Transcript Slide 1
FVIP: A Domestic Violence Intervention Program for Georgia
Refugees
Georgia Department of Human Resources
Refugee Assistance Program
Michael Singleton – State Refugee Coordinator
5 Project Administrators
www.state.ga.us/departments/dhr/refugee.html
Family Violence Intervention Program (FVIP)
www.cpacs.org
Collaborating
Agencies:
www.tapestri.org
The Center for Pan Asian
Community Services, Inc.
• Men’s Program
• Women’s Support Groups
• Community Education Sessions
• Media Outreach
Target Population
• Refugees in MetroAtlanta
• Other communities with
high refugee
populations
• At-risk families (as
identified through court
systems, etc.)
Goals and Objectives
• To organize and facilitate community education sessions for refugees,
caseworkers and community members to increase knowledge and awareness
of family violence, U.S. laws and resources.
• To conduct a culturally competent FVIP for refugee men.
• To provide support services to family members, partners and other interested
women on areas of domestic violence.
• To conduct media outreach, to include print releases and Public Service
Announcements that increase awareness of family violence and existing
services.
Successes
• Media Outreach – Outreach pieces were published in various
ethnic newspapers and magazines including: Ethiopian, Somali,
Russian and Vietnamese.
• Materials on domestic violence are now available in Arabic,
Bosnian, Kirundi, Farsi, Somali and Swahili.
• Knowledge Level: Increase of basic domestic violence
education - 87% of men’s group participants, 90% of women’s
group participants and 66% of the Community Education
participants have shown increase in knowledge.
Challenges
• Men’s Program/FVIP: Men from countries
including Burma, Burundi, Bhutan, Liberia and
Russia have participated in the program.
Difficult to recruit male participants; they fear
repercussions of the sessions, i.e. ‘male-bashing,
stigma, etc. Also cultural misunderstandings.
Technical Assistance
Interpretation Training – important
to have culturally competent
interpreters with direct knowledge
of domestic violence issues.
THANK YOU!