With our prevention strategies, we start from the idea that what surrounds us, shapes us. We know from public health that our life experiences and the behaviors that we see modeled around us typically have a stronger influence on our behavior than facts and information that we have about a particular issue.

Expert legal technical assistance is provided to our program professionals and the survivors they work with every day in the form of:

• Direct and immediate legal technical assistance, triaging emergent legal issues, and offering experienced legal advice and council.
• Direct legal representation by ICADV’s Satellite Attorney Program and Immigrant Legal Project. Both programs are designed to provide direct legal assistance to survivors in their civil cases and in their immigration legal cases.

ICADV, the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and the Domestic Violence Network were awarded funds from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute to develop and facilitate a comprehensive training initiative for Victim Advocates and Assistants in Indiana.  The project’s mission is to develop and provide a comprehensive, accessible, diverse, and affordable training series that is available to all professionals who serve victims of crime in Indiana.

The project contains three key training components:

1. The facilitation of a basic training academy  which will be presented three times in regional locations
2. The development of two advanced training programs
3. The provision of nine regional trainings.

In addition to live trainings, this project is developing a web-based training platform to provide advocates with access to recorded webinars and other resources.

Peer review is a process in which agencies that receive Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment funds from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI) are reviewed by fellow agencies, ICADV, and ICJI.  Victim assistance agencies and domestic violence shelters receiving these funds are required to be in compliance with a set of standards that are created and approved by ICADV, ICJI, and peer reviewed agencies. Peer review addresses the minimum standards, policies, and procedures that are needed for all programs. Teams consisting of a group of peers from other agencies and shelters assist ICADV and ICJI in reviewing each agency for compliance with the standards as a measure of quality assurance. To view the Peer Review Standards, log in to our Members Only page.

ICADV recognizes that, regardless of an abuser’s biological sex or gender identity, domestic violence is a grave personal and social problem. It is necessary to have uniformly competent, ethical interventions to protect the safety of all victims and to hold all abusers accountable. Members of marginalized groups who are referred to intervention programs have a right to expect to be held accountable in equal measure to people from dominant groups; to be treated with equal levels of fairness and competence; and to face similar consequences, financial or otherwise.

A Batterers’ Intervention Program (BIP) is an education-based program that makes victim safety its primary priority, holds offenders accountable, and promotes a coordinated community response to domestic violence. The goal of these programs is to provide men who use violence with the opportunity and skills to change the behavior, beliefs, and attitudes that support their use of violence against intimate partners. Certified BIPs work closely with community courts, corrections, and child welfare and are required to collaborate with victim service providers to ensure that victims of a participant has access to and receives supportive services. Batterers’ Intervention groups meet on a weekly basis for 26-40 weeks.

Heterosexual men, heterosexual women, and LGBTQ people come to the intervention with distinct collective histories and differing beliefs that flow from unique cultural identities, lived experiences, and distinct elements that contribute to the core cause of their use of violence, power, and control. For this reason, ICADV is undertaking the process of developing separate intervention program standards for heterosexual men, heterosexual women, and members of the LGBTQ communities.

In accordance with IC 35-50-9-1, ICADV is responsible for overseeing the BIP Standards and certification process to ensure overall quality and consistency for service providers that work with men who use violence. ICADV staff review certification applications and support programs through technical assistance and training opportunities. To view the BIP Standards and access certification forms, log into our Members Only page.