Preventing and Addressing Intimate Partner Violence in Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Programs: Spotlighting the Strategies To Respond to Intimate Violence Effectively (STRIVE) Project

In recognition of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, OPRE is proud to spotlight our new Strategies To Respond to Intimate Violence Effectively (STRIVE) project. In partnership with ACF’s Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Child Trends and Futures Without Violence, and with input from ACF’s Office of Family Violence Prevention Services (OFVPS), the STRIVE project aims to build upon the foundational knowledge we gained from prior studies, including Responding to Intimate Violence in Relationship Programs (RIViR) and Preventing and Addressing Intimate Violence when Engaging Dads (PAIVED), to generate evidence and resources to address intimate partner violence (IPV) and teen dating violence (TDV) in Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) program settings.   

Specific objectives of the STRIVE project include: 

1. identify promising approaches for addressing IPV and TDV in HMRF program settings, formatively test one approach, and disseminate findings from the formative test in accessible ways; 
2. foster ongoing engagement of HMRF practitioners, HMRF program participants, people with lived experience (both those who have survived IPV or TDV and those who have caused harm), and other partners with a vested interest in addressing and preventing IPV and TDV among HMRF program participants; and 
3. develop practical guidance and summarize technical assistance needs to build HMRF program capacity for preventing and addressing IPV and TDV. 

This project addresses an important need for the field as there is very limited evidence on what works to address IPV and TDV in HMRF program settings. In 2025, this project plans to complete a formative test of the “CUES”  (PDF) universal education approach that we will implement in both Responsible Fatherhood (RF) and Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) program settings. CUES is an evidence-based intervention developed by Futures Without Violence that stands for “confidentiality,” “universal education + empowerment,” and “support,” which are the three steps of the approach. Specifically, staff meet with a program participant in a one-on-one setting to discuss limits to confidentiality before discussing IPV. Then, they use a safety card to provide universal education on IPV, how it impacts families, and how to share the information with a friend. If abuse is disclosed, staff are prepared to discuss harm reduction strategies and provide a warm handoff to support services. 

Importantly, the key considerations and priorities that led the team to select this universal education approach include that it is: (1) meaningful to participants, (2) feasible to test, (3) sustainable, (4) replicable, and (5) able to inform research-based approaches to prevent and address IPV and TDV. An important goal of this project is to generate information and resources that are useful and practical to programs as well as meaningful and relevant to their participants.

We are very excited to expand OPRE’s portfolio related to preventing and addressing IPV and TDV in ACF program settings. To learn more about some of our other projects in this area, check out our blog post from a previous Domestic Violence Awareness month: Reflecting on OPRE’s Research and Evaluation Projects Focused on Preventing Domestic Violence.

Jesse Coe is a Social Science Research Analysts with OPRE. Christine Kim is a Social Science Research Analyst with VPD Government Solutions supporting OPRE.