Online Conference Report: Mobilizing Family, Friends & Neighbors to Prevent Domestic Violence, July 24-30, 2003. This conference was hosted by Aimee Thompson and Close to Home, and was a five-day facilitated online discussion that enabled 33 participants from 14 countries to share strategies, pose questions and think about the challenges of organizing and managing community-driven domestic violence prevention initiatives.
Integrating Community Building and Violence Prevention, a project of the Institute for Community Peace (formerly the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention)
and the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Integrating the fields of violence prevention and community building.
Better Together, a plan for rebuilding community ties by Robert D. Putnam, professor at Harvard University, founder of the Saguaro Seminar, and author of Bowling Alone, and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Families as a Resource for Leading Social Change, Changemakers.net, illustrates the core principle at work in several successful initiatives around the world, namely, that families represent a powerful agent for change and must be enabled to take on an active, constructive, decision-making role in any community that hopes to provide essential design and operational input for tackling social crises in a meaningful and sustainable way.
Fighting Abuse with "Good" Men, and Savings Clubs for Women, Changemakers.net, reports on the work of Charles Maisel in South Africa. His program incorporates both men and women in a social movement that fights domestic abuse, using savings clubs that build a sound economic base for South African women as the glue that holds it all together. His project also aims to change the attitudes and behavior of men by enrolling those who are not abusers, or who oppose abuse, in a movement that vigorously opposes domestic violence.
Weaving Family Magic: Helping Drug Offenders Stay Straight, Changemakers.net, tells the story of the "Aha" moment Carol Shapiro had when
she realized that family members - broadly defined to include close community members such as a godmother, girlfriend or pastor - are the leading experts in their own problems and the natural support system for offenders. Calling this the "magic of family work," Shapiro claims that the organization she founded, La Bodega, builds on the family's inherent strengths, and takes into account its weaknesses, to build more cohesive, resilient families that encourage offenders toward recovery.
Raising Voices works to create and promote community-based approaches to preventing violence against women and children in East and Southern Africa.
The National Community Building Network is a national membership organization that serves as a hub for brokering information and connections among community builders.
Institute for Community Peace (formerly the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention) ? its site is currently under construction.
More selected Internet resources on Challenging Domestic Violence at Its Roots:
September 2003 Journal Home Page