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The Deborah DeBare Domestic Violence Prevention Fund (DVPF) was established by the Rhode Island General Assembly (R.I.G.L. § 12-29-12), creating a fund which has as its primary purpose the prevention of domestic violence and dating violence, also known as intimate partner violence (IPV).

The DVPF is administered by the RICADV and used to promote evidence-informed primary prevention programs in Rhode Island.

While clinical interventions and education are essential services for supporting individuals after violence has occurred, DVPF programs aim to prevent IPV before it happens in the first place and have a broader impact, such as policy, systems, and environmental change.

DVPF projects can, for example, support the implementation of the Lindsay Ann Burke Act in schools through climate and systems change strategies, such as policy implementation, staff training, and media campaigns, as well as community organizing strategies with district health and wellness committees, parent organizations, and athletic programs.

The goal of the DVPF is to address disparities in Rhode Island by supporting prevention strategies geared towards communities most impacted by IPV, including RI youth. The DVPF Advisory Committee looks to fund proposals that focus on engaging and affirming youth of color, LGBTQ, Two-Spirit, and gender nonconforming youth, and youth with disabilities in IPV prevention activities.

The purpose of the DVPF is to increase the number of schools, community groups, and community-based agencies engaged in the public health approach to the preventing IPV.

Implementation Projects

DVPF Implementation Projects focus on altering norms, policies, and community conditions to prevent IPV before it starts.

  • Grantees

  • Nowell Academy (2020 to present)

    Nowell Academy received a $50,284 Implementation Project annual award to launch the Safe and Supported Counseling Center (SSCC) in partnership with Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island. The SSCC will be a peer-to-peer intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention and response center dedicated to meeting the needs of unaccompanied minors at risk of experiencing IPV.

    This initiative will empower students of Nowell Academy—a public charter high school serving pregnant and parenting youth—to provide education, training, advocacy, and support to their peers. A cohort of students will be trained and paid to serve as peer advocates and provide training to school administrators, educators, and other adults. Students will also research and advocate for statewide policy changes to strengthen protections for unaccompanied youth in RI.

    The Nowell Academy is grateful to the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence for this investment in our students. We are also grateful to the Dorcas International Institute for making this partnership possible. We are glad to be able to support our students' interest in peer to peer counseling and to play a role in preventing intimate partner violence among unaccompanied youth in Rhode Island.
    - Toby Shepherd, Director of Community Relations

  • Progreso Latino (2017 to present)

    Progreso Latino received a $50,882 Implementation Project annual award* for its Teen & Adult Prevention Program (TAPP), which uses a holistic public health approach to grow the community’s capacity to address IPV in the Blackstone Valley area.

    TAPP engages cohorts of men, women, and youth as social action groups that mobilize around common goals towards social change and policy reforms. In partnership with the Blackstone Valley Advocacy Center, Progreso Latino will build on the successes and experiences of its previous DVPF project, continuing to draw from the leadership of survivors and youth, and adding a new men’s advocacy component.

    *This annual award amount refers to the 2020-2023 DVPF grant cycle.

    Primary Prevention Efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic

    Progreso Latino has been serving the Latino and immigrant community for over 40 years. Progreso Latino provides programs that are crucial for immigrants facing poverty, experiencing health inequities, earning minimum wages, and suffering food insecurity.

    The pandemic has taken a devastating economic toll on Latino workers, as indicated by the unemployment rate tripling from 6% to 18.9% in May 2020. Latino workers hold jobs in the leisure, hospitality, and transportation sectors, which experienced disproportionate losses due to the pandemic.Progreso Latino food pantry DVPF 1

    In March of this year, Progreso Latino developed and implemented its COVID-19 Response Plan comprised of the remote continuation of 12 core programs and the expansion of the onsite food pantry.

    The Central Falls Food Pantry is a member agency of the RI Community Food Bank. As a result of this important partnership, it was able to respond to the significant increase in the number of households resulting from the pandemic.

    From January to April 2020, Progreso Latino food pantry DVPF 2the food pantry served 2,274 households as compared to 1,124 households in all of 2019. During March and April, 46% of the 1,859 households served were new households.

    The RI Community Food Bank provided over 50,000 pounds of food distributed to COVID-19 positive families, unemployed workers, homebound seniors, adults with disabilities, students, and domestic violence survivors during the first two months of the pandemic.

    Progreso Latino also launched a bilingual communications campaign through its website, Facebook, Twitter, and agency partners to raise awareness about Progreso Latino's remote programs, the food pantry, the new Family Relief Fund for the undocumented, food insecurity, and the agency's commitment to serve all immigrants, regardless of citizenship status or immigration status. These messages reached thousands of immigrant families as is evident in the data for the food pantry during the pandemic.

  • Sojourner House (2017 to present)

    Sojourner House received a $50,882 Implementation Project annual award* to continue implementing the Peer Advocacy Zone (PAZ), in collaboration with Youth In Action, Nathanael Greene Middle School, and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England’s teen peer education program STARS (Students Teaching About Responsible Sexuality).

