Virginia'a Guidelines for Primary Prevention

The Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance have just published an excellent report, Virginia’s Guidelines for the Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence & Intimate Partner Violence. The authors suggest that the guidelines be used as an “organizing philosophy” to shape primary prevention strategies.

Each of the nine guidelines detailed in this publication include examples of how sexual violence and domestic violence prevention programs address the guideline.  The guidelines are:

1. Develop prevention strategies that promote protective factors.
2. Develop prevention strategies that strive to be comprehensive.
3. Develop prevention strategies that are concentrated, and can be sustained and expanded over time.
4. Develop prevention strategies that use varied teaching methods to address multiple learning processes.
5. Develop prevention programs based on purposeful, logical rationale.
6. Develop prevention strategies that are developmentally appropriate.
7. Develop prevention strategies in collaboration with a representative cross-section of community members to incorporate diverse cultural beliefs, practices, and community norms.
8. Develop prevention strategies that include a systematic method to determine program effectiveness and promote continuous quality improvement.
9. Develop prevention strategies as an integral part of the agency mission to end sexual violence / intimate partner violence.

I especially appreciate the almost 50 pages of appendices including descriptions of example programs that address community and societal protective and risk factors.

Check out this report at http://vsdvalliance.org/secPublications/Prevention%20Guidelines%202009%5B1%5D.pdf