Intimate Partner Violence Prevention: Providing Education and Awareness
Eileen Porzuczek
Domestic violence can happen to anyone, including individuals from all races, religions, and income and education levels. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, about 20 individuals per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. In one year, that number equates to more than 10 million people. Furthermore, about one in four women and one in nine men experience some form of severe intimate partner violence. Additionally, intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crimes (NCADV, 2020). According to a 2011 study “…participants in the WMR healthy relationships program for low-income individuals experienced a significant reduction in physical and emotional abuse at 6 months following the program completion” (Antle et al., 2011, p. 398).
Many other initiatives have attempted to prevent intimate partner violence. One of the larger campaigns is The No More Campaign, which is an initiative to end domestic violence and sexual assault. This campaign is well known because it has included ad campaigns with celebrities and has a strong presence on social media. Another initiative is the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which works to end domestic violence by providing resources and education. Likewise, the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence is a center that houses educational resources about domestic violence, with a focus on educating individuals to effectively address domestic violence in their own communities. Although all of these organizations have strong initiatives to prevent domestic violence, none specifically direct their messages and educational resources toward adolescents.
This creative project is intended to bring awareness to intimate partner violence through a transmedia storytelling experience that educates young people about the importance of healthy relationships in order to help prevent and decrease the number of individuals experiencing intimate partner violence every year in the United States.
This transmedia project will include content designed and developed to be shared across multiple platforms, including the web, social media, and others. Empathy research will first be conducted with survivors of abuse to ensure a user-centered approach to content development. This research will inform the transmedia campaign. Then, design thinking sessions will be conducted to envision storylines and to solidify platform choices for the transmedia campaign. Transmedia content may include: a website, an educational program, social media campaigns, and interactive storytelling games, to name a few. Ultimately, this creative project is intended to help prevent and decrease intimate partner violence among young people through education and awareness.
Works Cited
Antle et al. (2011). An Evaluation of Healthy Relationship Education to Reduce Intimate Partner Violence. Journal of Family Social Work, 14(5), 387-406. https://doi.org/10.1080/10522158.2011.616482
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2020, from https://nrcdv.org/
NCADV: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2020, from https://ncadv.org/statistics
NO MORE: Together We Can End Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2020, from https://nomore.org/