With a growing evidence-base for interventions like Shifting Boundaries that focus on improving school environments to prevent teen dating violence and sexual violence, practitioners are increasingly implementing efforts that combine classroom lessons along with school-wide changes. The Shifting Boundaries curriculum is an evidence-based, multi-level program for middle school students to prevent sexual harassment and precursors to dating violence. The program is unique in that it embraces an environmental approach that identifies multiple strategies to support young people. As part of the Rape Prevention and Education Program, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is implementing Shifting Boundaries with two local partners: Safequest Solano (in Fairfield) and Center for Non Violent Community (in Sonora). Together the state and local partners are working to comprehensively improve school climate and build environments that support safety for students and school staff. This has involved gaining school buy-in, implementing the curriculum and acting on recommendations for school-wide changes.

The Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (ANDVSA) is a statewide dual domestic violence and sexual assault coalition with 19-member organizations. Their vision is to promote and sustain a collective movement to end violence and oppression through social change. As a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) DELTA Impact grantee, ANDVSA is working with the YWCA of Alaska to close the gender wage gap as part of its efforts to improve economic supports for women and families and prevent sexual and domestic violence. The CDC’s technical packages on sexual and domestic violence include this approach as a promising practice based on research showing that economic inequality is a known risk factor for both sexual and domestic violence.

The Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN) believes that ending gender-based violence requires a collective voice for social and systemic change. Interested in improving economic supports for women and families, a recommended best practice for domestic violence prevention, ODVN is working with the Ohio Women’s Public Policy Network (OWPPN) to collaboratively advance economic security in the state. These two networks and their partners are building an understanding of and advocating for wage equity and other worker supports in the state. 

Prevention Institute participated in the California IPV and Health Policy Leadership Cohort and explored policy and practice changes to move upstream and address community-level factors...

Founded in 2008, Multicultural Efforts to End Sexual Assault (MESA) is a statewide program focused on preventing sexual violence in traditionally marginalized communities in Indiana, including, Asian/Pacific Islander, immigrant, farmworker, Latino/Hispanic, LGBTQ, Native American, Indigenous, and people with disabilities. With the goal of establishing healthier relationships, families and communities, MESA organizes, engages, and mobilizes in culturally-informed ways.

In this profile, Dr. Theresa Armstead behavioral scientist in the Division of Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)and Wendi L. Siebold, President and Senior Research Associate at Strategic Prevention Solutions share their expertise and experience in evaluating violence prevention at a community-level. Community level indicators look beyond individual behavior changes to describe changes within the community environment that have the potential to shape outcomes for the population as a whole. This evaluation method falls in line with movement in the violence prevention field to consider and influence factors at the community and societal levels of the social-ecological model. It also aligns with the field’s interest in addressing factors across many forms of violence, marked in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s strategic direction toward connecting the dots between sexual, domestic and other forms of violence.

The Oregon Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence has spent time identifying how oppression against and within communities of color and other marginalized communities contributes to sexual and domestic violence. Further, they are exploring how to cultivate anti-oppressive practices that promote violence prevention. The coalition has developed a framework and project called “Prevention through Liberation” and is funding communities such as Proyecto UNICA to advance the work.

The 2014-2015 school year marked the beginning of a partnership between Victoria Dickman-Burnett, a PhD candidate at the University of Cincinnati and Maribeth Geaman, an Advanced Placement and college-prep English teacher at Findlay High School. Their partnership started with the development and delivery of mini lessons on sexual violence prevention, and has since turned into a full curriculum being implemented in Maribeth’s English classroom. They are using arts-based approaches and encouraging participatory action among students to take on sexual violence to make it a school prevention issue.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has adopted hotspot mapping as part of its strategic plan to prevent sexual violence and related safety and health issues. The process brings school communities together to physically map safe and unsafe spaces, while building trusting relationships and empowering youth to be part of developing solutions. Twelve schools in Colorado are piloting this initiative to improving school climate and prevent multiple forms of violence, including sexual and teen dating violence.

Elise Lopez, Assistant Director of the Relationship Violence Program at the Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona, focuses her research on environmentaland policy-level prevention of sexual assault. Working with the Arizona Safer Bars Alliance, one of her areas of expertise relates to reducing sexual aggression in bar settings across Arizona by bridging the links between alcohol and sexual and domestic violence.