Strategies and programs that work to stop intimate partner violence (IPV) before it occurs is call primary prevention. There are many strategies to implementing primary prevention efforts, including approaches that address the individual-level, relationship-level, community-level, and societal-levels of the social-ecological model. These four spheres of influence overlap with each other and help to inform primary prevention activities. Please read more about how the social-ecological model can be a helpful framework for IPV prevention programming.
Trauma-Informed Organizations NC (TIONC) is a community-level approach to primary prevention. In this approach, we are interested in workplace environments and how these can be sites that foster safety, empowerment, and support for its workers. Workplace environments are the focus of this project because they are essential sites of stability for many people. Supportive workplaces contribute to positive community-level cohesiveness are a protective factor for reducing the likelihood of violence to occur.
Operating from a public health model of prevention, our prevention framework utilizes risk and protective factors to answer these questions: why does violence occur and how do we prevent it? Risk and protective factors help us to identify points of intervention that allow us to address the complex root causes of violence. Strengthening community-level support through trauma-informed workplace policies will help to buffer against risks that make individuals more vulnerable to violence.
RISK FACTORS
- INCREASE the likelihood a person will use violence. “They are contributing factors and may or may not be direct causes.” (CDC)
- ARE NOT determinative. “Not everyone who is identified as at risk becomes a perpetrator of violence.” (CDC)
PROTECTIVE FACTORS
- BUFFER against risk. They are conditions, characteristics, and influences that may decrease the likelihood of perpetrating or being the victim of violence.
- ENCOURAGE a positive, health-promoting focus. They are at the core of asset-based or strengths-based prevention strategies.
Please read more about this approach at PreventViolenceNC.org.
Wilkins, N., Tsao, B., Hertz, M., Davis, R., Klevens, J. (2014). Connecting the Dots: An Overview of the Links Among Multiple Forms of Violence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Oakland, CA: Prevention Institute. (CDC)