Introducing the Domestic Abuse–Informed Continuum of Practice

By the Safe & Together Institute Team

At our 2013 New Orleans National Safe & Together Model Symposium, David Mandel introduced the Domestic Abuse–Informed Continuum of Practice to describe the progression from a “domestic abuse–destructive” child welfare system to a “domestic abuse–proficient” child welfare system. Inspired by earlier work on culturally competent and trauma-informed systems, the continuum applies the Safe & Together Model to the challenge of helping child welfare systems and their communities envision meaningful, systemic change that focuses on child safety and well-being through partnerships with adult domestic abuse survivors and interventions with perpetrators.

The framework identifies five systemic stages for child welfare systems related to domestic violence. The purpose of the framework is to provide a method of self-evaluation and a roadmap for change for child welfare and their partners. The five stages are:

1. Domestic Abuse Destructive: Policies and practices actively harm adult and child survivors of domestic violence and/or make it harder for them to access support and assistance.

2. Domestic Abuse Neglectful: Policies and practices reflect an unwillingness or inability to intervene with domestic violence and/or fail to acknowledge how domestic violence impacts children and families.

3. Domestic Abuse Pre-Competent: Policies and practices reveal a gap between the stated relevance of and approach to domestic violence and the actual domestic violence policy, training practices, and services infrastructure.

4. Domestic Abuse Competent: Policies and practices focus on child safety and well-being, recognize survivor strengths, hold perpetrators accountable, and see domestic violence intervention as a core part of child welfare practice.

5. Domestic Abuse Proficient: Policies and practices reflect domestic violence competency and ensure that domestic violence approaches are consistent, dependable, and utilized throughout the child welfare system.

These categories are intended to describe a child welfare system's response to domestic violence. It doesn’t just apply to state and county child welfare agencies. It also applies to community organizations who provide services to families involved with child welfare, the courts, and related professionals such as Guardians ad Litem and even law enforcement. The framework is multi-dimensional in that it addresses policy, leadership, and frontline social work practice, service delivery, and cross-system collaboration. It is integrative in that it addresses the intersectionality of domestic violence with substance abuse, mental health, poverty, housing insecurity, racism, the marginalization of fathers in our systems, and other issues. Agencies and communities may fit into more than one category depending on how far along they are in their process of becoming a domestic abuse–informed child welfare system. For example, a system that is pre-competent or even competent is likely to still have some aspects of their practice, policy, and services fall somewhere in the destructiveness to neglectful range. The Safe & Together Model is designed to help child welfare agencies and communities, wherever they are on the continuum, move through the stages until they reach proficiency. Each category in the continuum is associated with a continuum of implementation of the Safe & Together Model principles and critical components and specific system characteristics.