Courses

This introductory course provides students with information about domestic and sexual violence, including types of violence, local and global prevalence and impact, and the barriers that marginalized groups face with regard to accessing intervention services. Students will also learn about healthy relationships, including the use of healthy relationships education for domestic violence prevention. The course prepares students to work with survivors in the community and provides training in evidence-based interventions, such as myPlan. For students in a practicum or internship, the course provides practical ways to integrate domestic violence and healthy relationships interventions into their service setting and emphasizes the unique mission of the AmeriCorps Survivor Link program.

This course examines experiences of and responses to violence against women (VAW) from global perspectives. Throughout the semester students will explore drivers and consequences of violence against women across geographic and practice contexts, and in relation to societal and structural dynamics. Students will examine critical approaches and evidence-based practice modalities that account for variation in understanding violence and related needs. While the focus of the course is on women’s experiences of violence, students will have opportunities to explore a wide range of identities related to gender, sexual orientation, race, social status, and differing abilities.

This course examines disparities associated with gender-based violence (GBV) – violence that is perpetrated by both intimate partners as well as by non-intimate partners, and explores current evidence-based intervention approaches and responses. Through application of an ecological and intersectional framework, course material considers the persistent disparities among women and socially and economically marginalized populations exposed to GBV. Additionally, this course reviews research evidence on the effects of and bidirectional relationship between GBV and a range of health, mental health, and substance use outcomes towards strengthening students' practice skills in diverse settings. Students critically analyze the strengths and shortfalls of our current practice in GBV prevention and intervention work and have the opportunity to focus on issues of gender and marginalization, explore their own attitudes, and evaluate existing work considering its cultural and regional relevance.

This course examines the use of intimate partner violence (IPV, aka. domestic violence) risk assessment in social work practice with survivors of IPV. We will examine theories and research that explain, define, and describe IPV risk assessment, as well as the intended uses and predictive value of the various available IPV risk assessment instruments. During the course, students will become certified to use two common risk assessment instruments, and will gain expertise in the use of IPV risk assessment instruments in social work practice interventions, including within risk informed collaborative interventions (e.g., the Lethality Assessment Program, Domestic Violence High Risk Teams). The course will present an evidence based practice framework for the use of risk assessment in social work practice, and students will be encouraged to think critically about the use of risk assessment across social work practice settings and with marginalized survivors.