Project Description
The Durham Integrated Domestic Violence Response System (DIDVRS) is a collaborative project that includes the Durham County Department of Social Services (DCDSS), the Durham Crisis Response Center (DCRC), the Durham Police Department (DPD), Durham County Emergency Medical Services (EMS), the Center for Child and Family Health (CCFH), Exchange Family Center (EFC), and the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy (CCFP). Funded through a cooperative agreement grant from the Family Violence and Prevention Services, Administration for Children and Families, the project aims to improve system collaboration among Durham community providers regarding their approaches, values, and assumptions when working on behalf of abused parents and their children.
Project Goals
The project is expected to result in improved outcomes for abused parents and children/youth exposed to Domestic Violence (DV) using strategies designed to: 1) improve the system and responses to abused parents and their children exposed to DV across Durham; 2) coordinate and provide new or enhanced residential and non-residential services for children and youth exposed to DV; and 3) enhance evidence and practice-informed services, strategies, advocacy and interventions for children/youth exposed to DV. DIDVRS includes a National Child Traumatic Stress Network affiliate (CCFH) delivering staged training in three key areas to partnering agencies including building awareness of DV/family violence, developing skills to screen for DV and its impact on children and make appropriate referrals, and improving system collaboration between agencies to improve services delivered to families. CCFP research scientists, Drs. Lawrence and Snyder-Fickler are conducting a comprehensive evaluation of this project which includes community-level, agency-level, and individual child and family outcomes to examine programmatic impacts.
Project Team Members
Nicole Lawrence (PI), Elizabeth Snyder-Fickler (PI), Matt Edwards, Pat Malone
Project Findings
Reframing Law Enforcement’s Approach to Domestic Violence Calls