DELTA FOCUS: Engaging Men and Boys as IPV Prevention Allies
The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence has released the second of its 7-part series of stories for the new Innovation section of the PreventIPV website. This exciting project features lessons learned from the DELTA FOCUS program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Organized by key themes and released throughout the year, each story identifies promising community- and societal-level strategies to prevent intimate partner violence by influencing the environments and conditions in which people live, work, and play. Each story theme includes key lessons learned and highlighted strategies, tools for adaptation, highlighted projects, and related resources from DELTA FOCUS grantees that will contribute to our collective learning.
The newest story, Engaging Men and Boys as IPV Prevention Allies, features lessons from three coalitions in Alaska, Ohio, and Rhode Island that implemented approaches to engage men and boys in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) prevention: Alaska Men Choose Respect, Ohio Men’s Action Network (OHMAN), and Ten Men.
“Given how nascent men’s engagement is to IPV prevention, and given the paucity of literature in this area, it is proving very helpful to work closely with… participants to learn from their experience. At this stage, practice-informed evaluation is critical.” – Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence staff
These approaches provide men a clear point of entry in the movement, an opportunity to establish a personal commitment to IPV prevention, and concrete activities to help prevent IPV in their lives and communities. Key strategies included media messaging, social norms campaigns, networking/coalition work, peer support, mentorship, and skill building around leveraging community influence to impact change. Their experiences highlight the value of taking a learning approach in an area where there is limited information on potential barriers and facilitators to implementation.
Visit PreventIPV’s Innovation webpage to learn more.
Also available: Engaging Youth in IPV Prevention - featuring lessons from five community coalitions whose approaches focus on building youth’s leadership skills, engaging them in shifting norms related to violence, and strengthening community-level protective factors for IPV.