    The Peer Advocacy Zone works with youth-focused organizations and middle and high school students to educate and train young people to become active in the movement to end teen dating violence and sexual assault in their schools and communities. The peer advocates develop and lead awareness projects around violence prevention and provide educational workshops to their peers.

    *This annual award amount refers to the 2020-2023 DVPF grant cycle.

    In April 2020, during national Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the PAZ students created this poster to promote wearing jeans for Denim Day, a national initiative to raise awareness about rape and sexual assault. The students also participated in a social media selfie campaign to show solidarity with survivors.

    Denim Day flyer SOJ DVPFAlani SOJ DVPF

    I wear jeans on Denim Day because I am showing support for those who are survivors, and those who struggle on a day-to-day basis. Wearing tight jeans is not an invitation to assault, nor should it be an excuse to victim blame.

    - Alani, a student at Paul Cuffee School in Providence

  • YWCA Rhode Island (2017-2019)

    YWCA Rhode Island received a $55,000 Implementation Project annual award from 2017 to 2019. Their DVPF project focused on training educators, youth workers, service providers, and community members on the historical and current ways institutional and structural racism impact girls of color and on providing a proven practice for building resiliency in girls.

    “Our project recognizes that girls of color are often overlooked when community members, service providers, and educators address issues of gender and racial inequality, and its relationship to intimate partner violence. It is a clarion call to all of our better selves to highlight the unique struggles of girls of color and ask what we as individuals and as part of larger organizations can do to improve our society by raising awareness and focusing on altering norms, polices, and community conditions that impact girls of color.” - Deborah Perry, President/CEO

    YWCA Rhode Island provided racial justice training to over 100 people, and also trained 60 youth workers in Girls Circle, an evidence-based prevention program for building resiliency in girls.

    DVPF YWCA RIStaff from the RICADV and our member agencies attended a 3-day training with YWCA RI

 

Community Micro-grants

Community Micro-grants are short-term projects that foster and increase community cohesion through public awareness, education, and the arts. The goal of these projects is to help community members make a personal connection to the issue of intimate partner violence prevention and encourage bystanders to take action and get involved in their schools and communities.

  • 2020

  • 2019

  • 2018

  • 2017

Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE) received a $10,000 micro-grant to address dating and partner violence in the Southeast Asian community through their culturally-responsive Hidden Lotus program for middle- and high-school aged youth.

Providence ¡CityArts! for Youth received a $7,950 micro-grant to support their youth-centered Restorative Art program, which facilitates both social and emotional growth in participants through community mentorship.

Meeting Street received a $10,000 micro-grant to expand their multi-generational primary prevention programs and deepen resources provided to families currently experiencing or recovering from IPV.

 

Domestic Violence Resource Center (DVRC) received a $4,208 micro-grant to empower young people and promote community-wide understanding and LGBTQ acceptance by hosting a Gay Prom, an event that celebrates and elevates awareness of marginalized populations like queer youth in South County.

Meeting Street received a $5,800 micro-grant to develop an intimate partner violence staff training plan to help build the capacity of their staff to support families experiencing violence.

Rhode Island Cross Campus Collaborative (through Day One) received a $5,000 micro-grant to launch a travelling photography exhibit using Kate Ryan’s Signed, X project in April, national Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

 

Adoption Rhode Island received a $13,022 micro-grant to educate youth in the foster care system using the evidence-based curriculum Safe Dates. Youth will create an artistic expression of what they have learned through Safe Dates to help raise awareness of dating violence in the community.

Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE) received a $15,000 micro-grant to adapt One Circle Foundation’s evidence-based curriculum and offer a culturally responsive, 50-hour group for Southeast Asian youth to discuss healthy relationships, trauma, social and personal development, and communication.

Blackstone Valley Community Action Program received a $9,512 micro-grant to educate high school age youth of varying gender, sexual orientation, religion, race, and national origin in Pawtucket and Central Falls in order to overcome stereotypes and raise education levels in the community about dating violence. These youth will in turn provide peer-based training to other youth, and spread knowledge throughout the community.

Elizabeth Buffum Chace Center received a $1,950 micro-grant to deliver the Decoding Your Teen curriculum to foster parents, kinship care providers, group home staff, DCYF social caseworkers, and other caretakers of youth involved in DCYF care.

Katie Brown Educational Program received a $15,000 micro-grant to work with existing student clubs at Central, Classical, Mt. Pleasant, and Hope High School and the Juanita Sanchez Educational Complex to aid students in crafting a 30-minute student-led assembly for their peers. Testimonials, a website, and two “healthy relationship check-in” events for students will also be developed.

Progreso Latino received a $15,000 micro-grant to offer a Grassroots Film & Discussion Series in Spanish that focuses on engaging Latino boys and men in the Blackstone Valley area in discussions that explore the role of machismo in domestic violence prevention.

Princes 2 Kings received a $5,000 micro-grant to engage male youth in conversations about healthy masculinity in an effort to develop an educational stop motion animation film addressing teen dating violence.

Youth In Action (YIA) received a $9,755 micro-grant to develop and implement a youth-led film and discussion series for young people in Providence. YIA also trained staff on how to recognize and respond to teen dating violence and make referrals for youth and families experiencing intimate partner violence.

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