Changing Organizational Practices to Prevent Intimate Partner Violence

As the intimate partner violence (IPV) movement shifts to an expanded focus on primary prevention, there is a growing need for concrete strategies and key venues in which to catalyze and sustain change. Synthesizing lessons learned from a national web-based dialogue of IPV prevention advocates and practitioners and a qualitative assessment involving consultations with states throughout the country, this presentation will review the Spectrum of Prevention as a conceptual framework for environmental and norms change with a focus on changing organizational practices to prevent IPV before it occurs. The organizational setting – from workplaces and schools to faith institutions – will be discussed as one of the most promising, and often overlooked, venues in which to shift harmful norms about violence, traditional masculinity, limiting roles for women, power, and privacy to healthier alternatives. Specifically, this presentation will examine why organizational practice change is critical for preventing IPV and detail common organizational functions to address for maximal impact. Emphasis will be placed on the role of the workplace in primary prevention of IPV, including the challenges and opportunities to creating workplaces that support respectful communication, gender equity, and nonviolence. Promising strategies and examples of successful organizational practice change initiatives will be discussed.