she/he has a financial relationship. The planners and presenters of this continuing education activity have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any commercial interests pertaining to this activity.

Shifting the Paradigm: Building Program Capacity to Effectively Serve Mothers and their Children

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Shifting the Paradigm: Building Program Capacity to Effectively Serve Mothers and their Children Together in Domestic Violence Programs

Date & Time: March 6, 2013

Description: Just as it is healthy for children to have a solid foundation from which to grow, it is critical that programs and services for children and youth within domestic violence agencies have a solid footing within their organizations. This webinar will discuss how programs can begin to assess and build capacity to effectively provide holistic services for women and their children in a deliberate and coordinated way. Presenters will outline strategies to examine or reexamine program philosophies, core values, policies and practice through the lens of child advocacy, family support, and trauma in order to create strong and healthy programs with consistent staffing and effective outcomes. The importance of engaging program leadership will also be discussed. This webinar is part of the Promising Futures: Best Practices for Serving Children, Youth, and Parents Experiencing Domestic Violence project. More information can be found at www.promisingfutureswithoutviolence.org.

This webinar is presented by the Family Violence Prevention & Services Program, Family & Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Futures Without Violence.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the benefits and challenges of providing coordinated comprehensive services for children/youth and their mothers within domestic violence programs.
  • Be able to implement strategies to examine or reexamine program philosophies, core values, policies and practice through the lens of providing holistic services for mothers and their children.
  • Understand the role of advocates and program leadership in building program capacity to provide these services.

Speakers:

  • Amy Torchia, Children’s Advocacy Coordinator at Vermont Network Agasinst Domestic and Sexual Violence
  • Leiana Kinnicutt, Program Manager of Children & Youth Programs, Futures Without Violence

A Survivor’s Journey: Understanding the Health Impact of Abuse and Paths to Promote Wellness

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: A Survivor’s Journey: Understanding the Health Impact of Abuse and Paths to Promote Wellness

Date Recorded: March 25, 2013

Description: This webinar will explore the health impact of abuse from the experience of one survivor of violence, and discover how she learned to become proactive in her healthcare. This webinar is targeted to domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA) advocates and healthcare providers.

This webinar is presented by the National Health Resource Center on Domestic Violence with support from the Family Violence Prevention & Services Program, Family & Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Learning Objectives:

  • The impact that psychological trauma can have on a survivor’s ability to actively care for her health and wellness.
  • The role of advocates and other survivor-focused programs, such as free dental and reconstructive surgery programs, to help improve the healing and wellness of survivors of violence.

Speaker:
Olga Trujillo, JD, is an independent consultant, nationally renowned speaker, survivor, and attorney dedicated to enhancing understanding of – and building effective responses to – violence against women and children.

Resources:

Group Work with Mothers Experiencing Domestic Violence and their Children in Wisconsin

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Group Work with Mothers Experiencing Domestic Violence and their Children in Wisconsin

Date Recorded: May 3, 2013

Description: Through the Growing Together Project of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, advocates in have been assessing the impact of domestic violence on mother-child bonds and developing culturally-specific approaches to bringing mothers and children together to rebuild their relationships. In this webinar, participants will learn what focus groups with battered mothers and children/youth exposed to domestic violence revealed about the impact of domestic abuse on family relationships. Two community-based conjoint support groups for mothers and children coping with the domestic violence will be presented.

This webinar is presented by the Family Violence Prevention & Services Program, Family & Youth Services Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Futures Without Violence.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn about the impact of DV on parenting and mother-child relationships as reported by WCADV focus group participants
  • Hear about the successes and challenges of creating new support and education groups in rural Wisconsin to strengthen bonds between first generation Mexican immigrant DV survivors and their acculturated teen sons and daughters
  • Understand the evolution and outcomes of a ten-year project to strengthen relationships between battered mothers and their children in an urban environment

Speakers:

  • Ann Brickson, the Children and Youth Porgram Coordinator for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
  • Andrea Oyuela, the Coordinator of the Hispanic Outreach Program at the Women’s Community of Wasau, WI.
  • Jessica Trauth, the Associate Director of Shelter Services for the Sojourner Family Peace Center.

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Influencers

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Influencers

Date & Time: June 5, 2013

Description: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Lessons from a four-year, multi-million dollar initiative on engaging and educating influencers of young adolescents, particularly parents/caregivers and older teens, on healthy relationships and teen dating violence prevention.

