Greening and other built environment strategies
Supporting thriving youth in Salinas, CA through community-informed environmental design strategies
In Salinas, California, residents in neighborhoods are mobilizing to achieve community safety and prevent violence affecting youth. With a growing evidence base showing how environments can shape behavior, the Monterey County Health Department and Building Healthy Communities initiative are engaging residents in transforming the physical/built and social environments. Their goal is to support health, safety, wellbeing, and prevent violence. As the sexual and domestic violence prevention field increases its capacity to address shared risk and protective factors across forms of violence, environmental strategies like this are valuable to consider
Greening Spaces as an Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Strategy in Michigan
In 2018, the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCEDSV) initiated a five-year effort focused on “greening” to prevent intimate partner violence. Greening spaces means increasing utilization and equitable access to parks, gardens and other types of vegetation to create a warm and welcoming environment in the community. While MCEDSV has focused on violence prevention for years, this is the first time they’re specifically digging into the relationship between the physical/built environment and intimate partner violence perpetration. This expansion is funded through a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) DELTA Impact grant.
Economic Security
Implementing Paid Family Leave across California: Strengthening Economic Supports to Prevent Multiple Forms of Violence
Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights pathways by which paid parental leave can support reductions in intimate partner violence. Paid parental leave has been shown to reduce financial stress, increase egalitarian parenting practices and promote child/parent bonding. While recognizing that changing economic conditions alone won’t prevent all violence, in 2018, the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (the Partnership) identified a strategic opportunity to set a priority around improving economic supports for women and families. Within this, the Partnership decided to focus in on paid family leave, a policy that allows individuals to take paid time off to care for sick family members, or to bond with a new child. The Partnership has strengthened collaborative efforts working with the California Work & Family Coalition who led the campaign to win the first paid family leave law in the state back in 2002 – which was the first of its kind in the country.
The passing of SB 608: A housing stability and sexual and domestic violence prevention win in Oregon
As housing instability concerns grow across the country, the state of Oregon is taking action to support local families. Housing stability means “having choice over when and under what circumstances a household wants to move.”i On February 28, 2019, as a way to address the housing concerns felt by 40 percent of Oregon households who rent their homes, the state passed Senate Bill (SB) 608, which limits no-cause evictions and the amount that landlords can increase rent each year. Passing this bill required a broad and organized coalition of advocates. As part of the coalition, sexual and domestic violence agencies and survivors were able to make the case for why housing stability is critical both for preventing sexual and domestic violence and preventing homelessness of survivors of violence.
Culture change
Culture-Change as a Domestic Violence Prevention Strategy in Fresno County, California Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas, a collaborative based in Fresno, California, is a newcomer to domestic violence prevention with a long history of implementing culturally-rooted policy, systems, and environmental change strategies to promote healthy eating and active living. After recognizing the need in the Latino community in Fresno, Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas is now developing culture-change strategies to prevent domestic violence and support safe relationships.
CHAN-BOF FOR PEACE Challenging oppressive cultural norms in the Hmong community for domestic violence prevention CHAN-BOF for Peace is a California-based collaborative with a rich history of working within the field of domestic violence prevention and with expertise in culturally responsive approach-es to end gender-based violence in the Hmong community. CHAN, which stands for California Hmong Advocates Network, is comprised of Hmong advocates, working to address and provide culturally-responsive direct services to survivors. The advocates are doing so through the domestic violence organizations they work for. BOF stands for Building our Future, a net-work that mobilizes the Hmong community to change cultural practices, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs through the lens of gender equity.