Understanding and Responding to the Nature and Context of Domestic Violence and its Effects on Children, At-Risk Parents, and Parenting

Presented by Darren Mitchell and Tiffany Martinez

This 90-minute training is based on the Envisioning Solutions for Collaborative Practice Training. This program offers an opportunity to engage in strategic thinking and group problem-solving around court and legal issues, and collaboration efforts among community partners intending to enhance safety, promote change, and examine solutions to crucial issues around supervised visitation and safe exchange in cases of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence.

As a result of this segment, participants will be better able to:

• Recognize that in domestic violence cases, you may not have all the information that is needed to make custody and visitation determinations that account for the safety of at-risk parents and children.
• Describe the dynamics of domestic violence, including typical signs that may indicate that domestic violence is present.
• Identify battering tactics and their impact on the behavior of at-risk parents and children exposed to domestic violence.
• Apply the SAFeR approach to ascertain better information about the nature, context and effects of domestic violence on at-risk parents and their children in order to inform decision-making in custody and visitation cases.
• Consider how the cultural lens and bias through which we see things may impact our understanding of abuse and risk and our ability to respond safely and effectively.