Hello! I coordinate a comprehensive intervention program for Latino families affected by domestic violence. As part of the program we have batterers intervention groups that were set up at the request of the women who were coming to a group for Spanish-speaking abused Latinas (they had also asked previously that we set up special programs for their children). The women's program has been in operation since 1990, the children's since 1993, the men's since 1995. Our model borrows from both mainstream and culture-specific models and theories and seems to work quite well for us.
From the very beginning, the voices of the women (and more recently, the children and adolescents) have charted our course of action and decision making procedures. They not only help to develop and enhance our curricula, but also provide - from our own perspective - the most valid barometer with which to judge our work with the men (I am also a researcher and have been conducting evaluations of our program for several years). The feedback from the women (and the youth, whom we have found to be amazingly candid about the climate in their homes) supports what the statistics are suggesting: overwhelmingly, the men stop their physical violence very soon after they enter the program and the change in their use of this type of violence is still present six months after the end of the 24-session court-mandated intervention and beyond. However, the changes in emotional and verbal abuse are a lot more resistant to change, we suspect because they come from attitudes, beliefs and expectations that are deeply embedded in our cultures. We have a long ways to go, but see hoe that real change can occur. While keeping the safety of women and children as the central tenet of our work, we try to model what we ask the men to do: respect, non-hierarchical, more egalitarian relationships, and spaces in which the men can engage in a process of reflection, "concientizacion" (critical consciousness) regarding their violence, and their ability to change, if they choose to do so. A lot of families continue to attend our program beyond the court mandated sessions and our recidivism rates are surprisingly low (although we do not take this as a very valid or meaningful yardstick, for reasons we are all familiar with). We work very closely with the courts, with shelters, task forces, and the immigrant and refugee communities and are thus able to monitor even more closely the progress that men are (or are not) making. I think that one element alone is not sufficient, and that this societal problem requires a truly collective approach. I look forward to our continuing dialogue regarding this important topic. Julia Perilla Atlanta, Georgia, USA >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/21/01 18:55 PM >>> wrote: >I think part of the answer to the most interesting and very important >question raised here is in the comments of the British Assoc. for Counselling >in the lower half of the message you sent i.e. the kind of counselling given >to violent men and being evaluated for success. We also need to remember that >these initiatives are relatively new, few have been evaluated properly over a >long period of time which makes it difficult to answer general questions >like the one raised difficult to answer. Linked to the issue of VAW is that >against children, including boys. In other words fathers who are violent with >children, including boys whose role models they become, also need counselling >in addition to boys hemselves. > >I expect the experience of men's organizations who are working on gender and >violence issues would shed more light on this subject. I hope we hear from >them. ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
