CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
- Understanding the Curriculum and Preparing as a Facilitator The Overarching Goals of the Curriculum
- The Four Primary Objectives of the Curriculum and its Pedagogical Approach
- Assumptions of the Curriculum
- The Difference between Men’s and Women’s Violence Do Women Batter?
- The Differences between Men’s and Women’s Groups
- The Stages of Consciousness Using the NCHCS Points Log to Facilitate Dialogue
- Four Pillars That Support Domestic Violence The Design of the Curriculum Tips for Facilitators.
- Prof. Wilson Onyeani, MBBS, MBA, MD, PhD.
PART ONE
Orientation to the NCHCS Points Group
Segment 1: Segment 2: Segment 3: Segment 4: Segment 5:
Segment 6: Segment 7:
Segment 8: Segment 9:
Starting Group Defining Domestic ViolencE
Coercive Controlling Domestic Violence (Battering) as a Distinct Form of Domestic Violence
The Impact of Coercive Controlling Domestic Violence (Battering)
Characteristics of Relationships when Coercive Controlling Domestic Violence (Battering) is Occurring
Power, Families, and Violence
How do Victims of Coercive Controlling Domestic Violence (Battering) Cope, Respond, Resist, and Survive?
Self Defense and Defense of Self; There is a Difference
Am I Being Battered, Battering, Resisting, or Using Non-Battering Violence?
PART TWO
Using the NCHCS Points Log; Creating Dialogue Analyzing a Vignette Women’s Stories
PART THREE
Exploring Themes in Women’s Lives Living with Anger Exercise: “I’m Angry – Do You Want To Talk?”
Exercise: “Creating Your Own Video” Living without Equality Exercise: “Is This What You Want?”
Exercise: “Get Up!” Reacting When Our Partners Cross the Line: Children
Exercise: “Children”
Exercise: “Victim” Reacting When Our Partners Cross the Line: Affairs
Exercise: “Who Is That?” Reacting When Our Partners Cross the Line: Sexual Abuse
Exercise: “Torch” Exploring Beliefs and Expectations about Relationships
Exercise: “Mirrors of Myself” Exercise: “Motherly Advice” Exercise: “Welcome to Men’s
Group” Exercise: “Relationship Expectations”
Conclusion
Domestic Violence Treatment and the community as a whole
OUR DESIGN OF THE DV CURRICULUM
The curriculum, as indicated in the introduction, consists of three parts: (1) gaining an awareness of the violence; (2) analyzing vignettes and stories using a log; and (3) investigating themes in women’s life through group exercises.
PART ONE
Features nine modules designed to educate participants on a wide range of topics related to domestic violence, including the nature of the problem, the types of violence that occur most frequently in homes, and the distinguishing features of battering, resistive violence, and non-battering forms of abuse. It discusses the indicators that can be used to tell the difference between dominating and submissive violence, as well as between violence that is unrelated to a power imbalance and other forms of violence. By the end of this chapter, the first objective of the curriculum will have been met: the participants will have gained a thorough comprehension of the violence they have experienced. Participants in the group will be able to take steps toward eliminating violence after they have a thorough understanding of the dynamics at play in their own violent experiences and behaviors.
PART TWO
The second section features vignettes portraying acts of violence frequently utilized by women in the groups, as well as excerpts from interviews with women who discuss the abuse they have experienced. Most of those involved in the legal system due to allegations of assault have been women. Participants are asked to reflect on the vignettes and women’s tales by filling out a log that prompts them to recount what happened. After that, we have them “problematize,” or pinpoint an issue within the scene. (The ladies, not the facilitator, need to take the lead on this.) Because the coercion and violence a woman faces in her daily life might have vastly diverse effects on her, her children, her husband, and her network of friends, relatives, and coworkers, we wonder who it is a problem for.
After naming the myriad issues connected to physical and psychological abuse, we can move on to pinpointing the root of the problem, whether it lies at the societal or individual level. This raises the question of what has to change in the short and long term to put an end to the violence, as well as what can bring about such changes.
Melissa or Laura would say, “Yeah, like Sandy’s tale…” or “This is just what Lucinda said.” as we were working on the curriculum. As a way of introducing Melissa and Laura’s group members to you, the reader, we decided to gather the group’s facilitators, as well as the women who will be participating in the group, for a group photo.
Meeting other women who share their interests by joining a Turning NCHCS group. Due to the small size of their hometown, Melissa and Laura’s group would lose any chance of remaining anonymous if we were to record their music and release it on CD. We reached out to other activists in a bigger community in order to organize a gathering of women who had been arrested or charged with domestic abuse-related offenses. We aimed to have a mix of women, some close to the action and some more removed from it. In this course, you will meet the women who comprise the group we patched together. (We couldn’t un- cobble ourselves, so we’re still getting together.)
There are three applications for the half-day group recording. We started by having each lady introduce herself and relate her narrative in her own way, with the caveat that she provide a picture of the times and circumstances in which she had resorted to physical force. Most of these introductions, which originally ran between fifteen and twenty minutes, have been condensed to four or five minutes by focusing on a compelling facet of each woman’s background. These are independent readings that serve as springboards for discussion throughout several lessons. Second, we chose passages that address common themes within the group, such as the impact of the violence on the members’ capacity to parent or the lack of guilt some members of the group felt when they hurt their abusers. These can be used as discussion starters or to help facilitators identify commonalities in the group’s input. Third, we culled out snippets of Ellen Pence’s interview on the curriculum’s philosophy and underlying assumptions and inserted them into the interview as a way to reinforce the ideas and procedures of group facilitation.
The experiences of every woman provide challenges. The facilitator need only introduce the woman, play the clip of her tale, and then have the group log the clip in order to use these stories as a topic starter each week. See “Turning Points Log” in Unit 2 of the course outline for details on how to use the log.
We realized that the same video clip can inspire a wide variety of discussions. For this reason, we introduce each story to the group with a brief synopsis and then present a number of discussion questions to stimulate thought and discussion among the ladies as they process the material. A tool for facilitating this discussion is the Turning Points diary. We had a great time filming the first Turning Points session and want you to have the same experience. Although it may seem strange to use the word “enjoy” to describe a group of women discussing sexual assault, there was undeniable happiness at the women’s discovery of one another.
PART THREE
This curriculum is a set of activities that we’ve found to be very effective in getting women to focus on the program’s aims. We urge that the facilitator let the group develop in its own organic way, but then we go and describe each exercise in great detail. Facilitators must work to keep discussions on the topic of violence and potential solutions on track. After a few months of following the curriculum, you may realize that you want to create your own drills. The ideas of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire have been adopted by us. who insisted on sharing codes (skits, plays, poetry) that reflected the lives of the audience members. Next he asked the group to break the code and gain a critical (as opposed to mystical) knowledge of the forces at work in their lives.
There is a unique character to each and every neighborhood, program, and organization. The three of us facilitated the groups that generated these codes. The method we offer is doable, but you will soon need to begin creating your own, more applicable codes if your clientele consists primarily of immigrant women. Some of our codes will be useful if you’re interacting with women from a reservation setting, while others won’t. Yet again, you’ll need to begin developing your own. Developing shared language is especially important if the majority of your group identifies as South Asian, middle class, or in their twenties.
The core idea is the same regardless of the group’s cultural background or demography. To help women overcome obstacles to a life free from violence, we must do the following: (1) create an experience that is the antithesis of dominance; (2) facilitate the process of constantly stepping back to name and explore the social and personal forces at work; and (3) seek a kernel of truth in every conversation with them. If you respect the spirit of the procedure and give the ladies control, this strategy will succeed in any group.