Consultation and Educational Programming

Abstract

Developing effective consultation and educational programming for domestic violence within religious communities may often be challenging. Religious communities may deem violence against women a private matter and prefer to ignore, deny, or justify domestic violence based on dysfunctional or misogynistic interpretations of their sacred texts. Faith community leaders’ lack of adequate training and experience to address intimate partner violence may pose additional barriers. To address these concerns, this chapter presents principles of effective consultation and educational programming within a religious cultural community. A paradigm of primary prevention programming is utilized to change the values, thinking processes, and skills in fostering nonviolent relationships within its constituents. Building trust and mutual respect, assessing awareness and readiness to deal with men’s violence against women, developing a collaborative plan, integrating religious knowledge and perspectives of the community, and including men and women who represent the diversity within the religious community are crucial factors in understanding the context, barriers, and interventions appropriate for the community. Guidelines are provided in regard to differentiating intimate terrorism, violent resistance, and situational couple’s conflict, as well as appropriate referrals or interventions for each. Building capacity, both within the religious community to serve its congregants as well as the mainstream agency to provide effective, culturally sensitive services in a mutually collaborative partnership are highlighted.