The purpose of our application is to address Intimate partner violence (IPV) in Pennsylvania (PA) using prevention strategies to address risk factors at the community and state level and for marginalized populations. Our CCRs will address food insecurity and community cohesion through the development of community gardens and greening environments; and promote social cohesion and positive community dynamics using Coaching Boys into Men. Finally, at a state and local level, education, advocacy, and training on comparable worth will address diminished economic opportunities.
IPV is a pervasive, preventable public health issue nationally and in Pennsylvania. The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and the country’s confrontation with systemic racism following the death of George Floyd have exacerbated the prevalence and impact of IPV. Prior to COVID-19, systemic racism and other oppressions have worked to create deep disparities in risk factors and rates of IPV among people who hold identities that have been marginalized by society. These disparities were created and are maintained by inequities in access to power, opportunities, and resources; they impact someone’s risk for experiencing IPV and their overall health. Pennsylvania sees the same disparities in its diverse landscape. The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) has begun to identify its unique risk factors at the community and societal levels to inform our prevention strategies with the goal of health equity. We propose a collaborative approach in urban and rural settings, using partners and data to inform, evaluate, and disseminate our prevention strategies in creating protective environments, engaging influential adults and peers, and strengthening economic supports for families.¿¿¿
Through state- and community-level efforts, PCADV anticipates improvements in the following outcomes: increased networking and collaboration among national, state, and local partners, increased access to and use of data, increased knowledge of IPV prevention approaches, increase in implementation and evaluation of PPEs, increase in policies that promote pay equity, and an overall increase in community and societal level protective factors and decrease in risk factors related to IPV. Related to networking, the proposed CCRs and PPEs were selected to facilitate collaboration and cross-training rather than having siloed CCRs or efforts. Each CCR is a subject matter expert in one of the PPEs, so networking, collaboration, and support will occur continuously and organically among CCRs.
PCADV has chosen two CCRs to work with on this project – CCR1 is the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County (DVCCC) in Chester County and CCR2 is Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern PA (DVSSPA) in Greene County. In these counties, the local CCRs will implement all three PPEs, and PCADV will support the evaluation and sharing of these efforts and implement strategies to improve comparable worth policies at the state level.
