Intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs in alarming numbers in the United States with nearly 25 percent of women and more than 7 percent of men reporting that they have been raped and/or physically assaulted by an intimate partner at some point in their life (Tjaden and Thoennes, 2000). The recession has both increased demand and reduced funding for IPV programs and services. California, for instance, which has the highest rate of emergency calls for domestic violence of any state, cut services by 62 percent for victims (National Organization for Women, 2009). Given the costs of intimate partner violence (IPV) to victims, bystanders, and society as a whole, public health must take IPV prevention to the next level by deepening and customizing the reach of science-based training and programming. The present application addresses existing gaps in publicly available resources for IPV prevention by offering easy-to-use, customizable training modules and resources. IMPACT (IPV Modules for Prevention and Cultural Tailoring) Resource and Training Center will offer an innovative online multimedia resource that will simultaneously provide the following: (1) information about the evidence-based factors of effective IPV prevention;and (2) methods for tailoring or adapting prevention efforts employing an approach that accounts for variation in experiences, norms and mores by reframing the focus to issues (e.g. immigration status, mistrust of law enforcement or the medical system as a whole, poverty, and discrimination) instead of group-based (race/ethnicity) and individual-based differences. By focusing on 'issues'instead of social categories (race, ethnicity), the adaptation content within IMPACT will be more relevant to a wider audience and remove any implication of racial/ethnic stereotyping, which thus, reduces further stigmatization. The three main features of IMPACT are: (1) IMPACT-CORE (Components of Research Essentials) which will provide the users with evidence-based information about prevention principles and specific strategies to develop effective IPV prevention curricula;(2) IMPACT-PRACTICE (Practitioner Resources And Culturally Tailored Issue-based Curriculum Essentials) which will help practitioners adapt IPV prevention curricula appropriately for their population(s) through an issue-based approach to cultural adaptation;and (3) My IMPACT which will help users customize their training modules based on the clients they serve and also function as a dedicated area for each IMPACT user to save their customized modules and resources to revisit and if necessary, refresh with new IMPACT content. Taken all together, IMPACT will enhance practitioners'skill sets, capacity, and self- efficacy to enrich, customize and ultimately, sustain their IPV prevention efforts through the use of new technologies that reinforce interactive learning. Key indicators of success in Phase I will include (1) a prototype digital platform for IMPACT;(2) three functional prototypes representative of the content in IMPACT;(3) usability test results;and (4) an action plan for Phase II.
Despite prevention efforts over the years, intimate partner violence (IPV) continues to be a significant public health problem in the United States. The IMPACT (IPV Modules for Prevention And Cultural Tailoring) Resource and Training Center will increase the relevance and reach of IPV prevention programs through offering online training and capacity building resources for violence prevention practitioners. These user-friendly resources will bring evidence-based curricula and issue-based """"""""modules"""""""" to violence prevention practitioners seeking to adapt IPV prevention programs in a systematic, culturally appropriate way.