Speakers:

  • Lisa Sohn, Program Director, Futures Without Violence
  • Barbara Ball, Ph.D., Program Evaluation Specialist, SafePlace
  • Nancy Carroll, Former Start Strong Wichita Project Director
  • Christina Garcia, Program Manager, Sojourner House
  • Paige Nelson, YouthINC Director, Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership
  • Zach Reider, Start Strong Idaho Teen Leader
  • Melissa Ruth, MS, LCPC, Program Manager, Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence

Redefining Safety Planning in the Context of Reproductive Coercion

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Redefining Safety Planning in the Context of Reproductive Coercion: Integrating Assessment for Emergency Contraception Within Domestic Violence Shelter and Advocacy Programs

Date Recorded: June 18, 2013

Description: Reproductive Coercion is a relatively new concept in the field—simply defined, it is when a partner is trying to get a woman pregnant against her will or control the outcome of a pregnancy through threats, intimidation or by tampering with contraceptive (birth control) methods. Emergency Contraception (also known as EC or the “morning after pill”) can be taken up to 5 days after unintended/unwanted sex to prevent pregnancy by a perpetrator. Various domestic violence programs across the country have been integrating assessment for reproductive coercion and helping survivors get EC during intake or within a 24-hour time period after arrival to shelter. For some programs, this was simple to implement, others experienced some resistance and confusion. This webinar will explore successes and barriers that these programs encountered and discuss promising practices based on their experiences.

This webinar is presented by Futures Without Violence with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define reproductive coercion for staff providing domestic violence services.
  • Define Emergency Contraception (EC) and how it works.
  • Describe the impact of domestic violence on reproductive health outcomes.
  • Learn from domestic violence programs about their experiences integrating EC, including how to support staff who may have discomfort or concerns about this activity.
  • Understand how to develop an MOU between a local shelter and public health program, or reproductive clinic and how alliehealth services can support access to EC for survivors.
  • Learn about an innovation from the state of Wisconsin (lock box) to support advocacy services.

Speakers:

  • Rebecca Levenson, Senior Policy Analyst, Futures Without Violence
  • Laurie Thompsen, Health & Mental Health Coordinator, West Virginia Coalition Against DV
  • Nicole Molinaro Karaczun, Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh
  • Leigh Hofheimer, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
  • Andrea Paine, Director of Programs, Domestic Abuse Women’s Network (DAWN)
  • Lon Newman, Executive Director, Family Planning Health Services, Inc.
  • Binnie LeHew, Office of Disability, Injury & Violence Prevention, Iowa Dept. of Public Health
  • Laurie K. Crawford, Virginia Department of Health

Resources:

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Social Marketing

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Social Marketing

Date & Time: June 26, 2013

Description: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Lessons from a four-year, multi-million dollar initiative on utilizing social marketing and communications to engage communities and change social norms around healthy relationships and teen dating violence prevention.

Speakers:

  • Debbie Lee, Senior Vice President, Futures Without Violence
  • Nancy Carroll, Former Start Strong Wichita Project Director
  • Nicole Daley, Direct of Start Strong, Boston Public Health Commission
  • Christina Garcia, Program Manager, Sojourner House
  • Khadija Khan, Start Strong Idaho Teen Leader
  • Melissa Ruth, MS, LCPC, Program Manager, Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – In- and Out -of-School Settings

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – In-and Out-of-School Settings

Date Recorded: July 17, 2013

Description: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Lessons from a four-year, multi-million dollar initiative on working in- and out-of-schools to educate and engage middle school students on healthy relationship promotion and teen dating violence prevention.

Speakers:

  • Lisa Sohn, Program Director, Futures Without Violence
  • Nancy Carroll, Former Start Strong Wichita Project Director
  • Christina Garcia, Program Manager, Sojourner House
  • Lili Herrera, Director, Peace Over Violence
  • Paige Nelson, YouthINC Director, Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – School and District Policies

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – School and District Policies

Date Recorded: August 7, 2013

Description: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Lessons from a four-year, multi-million dollar initiative on promoting healthy relationships and preventing teen dating violence through school and district policies.

Speakers:

  • Debbie Lee, Senior Vice President, Futures Without Violence
  • Emily Austin, Peace Over Violence, Director of Policy and Evaluation
  • Barri Rosenbluth, SafePlace, Expect Respect Program Director

Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Evaluation

Posted by Kyle Coleman

Title: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships – Evaluation

Date Recorded: September 17, 2013

Description: Start Strong: Building Healthy Teen Relationships was a four-year, $18 million initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with Blue Shield of California Foundation to target 11- to- 14-year-olds and rally entire communities to promote healthy relationships as the way to prevent teen dating violence and abuse. 11 diverse communities across the United States utilized a variety of collaborative strategies to engage youth, parents and other influencers in the effort to foster healthy relationship skills in young teens. Results from evaluation of Start Strong initiative will be presented.

Speakers:

  • Laura Hogan, Futures Without Violence, Start Strong Co-Director
  • Dr. Shari Miller, RTI International, Research Psychologist
  • Deborah A. Gibbs, MSPH, RTI International, Deputy Program Director