Domestic Violence Prevention

Updated October 31, 1996

Domestic Violence Prevention Campaign!

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http://child.cornell.edu/army/dvpm.html

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Victim Safety Plan
Using Safety Plans

Culture and Marriage
Transisional Compensation

Promo Tips DV 96

PSA's
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OP ED:
Sample Guest Editorial

You can copy this essay and paste it into your word processing, for local customization.

From the Installation Commander, local Mayor or County Executive

Safe and Secure: Preventing Domestic Violence

To The Editor:

In 1995, an essay from the military's Domestic Violence Prevention Month campaign packet warned:

"Without a community-wide commitment to end the violence in our homes, we will only find ourselves back here a year from now, measuring the hurt."

All too true. New studies are showing that domestic violence is not confined to spouse battering. Children in violent homes are also victims, both of direct abuse and injury and of the psychological battering that comes from witnessing violent acts.

What should awaken all of us is that acts of domestic violence are carried out by the very people who should be making sure that their loved ones are safe and secure. This is a chilling thought, but we should realize that something can be done to turn the tide and end the violence. Each of us can and must take positive action.

The first step is to take personal responsibility for the safety and security of ourselves and of our loved ones. Each of us is capable of making our own households violence-free. But personal responsibility extends beyond the walls of our own homes, and reaches out to our streets, our shopping centers, and our jobs.

The entire community can help control the problem of domestic violence. Prevention campaigns must be used to keep the violence from occurring in the first place. In the military, domestic violence undermines the mission of readiness. In society at large, it undermines the fabric of our communities and of our lives.

Prevention can happen everywhere, not just at home. It can happen in the media, in the workplace, and in the neighborhoods. All of us need to make the message clear: domestic violence is not tolerated: our loved ones deserve to be safe and secure.

Couples and individuals need to understand that there are options to violence. In the military, we have long-standing programs that put special emphasis on domestic violence prevention and intervention. In the community, there are programs and services designed to help. If you want to know what the options are, I urge you to call (local contact person for prevention, information and referral.)

Next year, I'd like to report some successes in our prevention campaign. Will you help prevent domestic violence in our community?

(Draft to be signed by Installation Commander or Local Mayor or County Executive)

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Instructions: This release should run in conjunction with the Commander's Op-Ed piece above. It is especially important to submit this to civilian news media: the general public is not always aware of all you are doing to prevent domestic violence in military families.
Use this model release as a "Template" for reporting your Installation's key prevention endeavors.
Note: It is OK to run this in any month of the year,
but you should change the text to reflect your actual date of release!!
Copy the text, and paste it into your word processor for edioting and printing.

News Release 96

For Immediate Release
If this runs *after* October 1996, be sure to adjust the dates, and any reference to Domestic Violence Prevention Month

Contact:
(Installation POC)
Address
Phone Number
FAX Number
e-mail address

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

(Installation Name) is launching a series of domestic violence prevention initiatives starting (Date and Year).

Installation Commander (Name) said "Beginning in (October), we will be calling attention to the wide range of activities we conduct to prevent domestic violence on a year-round basis."

October is National Domestic Violence Prevention Month.

"In the U.S. military, we take a pro-active stance on prevention," (Name) said, "and we have been in the lead in domestic violence prevention for some time now. Our goal is to make all military families safe and secure, and to share our prevention successes with the civilian community."

According to (Name), the prevention activities being highlighted include:

- Awareness Briefings for all civilian employees and all military units
- Publication of news and feature articles
- Distribution of flyers and posters throughout the Military community
- Running prevention classes
- Advising spouses who feel they may be in danger of domestic violence, and
- Ensuring the safety and security of victims, and preventing recurrence of the problem.

(Name) said, "These and other activities concentrate on educating the entire community on the nature of domestic violence, on the fact that spouse abuse and child abuse are not tolerated in the military, and on the options that are considered appropriate for both husbands and wives."

(Installation Name) also draws on resources within the local community and from national organizations on domestic violence for support in the prevention mission, according to (Name).

"We have recently received a packet through the Department of Defense that includes valuable information drawn from the various military services," (Name) said, "and from the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. This military-civilian collaboration brings state-of-the-art prevention strategies to our community," (Name said.)

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