The research and evaluation (R & E) initiative is authorized by 34 USC 12291(B)(7), which permits OVW to set aside up to three percent of available funds from most OVW programs to conduct…

The Iowa State University received a $450,000 Project Grant award from the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women under the OVW Research and Evaluation Program (CFDA 16.026) to evaluate the initial effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of the Proactive relationship violence intervention program for men of color. Proactive was created through community-based participatory research as a culturally responsive adaptation of an existing cognitive behavioral relationship violence intervention. The study will involve 90 male participants of color who will voluntarily take part in the 12-week Proactive program. Data collection will examine participant retention, therapeutic alliance ratings, and any self-reported changes in intimate partner violence behaviors. The research aims to contribute knowledge around non-carceral and culturally aligned strategies for reducing intimate partner violence. The period of performance is November 1, 2022 through October 31, 2025 in Ames, Iowa.

The research and evaluation (R & E) initiative is authorized by 34 USC 12291(B)(7), which permits OVW to set aside up to three percent of available funds from most OVW programs to conduct evaluations of promising practices for combatting domestic/dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, and to research problems emerging in the field. By generating more knowledge about strategies for serving victims and holding offenders accountable, communities that benefit from violence against women act (VAWA) funding will be better equipped to align their work with practices that are known to be effective, and they will be more capable of building empirical knowledge on the efficacy of new and promising ways of making communities safer and more just. This study with iowa state university builds off of promising findings from earlier OVW-funded research on a relationship violence intervention program (RVIP) called achieving change through values-based behavior (ACTV), which uses a cognitive behavioral approach. Noting that rvips have generally been found to have little impact on domestic violence, and rvips may cause more harm for men of color due to higher dropout rates, the research team and community partners recognized a need for culturally responsive RVIP for men of color and, through community-based participatory research, created a new RVIP called proactive, which is based on ACTV. Participants in the proposed study will be 90 men of color who have recently engaged in intimate partner violence (IPV) and voluntarily take part in the 12-week program. Data will examine the initial effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of proactive, including participant retention, reports of working alliance (a feature of an effective therapeutic relationship), and any changes in participants' self-reported IPV behaviors. Research on this adapted RVIP model, which was created collaboratively with the community where IT is implemented, will contribute knowledge about non-carceral and culturally responsive strategies for reducing IPV.