Virginia’s Guidelines for the Primary Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence

Fostering Community Resilience: Virginia’s Guidelines for the Primary Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence (2022) assists local communities in creating primary prevention strategies that focus on identifying and dismantling the root causes of sexual and domestic violence. The Guidelines have been built on the foundations of two core concepts: social justice principles and public health models. Social justice and public health have a lot in common. They both seek to address health challenges (i.e., violence) by changing cultural norms, systems, and institutions while understanding that oppression is at the root of inequality and access to health. This document draws heavily from the original 2009 Guidelines for the Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence and Intimate Partner Violence, which was the product of Virginia’s Primary Prevention Guidelines Work Group, which consisted of representatives from several local sexual and domestic violence agencies, the Virginia Department of Health, the Action Alliance, and other allied partners.

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