Community programs for domestic violence DV in the U. Casa de Esperanza is one of the few organizations in the U. In particular, their Family Advocacy Initiative FAI seeks to support Latinx communities impacted by DV by facilitating a variety of services including a hour hotline, shelter, community advocacy, and transitional housing support network. Based on this information we discuss the evaluation and recommendations for implementing it. Throughout the paper, we highlight the need for culturally sensitive programs for survivors of DV and the importance and benefits of collaborative community partnerships and evidence-based evaluative learning.
Women of all races experience intimate partner violence IPV β referred to as domestic violence DV when it occurs within the home e. These terms and their acronyms i.
These barriers may increase their vulnerability to continued exposure to violence and trauma. Ingram found first-generation i. Although not directly measured, Ingram identified problems related to immigration status e.
Furthermore, Latinx survivors of DV that do access services are more likely to do so after longer periods of experiencing abuse and are likely to experience more severe mental health consequences of abuse e. For example, Edelson and colleagues found that Latina women experienced lower self-esteem, more severe trauma-related symptoms, and more severe depression symptoms following abuse than did non-Latina women.
Despite increasing evidence for the unique socio-cultural barriers impeding help-seeking behaviors and service utilization among Latina survivors of DV, interventions to support survivors of DV have historically and predominantly been developed with and geared toward White, English-speaking, non-immigrant populations e. Such interventions are better equipped to support Latinx survivors because they treat DV as a multidimensional problem.
