What Can Communities do to Prevent Domestic Violence?

Expand education and awareness efforts to increase positive attitudes toward nonviolence and encourage individuals to report family violence.

• Form or task forces to assess the problem, develop an action plan, and monitor progress.
  
  
• Mandate training in domestic violence for all social services and criminal justice professionals.
  
  
• Advocate laws and judicial procedures at the state and local levels that support and protect battered women.
  
  
• Establish centers where visits between batterers and their children may be supervised, for the children's safety.
  
  
• Fund shelters adequately.
  
  
• Recruit and train volunteers to staff hotlines, accompany victims to court, and provide administrative support to shelters and victim services.
  
  
• Improve collection of child support.
  
  
• Establish medical protocols to help physicians and other health care personnel identify and help victims of domestic abuse.
  
  
• Provide legal representation for victims of domestic violence.
  
  
• Advocate for the accessibility of services for all population groups, especially underserved populations which include immigrants and refugees, gays and lesbians, racial and ethnic minorities and the disabled.