This section provides resources on best practices for family-centered support services to address domestic violence, including State and local examples.
Adult and Child Survivor-Centered Approach for Addressing Domestic Violence (PDF - 1,239 KB)
Quality Improvement Center on Domestic Violence in Child Welfare (2019)
Presents an innovative, collaborative approach for addressing domestic violence and child maltreatment in families involved with the child welfare system. According to this approach, adults and children are regarded as survivors because both adults and children who experience violence in their families may be significantly impacted.
Child Protection in Families Experiencing Domestic Violence (2nd ed.)
Child Witness to Violence Project
Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center
Provides counseling, advocacy, training, and outreach focusing on children who are bystanders to community and domestic violence.
Co-location of Child and Family Services
Rural Health Information Hub (2019)
Examines the practice of cross-system collaboration between substance abuse, domestic violence, and child welfare agencies, which often serve the same population. The website gives examples of States that co-locate these services in order to better serve children and families.
Healthy Moms Happy Babies: Healing Approaches to Preventing and Responding to Domestic Violence in Home Visitation Programs [Webinar]
Futures Without Violence (2019)
Addresses the barriers and difficulties staff experience from vicarious trauma or abuse when working with families to address domestic violence. Specific strategies and tools, both personal and organizational, are presented to address the needs of frontline staff and managers. Part II of the webinar reviews domestic violence prevalence and impacts and introduces Futures Without Violence’s CUES intervention for staff to use with participants. The CUES intervention is a simple, strength-based universal education approach for addressing domestic violence that taps into clients existing capacity for empathy and altruism to allow them to create change for themselves and others.
How Can Domestic Violence Programs Partner With Home Visiting Programs to Better Support Survivors and Their Children?
Hood & Kelly (2019)
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, VAWnet
Explores how partnerships between domestic violence programs and home visiting services can serve as a promising model for the prevention of future abuse and for helping adult and child survivors heal from trauma.
Improving Child Welfare Practice for Immigrant Victims of Domestic Violence [Webinar]
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (2018)
Presents a webinar to help inform child welfare workers and other professionals about the unique challenges facing immigrant domestic violence survivors that are simultaneously involved with child welfare and immigration enforcement proceedings.
National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center
Works to prevent violence against women by advancing knowledge of prevention research and creating a place for collaboration among advocates, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. Their website offers a collection of the latest research on violence against women including statistics, research articles, references, publications, tools, and more.
Promising Practices and Model Programs: Trauma-Informed Approaches to Working With Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence and Other Trauma (PDF - 420 KB)
Phillips, Lyon, Fabri, & Warshaw (2015)
National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health
Presents results from interviews with leaders of domestic violence programs about evidence-based and trauma-informed practices being used with survivors of domestic and sexual violence. The results of the interviews show how programs are conceptualizing trauma-informed work and how using evidence-based practices improves outcomes for those who are served.
2016–2020 Family Violence Prevention and Services Discretionary Grant: Specialized Services to Abused Parents and Their Children (SSAPC) and Expanding Services to Children, Youth, and Abused Parents (ESCYAP) Grantee Profiles
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (2016)
Provides an overview of Family Violence Prevention and Services Act programs implementing and evaluating strategies that are effective, culturally responsive, and trauma informed to enhance safety and healing for abused parents and their children. The programs are offered through community-based and State domestic violence coalitions, child welfare programs, and mental and behavioral health services across the country.
Supporting Parenting of Children Residing in Domestic Violence Shelters (PDF - 1,403 KB)
Keene & Ortiz (2015)
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, VAWnet
Focuses on the challenges related to parenting and discipline of children who live in domestic violence shelters and proposes a variety of recommendations for parents in this situation. The resource also includes information on training and staff development related to working with parents who have experienced domestic violence.
State and local examples
Child Welfare Practices for Cases With Domestic Violence (PDF - 999 KB)
Oregon Department of Human Services (2016)
Reviews child welfare practice for children involved in cases of domestic violence, including how intimate partner violence endangers children, impacts on children who witness and suffer violence, ineffective responses to domestic violence, how to assess and assure safety and well-being, how to work with adult survivors, and more.
Domestic Violence Manual for Child Welfare Professionals, A Desk Reference Guide (PDF - 1,894 KB)
Oklahoma Department of Human Services (2018)
Guides child welfare professionals working on domestic violence cases in Oklahoma and includes information on the dynamics of domestic violence, the impact on children, intersections of mental health and substance abuse, safety assessments, interventions for adult and child survivors, and more.
Family Violence Program
Texas Department of Health and Human Services
Explains a program in Texas that works to promote self-sufficiency and safety for adult and child survivors of family violence and provides emergency shelter and other necessary services.