Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Substance Use

NCDVTMH is pleased to announce the forthcoming Family-Centered Toolkit for Domestic Violence Programs – a new resource to expand organizational capacity for family-centered programming. Historically, the DV field has separated services for adults and services for children and youth, rather than taking an integrated approach that centers the relationships between adult survivors and their children. NCDVTMH’s Family-Centered Toolkit for Domestic Violence Programs helps programs envision and implement an integrated approach that supports parent-child relationships and families with a range of culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and developmentally sensitive services.

In response to the highly varied, complex situations and needs presented by caregivers, children, and families experiencing domestic violence, DV program staff will find NCDVTMH’s Family-Centered Toolkit a welcome, step by step resource for building an integrated approach to family-centered services. The toolkit offers knowledge, best practice guidance, and accessible resources for DV advocates, program staff, and supervisors to enhance and sustain family-centered services within DV programs.

To launch the Family-Centered Toolkit, the co-authors presented a three-part webinar series, this is part 2.

Part 2 (October 27) focuses more specifically on programming and best practices around responding to the needs of children, teens, and their caregivers, plus a demonstration on applying one of the learning vignettes designed to enhance practice with families.

NCDVTMH is pleased to announce the forthcoming Family-Centered Toolkit for Domestic Violence Programs – a new resource to expand organizational capacity for family-centered programming. Historically, the DV field has separated services for adults and services for children and youth, rather than taking an integrated approach that centers the relationships between adult survivors and their children. NCDVTMH’s Family-Centered Toolkit for Domestic Violence Programs helps programs envision and implement an integrated approach that supports parent-child relationships and families with a range of culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and developmentally sensitive services.

In response to the highly varied, complex situations and needs presented by caregivers, children, and families experiencing domestic violence, DV program staff will find NCDVTMH’s Family-Centered Toolkit a welcome, step by step resource for building an integrated approach to family-centered services. The toolkit offers knowledge, best practice guidance, and accessible resources for DV advocates, program staff, and supervisors to enhance and sustain family-centered services within DV programs.

To launch the Family-Centered Toolkit, the co-authors presented a three-part webinar series, this is part 3.

Part 3 (November 3) explores sections in the toolkit on engaging and supporting caregivers and their families; this includes how to use developmentally sensitive activities to strengthen parent-child relationships and promote wellbeing and resilience. This last webinar in the series will also host a panel of domestic violence program staff reflecting on how the toolkit can be applied to your program and organization.

As our field adapts, supervisors provide a foundation for staff in domestic and sexual violence programs to work in ways that are inclusive, accessible, survivor-defined, and trauma informed. Our supervisory approaches are key to addressing survivor needs, staff support, and organizational culture as we navigate challenges, changes, and opportunities for growth. This webinar will explore the qualities that are essential to change leadership and share strategies for adding reflective practice as a component of effective supervision.

Reflection offers opportunities for staff to experience trusting, accountable, and strengths-based relationships and at the same time, offers program leaders a process that supports and sustains changes in organizational policy, practice, and culture.

This session will deepen the application of the concepts learned in all of the preceding webinars in this series and offer a more in-depth method for supporting survivors to safety plan around their substance use in the context of domestic violence. This session includes guidance and examples of supporting survivors to create a plan that reduces risks related to substance use while also supporting their self-defined goals, including health, safety, and overall well-being for themselves and their families.

This webinar is the fourth in a series based on NCDVTMH’s new guide: Committed to Safety for ALL Survivors: Guidance for Domestic Violence Programs on Supporting Survivors Who Use Substances. This session will provide:

• A framework for providing survivor-defined support that includes strategies for assessing where people are in relation to their substance use
• Guidance on what kinds of approaches and resources may be helpful based on where people are
• Information on the internal and external resources that promote healing and recovery for individuals experiencing chaotic substance use
• An opportunity for advocates and programs to reflect on what resources are already available within their services, as well as gather ideas from other programs about how additional recovery resources could be added or expanded.

This webinar is the third in a series based on NCDVTMH’s new guide: Committed to Safety for ALL Survivors: Guidance for Domestic Violence Programs on Supporting Survivors Who Use Substances.

This session will provide concrete guidance on organizational policies and practices that promote safety within program settings for survivors who use substances, survivors who do not use substances, children, and staff; all within an accessible, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed (ACRTI) approach.

This webinar is the second in a series based on NCDVTMH’s new guide: Committed to Safety for ALL Survivors: Guidance for Domestic Violence Programs on Supporting Survivors Who Use Substances.

This webinar provides a framework for unpacking the uniquely personal dynamics of substance use experiences, including information on intersecting factors that contribute to ongoing substance use. Through understanding the layers of complexity involved in substance use, advocates will be prepared to respond to survivors who use substances with deeper empathy, active listening, individualized approaches, and collaborative partnerships with survivors. This webinar will also help clarify the connections between substance use and domestic violence and offer tips for opening conversations about substance use within domestic and sexual violence advocacy services.

People who abuse their partners often coerce them into using substances, including deliberately sabotaging their recovery attempts. This insidious form of power and control cuts across every facet of a survivor’s life and has potentially lethal effects. Forcibly keeping a survivor reliant on substances can harm their mental and physical health, impact their relationship with and custody of their children, interfere with their housing and employment, and create other barriers to getting help.

During National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we mourn those who have lost their lives to domestic violence and celebrate the resiliency of all survivors. We reflect on the progress we have made and connect with those engaged in this vital work. Join us as we share knowledge about substance use coercion and examine ways that we can all make a difference in the work we do.

Presenters will discuss the current state of research on substance use coercion; insights and recommendations from people with lived experience; and innovative responses to the intersecting issues of substance use, intimate partner violence, and substance use coercion. We will conclude with recommendations for addressing substance use coercion by federal agencies and by the domestic and sexual violence violence, substance use, and research fields.

Sponsored by:

US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau’s (FYSB) Family Violence Prevention and Services (FVPSA) Program and NCDVTMH

This webinar, in honor of Recovery Month (September) and Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October), is the first in a series based on NCDVTMH’s new guide, Committed to Safety for ALL Survivors: Guidance for Domestic Violence Programs on Supporting Survivors Who Use Substances, to be released on September 30th, 2020.

Domestic and sexual violence (DSV) can have significant effects on one’s health and mental health, including increased risk for substance use concerns. In addition to using substances in order to cope with experiences of violence, survivors of substance use coercion may also be coerced to use substances, face increased violence if they do not use substances, and have their attempts to engage in treatment and recovery sabotaged by an intimate partner or ex-partner. At the same time, many advocates feel unprepared to help survivors address concerns related to substance use and substance use coercion, resulting in increased barriers and risk of revictimization. This webinar will introduce advocates to the newly released guide as well as provide a framework for an Accessible, Culturally Responsive, and Trauma-Informed (ACRTI) approach to advocacy with survivors who use substances.