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!