Domestic violence can have an impact on the physical and emotional safety of the children and the functioning of the entire family. This trainer will engage participants in critical thinking about their practice when there is a perpetrator pattern of coercive control and violence. This training introduces safety-organized concepts to increase proficiency in engaging domestic violence survivors and perpetrators using solution-focused strategies.
Participants will explore the difference between a traditional “failure to protect” approach and a safety-organized approach to working with families experiencing domestic violence. The goal is for us all to have a common way to think about domestic violence, talk about it, document it and engage families. Assuming the survivor is already being protective, the next step is engaging the survivor, which is crucial to the survivor wanting to partner with the agency. It can be a challenge to hold the perpetrator responsible and engage them in safety planning while keeping the children safe in the care of the survivor. Participants will explore implicit bias, gender stereotypes and parenting double standards which impact perpetrator engagement.
Learning Objectives:
- Increase understanding of SOP core principles related to domestic violence to build better outcomes for families and the child welfare system
- Shifting from the traditional “failure to protect” culture to a safety organized child welfare system culture
- Learn how to identify perpetrator behaviors that impact the non-offending caregiver, child and household functioning to inform structured decision making (SDM) assessments
- Understand how gender stereotypes and parenting double standards create barriers to engaging perpetrators of domestic violence
- Understand how to apply an intersecting lens when mental illness and substance abuse are intertwined with domestic violence