What is the Family Violence Prevention Program?
Based in Camden, Volunteers of America Delaware Valley’s Family Violence Prevention Program is a comprehensive treatment program for perpetrators of domestic violence, providing treatment, counseling and accountability support services.
The program’s mission is to help batterers identify, address and correct the core issues of their problems – encouraging them to become responsible family members and useful adults by developing skills to help eliminate violent behavior patterns and take responsibility for their actions.
Individuals Served
The Family Violence Prevention Program primarily targets men who have demonstrated a pattern of violence against intimate female partners, including:
- Any incidents of violence against an intimate female partner
- Documented or self-reported spousal assault by perpetrator
- Documented or self-reported spousal assault by victim
- Suspected spousal assault
- Pattern of non-physical abuse
Program Curriculum
The Family Violence Prevention Program’s curriculum is modeled off the Corrections Services of Canada and accredited by an international expert panel in March 2001.
The curriculum is developed to help stop domestic violence, hold batterers accountable for their behavior, challenge irrational beliefs held by batterers and promote equality and non-violence as valued alternatives to power and control.
The program is intense and highly personalized – focused not only on providing information, but also changing behaviors. Consistent with Volunteers of America Delaware Valley’s commitment to individualized, evidence-based treatments, all interventions offered through this program are cognitive, behavioral and client-centered.
Program Goals
- To eliminate violence and abuse toward female partners, as well as abusive and violent behaviors in the family context.
- To assist clients in developing insight into the factors that led to their violence and abuse.
- To assist clients in developing relationship skills, thinking skills and emotion management skills needed to foster healthy relationships.
Treatment Model
The Family Violence Prevention Program is based on a nested model that conceptualizes violence against women as being multidetermined, due to a number of different factors, behaviors, etc. A key, guiding principle of this model is that intimate relationships that respond with violence and abuse are a learned pattern of behavior that can be modified.
Assessment and Service Planning
As part of the Family Violence Prevention Program, clients receive an individual screening and assessment. The assessment is designed to provide the counselor and multi-disciplinary team with a complete, thorough understanding of the client’s specific needs for services.
The Spousal Abuse Risk Assessments (SARA) and the Domestic Violence Survey are also utilized to assess a client’s appropriateness for the Moderate Intensity Family Violence Prevention Program. These tools are designed to screen for both risk and need by examining many factors/situations in the client’s life, specifically as they pertain to their intimate partnerships.
Additional Questions about the Family Violence Prevention Program?
Please contact info@voadv.org