Ep. 9 - Speaking of: Melissa Scaia

This week we are speaking with Melissa Scaia. Melissa will share the rich history of her work in the movement to end domestic violence by working within multiple arenas including Abuse Intervention Programs, Women Who Use Force, The Coordinated Community Response, Supervised Visitation Programs, and Survivor Services.

Melissa (Petrangelo) Scaia has worked to address gender-based violence for nearly 25 years locally in Minnesota, nationally, and globally.  She is committed to continuing to be a practitioner in work that she trains on internationally related to domestic violence/coercive control.  In Minnesota, she works part-time for ⁠Domestic Abuse Project⁠ as an Intervention/Prevention Therapist for their men’s intervention program and as the Systems Advocate Coordinator of the Minneapolis Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to domestic violence.  She works internationally as part of the Global Alliance for Women’s Safety and Equality (GAWSE).  As part of GAWSE, she works for UN Women to provide training and technical assistance, currently in Greece, Moldova, and the Asia-Pacific region.  She provides training and technical assistance on addressing women’s use of violence in a CCR and in non-violence programs as co-founder of ⁠Domestic Violence Turning Points⁠. She co-wrote a curriculum and videos for working with perpetrators as fathers entitled, ⁠Addressing Fatherhood with Men Who Batter⁠.  She is the former Director of International Training at ⁠Global Rights for Women⁠, co-founder of ⁠Pathways to Family Peace,⁠ and former executive director of ⁠Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs⁠ (DAIP), also known as “the Duluth Model.”  Before working in Duluth, she was an advocate and the executive director of ⁠Advocates for Family Peace⁠ (AFFP) for 17 years, a local domestic violence advocacy program.  She wrote her master's thesis on the effects of domestic violence on children and wrote her doctoral dissertation proposal on addressing the safety needs of adult victims of domestic violence and their children in supervised visitation centers. Recently, she authored ⁠Safe Consultations with Survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls⁠, a UN Women global guidance on how to conduct focus groups and interviews with survivors.  She serves on the steering committee for the US’s National Network of Abuse Intervention Programs, where she was also recently given the COMPASS award for her work, research, and innovation related to her work on addressing women’s use of violence.  She has also served as a National Advisory Committee Member for Law & Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay’s ⁠Joyful Heart Foundation⁠ for survivor-based healing.  She has conducted assessments and research on topics related to domestic violence:  1) ⁠women’s use of violence⁠; 2) ⁠using videoconference software to conduct men’s batter intervention programming (BIP)⁠; 3) ⁠Minneapolis police response to domestic violence⁠; and 4) ⁠a needs assessment on North Dakota’s response to domestic violence⁠.  She has also testified/consulted as an expert witness on domestic violence/coercive control in criminal and civil court cases since 2006.⁠