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 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 issues 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. This collaborative study aims to develop and evaluate a culturally tailored, trauma-informed yoga (CT-TIY) program, to explore how body-oriented interventions may aid in trauma recovery for women of color who have experienced intimate partner violence(IPV). The study employs a researcher-practitioner partnership involving a culturally specific community agency serving racial and ethnic minorities and an IPV victim services provider. Using a community-based participatory action research approach, the study will evaluate the feasibility (i.e., whether the program is viable), acceptability (i.e., the extent to which the target population wants to participate in the program), safety, and initial efficacy of CT-TIY across three phases: creating CT-TIY through consultation with a community advisory board and focus groups, piloting CT-TIY with up to ten participants to refine the program, and conducting a randomized trial comparing CT-TIY to care as usual (i.e., referrals to services providers) with 40 participants over three months.