National Resource Center on Domestic Volience

The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) was established to inform, coordinate and strengthen public and private efforts to end domestic violence. Through technical assistance and training, development of resource materials and special projects, the NRCDV enhances and expands the domestic violence intervention and prevention efforts of communities and institutions. PCADV has received core funding to operate the NRCDV since 1993 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with supplemental funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to support VAWnet, its national online resource center, and other private and public grants.

The NRCDV employs a multidisciplinary staff and supports a wide range of projects to address the complex challenges domestic violence poses to families, institutions, communities, and governments. The technical assistance and training provided by the NRCDV is both reactive and proactive, not only responding to requests from the field, but also anticipating needs for information and guidance around emerging policy and practice issues. The NRCDV develops and disseminates comprehensive and specialized information packets that address a range of domestic violence issues, and publishes related innovative intervention and model prevention practices, protocols and policies.

In 1995, the NRCDV created VAWnet, our comprehensive website that currently receives over 2,000 daily visitors and these visitors download over 1,900 files a day. A significant number of the most frequently downloaded documents are those produced by NRCDV staff and consultants.

The NRCDV utilizes three primary strategies in its work: technical assistance and training, development of resource materials, and special projects.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE and TRAINING

Since accepting its first call in early 1994, the NRCDV has responded to over 45,000 requests for technical assistance, provided training on a broad range of issues to over 10,000 individuals, and produced well over 150 original publications, including fact sheets, resource packets, applied research papers, annotated resource lists, curricula, training materials, funding alerts and policy briefs. In 2006, NRCDV staff and consultants provided over 1,500 advocates and allied professionals guidance through national and regional trainings and teleconferences on such topics as:

• Building Community-Based Partnerships
• Analysis, Advocacy and Action: Core Values and Critical Thinking to Guide Advocacy
• Teen Dating Awareness: Expanding Awareness and Advocacy
• Understanding the Impact of Our Work: Vision, Philosophy and Challenges
• Envisioning Safety and Self-Sufficiency for Battered Women: Advocating for Economic Opportunity
• Through the Eyes of a Child: The Impact of Living with a Child
• Moving Beyond Emergency Services: Increasing Economic Security of Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence (teleconference)
• Building and Enhancing Leadership Skills to Support Culturally Competent Anti-Violence Programs, Services, and Public Policy
• Addressing Issues of Un- and Underserved Populations: Key Issues, Resources and Services

DEVELOPMENT of RESOURCE MATERIALS

The NRCDV has developed a wide range of broadly used publications: fact sheets, resource packets, applied research papers, annotated resource lists, curricula, training materials, and policy briefs. For example, these include publications related to the experiences of children exposed to domestic violence, integrating economic advocacy into the work of domestic violence programs, domestic violence statistics, school based programs promoting safe and healthy relationships for youth, advocating for domestic violence victims within the welfare system, and a comprehensive teen dating violence resource packet.

Funding Alert

The NRCDV Library Team recently redesigned its twice-monthly Funding Alert, and increased subscriptions in 2007 from under 200 individuals and organizations to over 2,000.

Comprehensive Resource Packets

Distributed nationally in both hard copy and CD versions, the specialized packets respond to issues of particular concern to domestic violence advocates. The NRCDV has recently completed a resource packet on Religion and Domestic Violence

Applied Research Papers

Through VAWnets Applied Research Forum, researchers and practitioners are commissioned to create brief summaries and interpretations of current research on violence against women. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) serves as our key partner and provides critical guidance regarding the sexual violence information and resources provided through VAWnet. To date, over 40 Applied Research Papers have been developed and disseminated through VAWnet and other means.

Special Projects and Organizing/Networking Initiatives

The NRCDV has established special projects designed to focus more deeply on an emerging issue, provide specialized and comprehensive assistance to a particular constituent group, or address a pressing unmet need.