Advocacy

2012
Allen NE, Larsen S, Trotter J, Sullivan CM. Exploring The Core Service Delivery Processes Of An Evidence-Based Community Advocacy Program For Women With Abusive Partners. Journal of Community Psychology. 2012;41 (1) :1-18. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcop.21502/abstract

*The full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

Once an intervention has been found to be effective, it is important to examine the processes and factors within the program that led to its success. The current study examined survivors’ reflections on the Community Advocacy Project, an empirically supported intervention for women with abusive partners. The study examined the service delivery processes that survivors affirmed or identified as core components of the intervention. Qualitative analysis of interviews with 51 survivors indicated that 3 main service delivery elements contributed to positive outcomes: orientation to the whole person, unconditional validation and acceptance, and an orientation to information provision and action. These overarching themes are described and implications for domestic violence services and dissemination are discussed.

2002
Sullivan CM, Bybee DI, Allen NE. Findings From a Community-Based Program for Battered Women and Their Children. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 2002;17 (9) :915-936. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/17/9/915.short

*The full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

The effectiveness of a strengths-and community-based support and advocacy intervention for battered women and their children was examined. The study included a longitudinal, experimental design and employed multimethod strategies to measure children's exposure to abuse and their self-competence over a period of 8 months. Maternal experience of abuse and maternal well-being were also assessed. The experimental intervention involved advocacy for mothers and their children and a 10-week support and education group for the children. Families in the experimental condition received the free services of a trained paraprofessional for 6 to 8 hours per week over 16 weeks. Eighty mothers and their 80 children participated in the study. Findings were modest but promising. Children in the experimental condition reported significantly higher self-competence in several domains compared to children in the control group. The intervention caused improvement in women's depression and self-esteem over time. Policy, practice and research implications are discussed.

1999
Sullivan CM, Bybee DI. Reducing violence using community-based advocacy for women with abusive partners. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1999;67 (1) :43-53. Publisher's VersionAbstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10028208

*The full article is available through this link. This article may be available free of charge to those with university credentials.

An intensive community-based advocacy intervention was designed and evaluated by randomly assigning 278 battered women to an experimental or control condition. Participants were interviewed 6 times over a period of 2 years. Retention rate averaged 95% over the 2 years. The 10-week postshelter intervention involved providing trained advocates to work 1-on-1 with women, helping generate and access the community resources they needed to reduce their risk of future violence from their abusive partners. Women who worked with advocates experienced less violence over time, reported higher quality of life and social support, and had less difficulty obtaining community resources. More than twice as many women receiving advocacy services experienced no violence across the 2 years postintervention compared with women who did not receive such services.