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Resources offered to the victims in the African American Community
Domestic violence in the African-American community is largely unreported, ignored and at times, even denied by the media. If left unchecked, domestic violence continues even after the death of the abuser as it is inherently passed on to their family and children. Within this particular community, reported incidents of domestic violence are the highest. This paper discusses some of the resources offered to the victims of domestic violence in the African-American Community. .
Domestic abuse occurs where the abuser habitually engages in actions that cause physical, sexual or emotional abuse to the victim. The abuser, predominantly a man, can be a woman too (although in rare cases). Getting out of an abusive relationship is difficult due to isolation from friends and family and financial dependency during the relationship, as well as, out of fear of being judged and looked down upon. There are various treatment options and resources available for such victims; such as meeting the victim on an individual basis, crisis intervention techniques and group or family therapy measures. Other measures also include community advocacy and outreach; whereby the African-American community creates awareness of domestic violence and offers community-based solutions. Counselors and health experts also distribute books, electronic sources of information, brochures and pamphlets which list down the measures that can be taken against domestic abuse and can easily be availed by domestic abuse victims. . Other resources available to such victims are as follows:
- The Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community (IDVAAC) was established to address concerns about domestic violence in the African-American community. IDVAAC helps devising strategies to reduce and, eventually, eliminate domestic violence among African-Americans. The victims approaching this organization will have access to community, district-level, state-level and national conferences and training forums. By distributing publications, brochures, newsletters and employing other means, IDVAAC seeks further research in the area of African American violence. .
- Another nonprofit agency, the Purple R.E.I.G.N, provides programs and services to African-American (and other) victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault to inform, reform, empower and educate such victims and survivors. The organization offers crisis intervention and counseling, advocacy and activism, educational workshops, legal & advisory, financial support and other services to such victims. .
- For the African-American community, the Black Church is one of the oldest and most trusted institutions for spiritual and emotional guidance. Whilst most of the churches in the community support the view of a patriarchal society where men are supposed to dominate, and women are bound to suffer in silence, the Boston Black Church has been aiming to provide various resources to help domestic violence victims. These services include accommodation, counseling and child-support services.
It should be noted, however, that the resources available to domestic violence victims within the African-American community may not be sufficient. An African-American victim’s ability to escape from such a relationship is marred by social injustice, economic hardships and racial discrimination. African-American shelters, providing accommodation facilities to victims who’ve escaped from their abusers, often complain that those shelters did not provide adequate food and infrastructural facilities. These shelters do provide certain self-esteem building, advocacy, job-training and child psychology facilities that enable the victims to overcome the emotional torment of domestic abuse, to find employment and to live a life with dignity. .
Works Cited
Hamm, Nia. "Domestic Violence Awareness Month: The fight against black women’s higher rates of intimate partner violence," 20 October 2013. The Grio.
Hendricks, LaVelle, Amir Abassi and Angela Williams-McGill. Counseling Domestic Abuse Survivors within the African American. Brochure. Dallas: NATIONAL FORUM JOURNAL OF COUNSELING AND ADDICTION, 2013. Document.
IDVAAC. Goals and Objectives. 2008. http://www.dvinstitute.org/about/goalsobjectives.html.
Sanders Thompson, Vetta and Anita Bazile. "African American Attitudes toward Domestic Violence and DV Assistance," 2000. National Violence Against Women Prevention Research Center.
