Safety and Healing in Networks of Equity (SHINE) is a California project stewarded by Prevention Institute, co-created with a Learning Community of five collaboratives, and supported by the Blue Shield of California Foundation. The collaboratives build community leadership and power for safety through advocacy for housing and economic justice, holistic youth and family support, and community-based intergenerational healing. They are transforming community environments so that populations harmed by structural inequities and domestic violence have equitable access to conditions for safety and healing.
The five collaboratives are:
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The Center at McKinleyville, led by the McKinleyville Family Resource Center
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The East African Youth Collaborative, led by United Women of East Africa
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We Take Care of Each Other Partnership, led by RYSE Youth Center, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, and the CHAT Project
Prevention Institute and Blue Shield of California Foundation also participate in the Learning Community as co-learners who practice sharing power and play specific supporting roles in the project.
The project name, Safety, and Healing in Networks of Equity (SHINE), describes the project’s core elements and gives a nod to Shine Theory, the theory that people achieve collective success through a commitment to long-term mutual investment and cooperation over competition.
SHINE builds on the work of Safety Through Connection (November 2018-March 2024), a project that invested in the leadership of culturally rooted collaboratives to address the root causes of domestic violence and health inequities.
In this next phase of the work, over 18 months (April 2024-September 2025), SHINE collaboratives will deepen their collaborative efforts to address the root causes of domestic violence and promote safety and healing, with a greater emphasis on shifting public discourse and influencing policies, systems, and resources. In addition to the collaborative’s work, project activities include: state-level policy and systems change advocacy, evaluation, communications, and sustainability planning.
SHINE Project Framework
The SHINE Project Framework articulates the project approach and anticipated outcomes. The framework was developed through a series of conversations with Prevention Institute and SHINE collaborative representatives held through monthly learning sessions from May through August 2024 facilitated by Eternal Knot Evaluation. The framework lays out the nuanced analysis of conditions that contribute to domestic violence in SHINE communities and describes the SHINE core values, the collaboratives’ local strategies, and the learning community strategies designed to support and amplify the local work. The framework also articulates anticipated outcomes at the individual, community, and statewide levels and the long-term change that moves the needle on the root causes of domestic violence and promotes broader racial, gender, immigrant, and economic justice for thriving, equitable SHINE communities.
Project activities:
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Local strategies: Collaboratives implement local strategies to address the root causes of domestic violence and advance housing and economic justice, holistic youth and family support, and community-based healing for populations most impacted by domestic violence and health inequities. Local strategies include a) community power-building, b) network- and ecosystem-building, and b) advocacy to influence policies, systems, and resources. Collaboratives also make warm referrals for people who, through the course of project activities, disclose experiences of domestic violence and request assistance with connecting to services and support.
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Capacity-building: Collaboratives shape and participate in capacity-building activities, including coaching, reflection, and collective learning.
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State-level policy and systems change advocacy: Prevention Institute and collaboratives participate in state-level policy and systems change activities, including state systems change efforts and ENACT Day non-lobbying state policy advocacy.
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Evaluation: Eternal Knot Evaluation is conducting a retrospective evaluation to capture the project’s approach, outcomes, bright spots, and challenges, and surface a project framework.
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Communications: Prevention Institute and collaboratives implement strategic communications activities to shape narratives related to domestic violence, safety, health equity, and racial justice, using both written and visual storytelling.
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Sustainability: Prevention Institute leads sustainability planning in service to the project’s continued operation and impact. Collaboratives help to inform these efforts.
The Foundation: Safety Through Connection (November 2018-March 2024)
Safety Through Connection was a California program launched in 2018 with support from Blue Shield of California Foundation to sustain and grow collaborative community-driven, place-based, culture and systems change for health equity, safe relationships, and prevention of domestic violence (also referred to as intimate partner violence, relationship violence, and other terms).
Safety Through Connection was a learning program designed to increase understanding of how existing community collaboratives can enhance their capacity and partnerships and implement, evaluate, and sustain domestic violence prevention as a priority within a broader community agenda. Collaboratives drew on their community and collaborative strengths to engage community members, nurture courageous and sustainable leadership, build collective power, and influence cultures, systems, and policies that address the root causes of domestic violence. With support from capacity-building activities facilitated by PI, the collaboratives cultivated a Learning Community.
After the first year of the program, collaboratives indicated in a survey that they increased their understanding of domestic violence in the community, had more concrete ideas of how they could contribute to domestic violence prevention, and were more connected to others in the state working on domestic violence prevention compared to before their participation. Over 95% of those surveyed reported that participating in Safety Through Connection strengthened their collaborative. Since the initial planning year, the collaboratives have influenced the underlying contributors to domestic violence and other health inequities and created community environments that support health equity and safe relationships through multiple strategies.
Over five years of intentional work, the collaboratives expanded their local efforts to include a) community power-building among populations most impacted by domestic violence, b) network- and ecosystem-building, and c) advocacy to shift cultural norms and narratives, policies, systems, and budgets. The Learning Community also evolved into a network committed to collective action.
In 2023, the Learning Community identified local and state-level priorities: building safety through housing and economic justice, holistic youth and family support, and community-based intergenerational healing. The Learning Community also identified the desire to increase focus in the coming years on evaluation, framework development, and storytelling to amplify the project’s unique approach, successes, challenges, and lessons. To reflect the evolution of the project, the Learning Community selected a new project name, Safety and Healing in Networks of Equity (SHINE).
In The Media
September 2024: Hope as Memories of the Future, Hope as a Practice
June 2024: Act as an Ecosystem to Advance Just Policy Solutions
February 2024: End gender-based violence by standing with Indigenous communities
November 2023: The power of gathering: Building safe, equitable, and joyous futures through story sharing
December 2022: Impact Story: Safety Through Connection
November 2022: (Re)Weaving people, networks, and collective power to create safety and equity
November 2020: Commentary: Refugees in San Diego are struggling with pandemic challenges. We know, we surveyed them
October 2019: Safety Through Connection, Part Two: Imagine a world without intimate partner violence
March 2019: An Expanded Strategy For Breaking The Cycle Of Domestic Violence
February 2019: Safety Through Connection: Interviews with Community Leaders Podcast
2018: Economic Security and Safe Relationships: Pathways and Actions for Partner Violence Prevention
December 2018: KVPR’s Valley Edition radio interview with Genoveva Islas of Cultiva La Salud
November 2018: California Health Report: New Initiative Encourages Community-Generated Efforts to Prevent Domestic Violence
Profiles, Presentations, And Podcasts
April 2024: Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas profile
April 2024: The Center at McKinleyville profile
April 2024: East African Youth Collaborative profile
April 2023: Presentation by UWEAST at the Building Bridges Across the California Ecosystem to Prevent Gender-Based Violence Convening: Culturally Responsive Approach to Prevent GBV Among East African Communities.
October 2020: Presentation at the American Public Health Association Meeting: Safety through connection: Engaging multisector collaboratives in promoting safe relationships
November 2019: Presentation about Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas, PreventConnect web conference, Culture-change for Prevention: Advancing Prevention Within and Beyond the Sexual and Domestic Violence Field
November 2019: Podcast about Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas, Culture-change for Prevention: Beyond the Field with Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas
November 2019: Written profile about Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas, Culture-Change as a Domestic Violence Prevention Strategy in Fresno County, California
Please direct questions related to this project to Lisa Fujie Parks at Lisa@preventioninstitute.org.