Dr. Kristen Ravi, College of Social Work (CSW) and Dr. Megan Haselschwerdt, College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences (CEHHS), along with their community partners, the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (Nashville) and The Mary Parrish Center (a housing focused nonprofit serving survivors of interpersonal violence in Nashville), received over $695,000 in funding across two years from the Administration for Children and Families Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services (OFVPS) to address the physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral impact domestic violence has on survivor mothers and their children through a demonstration grant. Dr. Ravi and Dr. Haselschwerdt serve as the project research and evaluation team, and The Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence (Executive Director Jennifer Escue), and The Mary Parrish Center (Executive Director Mary Katherine Rand) serve as the program implementation arm of the team.
The grant entails implementing and evaluating individual and family therapy and evidenced-based group interventions, Mom’s Empowerment Program and Kids Club. Mom’s Empowerment Program is a parenting program that aims to support survivor mothers who are parenting children exposed to domestic violence. Kids Club is an intervention that seeks to reduce children’s behavioral and adjustment difficulties related to family violence exposure. Additionally, the project will create a statewide learning collaborative of stakeholders and service providers led by the Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence. Participating stakeholders and providers will receive training and technical assistance throughout the program period to better understand and meet the needs of survivor mothers and their children.
The Tennessee Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence is located in Nashville. Its mission is to end domestic and sexual violence in the lives of Tennesseans and to change societal attitudes and institutions that promote and condone violence, through public policy advocacy, education and activities that increase the capacity of programs and communities to address such violence.
The Mary Parrish Center, provides transitional and permanent housing including a full array of no-cost, comprehensive services to survivors of interpersonal violence, which includes domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and/or human trafficking. Born out of a need identified by advocates in the community, the center spent years assisting victims with the order of protection process and providing support for their next steps. In 2019, the center was granted funding from The US Department of Housing and Urban Development to develop two new programs: the Rapid Re-housing Program and the Coordinated Entry Process specific to survivors of interpersonal violence.
CSW and CEHHS are thrilled to have faculty members working with community partners to secure grant funding for such an important need. “Supporting the maternal-child bond and positive parenting are critical to protecting against adverse outcomes associated with children’s exposure to domestic violence” Ravi stated. “Maternal warmth, strong maternal-child attachment, and effective parenting skills have been associated with the positive children’s behavioral, emotional, and cognitive development.”
Haselschwerdt agrees that the grant will provide much-needed evidence-based interventions and knowledge beyond the mothers and children in the interventions. “Stakeholders and providers working with survivor mothers and their children work tirelessly to meet their needs, yet few evidence-based interventions have been implemented in Tennessee for survivors and their children.” She added, “Less is known about how to best meet the needs of children exposed to interpersonal and family violence. This grant will provide statewide learning collaborative participants an opportunity to learn and then implement evidence-based approaches to enhance the safety and wellbeing of survivor mothers and children.”
Enacted into law in 1984 under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) funds the federal response system to ensure vital crisis services and shelters are available to individuals experiencing domestic or dating violence and their dependents. When FVPSA was first written, Congress used the term “family violence” in the legislation as synonymous with domestic violence. However, as research and evidence have grown over the past 38 years of FVPSA’s existence, the more commonly used language of domestic violence and dating violence has been adopted; these definitions are consistent with those found in the Violence Against Women Act and the Victims of Crime Act.
Through its grant programs, OFVPS puts the power to effectively address the prevalence of domestic violence into the hands of the community and supports their efforts to strengthen community-based services while also funding prevention and public awareness efforts. These programs provide both a safe haven and an array of supportive services to intervene when help is needed and to prevent abuse.
About the College of Social Work
The College of Social Work is committed to advancing the mission of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as the state’s flagship land-grant university to provide a quality public education for the citizens of Tennessee and beyond through exemplary teaching, research, and service. The college provides a professional social work education program that prepares bachelor’s and master’s-level students for social work practice and doctoral-level graduate students for social work research and academia. https://csw.utk.edu
About the College of Education, Health, and Human Services
Through its seven departments and 12 centers, the UT Knoxville College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences enhances the quality of life for all through research, outreach, and practice. Find out more at cehhs.utk.edu