October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month!
The Violence Prevention Committee is busy writing and researching in order to make recommendations for reducing domestic violence and sexual assault in Cleveland. Since January 2019, the committee has been diving into the research and data available around domestic violence and sexual assault in order to provide a detailed report with recommendations about what can be done from a public health perspective to reduce rates in Cleveland.
The Committee split into two working groups: Data, Research and Policy and Community Engagement. Through these two working groups, a deep dive into the national and local research as well as organizational community outreach has been conducted to identify best practices and opportunities for increased awareness.
Throughout the summer, the committee welcomed Natasha Takyi-Micah as a Master of Public Health (MPH) intern from Emory University to help with outreach and engagement. Natasha developed an interview guide and met with several prominent organizations providing support for domestic violence victims. She also mapped the organizational landscape to identify schools, churches and recreation centers within the Cleveland wards and neighborhoods with the highest rates of domestic violence. These may be significant locations for executing outreach, engagement and programming in the future.
This fall, the committee welcomes Kent State University MPH student Jessica Lockhart to the team as an intern to continue Natasha’s work and do some additional public health planning and outreach.
A final draft of the report and recommendations is planned for December 2019.