The Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC) provides technical assistance to Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange grantees to enhance the delivery to supervised visitation and exchange services to culturally-specific and culturally diverse communities using centers in cases involving domestic violence.

Supervised Visitation Program

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), awarded its first grants to communities across the country as part of the Safe Havens: Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Grant Program (Supervised Visitation Program). Established by the Violence Against Women Act of 2000, the Supervised Visitation Program provides funding for communities to establish or enhance services for the supervised visitation and safe exchange of children, by and between parents, in situations involving domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault or stalking.

Historically, supervised visitation and exchange services were created to provide access to parents who had children removed by the state in abuse and neglect cases. Overtime, domestic violence advocates identified a need for similar services in other cases (e.g. family law and protection order arena) involving domestic violence. Many batterers use the court system and visitation and exchange of children as ways to continue the power and control over their former partners. Studies have shown that batterer's risk to adult and child victims often increases after separation. Stalking, harassment, physical violence, and other forms of abuse often escalate during this time period.

Acknowledging the need for services tailored for domestic violence cases, OVW created a grant program that allows centers and communities to either develop new centers or enhance current services that focus on the safety needs of both the child and adult victims. Grants can be awarded to states, Indian tribal governments, and units of local government, which are required to work in collaboration with state or local courts and nonprofit, nongovernmental domestic violence or sexual assault programs.

IDVAAC's Role

During the early stages of the grant program, OVW recognized a need to examine cultural competency in the context of supervised visitation. While there is a high incidence of domestic violence among African American and Native American populations, little was known about their experiences with supervised visitation and safe exchange, or that of other diverse populations. To address this, OVW awarded a grant and partnered with IDVAAC to explore cultural competency as it relates to supervised visitation in the context of domestic violence and identify approaches to enhance service delivery to African American, Native American, Latino American, and South Asian American communities, with an emphasis on the first two.

Since receiving the grant, IDVAAC has been meeting with consumers and key stakeholders from culturally diverse communities to identify strategies, priorities, and considerations for the delivery of supervised visitation and exchange services to culturally-specific or diverse clientele Through a series of surveys, roundtables, and interviews, IDVAAC is developing a set of guide posts for communities to use when addressing cultural competency in the supervised visitation and exchange setting. IDVAAC provides technical assistance and training to Supervised Visitation Program grantees to help them integrate the guide posts and critical thinking into their organizations, practices, and community efforts.

Technical Assistance

IDVAAC provides technical assistance to Supervised Visitation Program grantees to enhance communities' and visitation centers work with culturally diverse groups. IDVAAC has brought together a team of technical assistance providers that are available to grantees so that unique needs of each community can be met. Examples of types of technical assistance available:

• Telephone consultation
• Site visits and on-site consultation
• Training
• Strategic planning and critical thinking
• Linking communities with experts
• Reviewing policies and procedures
• Meeting with project staff
• Facilitating consulting committee meetings or conducting focus groups

Facilitating consulting committee meetings or conducting focus groups

For more information call IDVAAC toll-free at (877) 643-8222, email Lauren Litton at llitton@ispconsults.com or complete the technical assistance form below.

Technical Assistance Form