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Preventing & Managing the Spread of COVID-19 Within Domestic Violence Programs

COVID-19 and DV programs

As the coronavirus outbreak reaches pandemic proportions, domestic violence organizations providing training and technical assistance on the national and state levels are seeing an increase in requests from community-based shelters across the country for accurate information and guidance on how to plan, prepare, and respond to this emerging public health threat.

While there is still much to learn about the novel coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), presently the general guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 are the same strategies used every day to detect and prevent the spread of other respiratory viruses like influenza.

Communal settings like domestic violence shelters are environments where a number of people reside, meet, or gather in close proximity for either a limited or extended period of time. Other particular aspects of shelter living such as restrictions on resident movement and lack of alternative work schedules for staff, make these environments especially vulnerable to infectious diseases.

In an effort to strengthen the capacity of individuals and organizations serving domestic violence survivors and their children, the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) gathered select resources below that can offer helpful guidance for domestic violence programs in preparing for and responding to the coronavirus pandemic. A wealth of information and recommendations have been developed and made widely available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including specific guidance for homeless shelters. These resources can be adapted and used by domestic violence shelter facilities.

Read the full article here.

Additional Resources

COVID-19 Community Planning and Preparedness:

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This project is sponsored under Family Violence Prevention and Services grant awards from the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Service within the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Office on Violence Against Women and the Office for Victims of Crime at the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Office of Special Needs Assistance Programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The interagency collaboration established this domestic violence and housing technical assistance consortium to provide national domestic violence and housing training and resource development.