Addressing Domestic Violence in Home Visitation Programs
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
