Understanding & Addressing Women’s Use of Force

Description

This event will provide an overview of the complexities of understanding and addressing women’s use of force. Particular attention will be paid to intervening in the lives of women who have resorted to using force against their intimate heterosexual partners. Training participants will gain a deeper understanding of how the motivation, intent, and impact of women’s use of force is often distinctly different from that of men who batter their female partners. These differences demand that intervention be tailored to the nuanced needs of the population served. Therefore, the focus on interventions throughout this training will be on specific in-group intervention tools and themes practitioners can use as they innovate upon or build their own trauma-informed, intersectional, culturally humble curricula. Both seasoned practitioners and those just getting started are encouraged to participate in what promises to be a cutting-edge conversation and resource sharing opportunity.

Objectives

• Understand and name the general differences between women’s use of force and men's battering behavior.

• Provide a reason why context is important when considering this issue.

• Name at least three interventions effectively used with women who have used force.

Facilitator

Lisa Young Larance, MSW, LCSW, LMSW, is a practitioner-scholar whose practical work,
curricula, trainings, and peer-reviewed publications, focus on meeting the needs of marginalized women and their families. She is the founder of two innovative community-based programs providing intervention, advocacy, and support for women who have used force in their relationships: Jersey Battered Women’s Service, Inc.’s Vista Program (jbws.org/publications. html) and Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County's RENEW Program (csswashtenaw. org/renew). She also co-developed and implemented the prison-based Meridians for Incarcerated Women program for the Michigan Department of Corrections (csswashtenaw. org/renew/meridians).

Lisa consults domestically and internationally for a range of organizations and agencies including the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Harmony House’s Nurturing Hearts Violence Prevention Program in Hong Kong, China; the United States Air Force’s (USAF) Family Advocacy Program serving women on 70 USAF bases world-wide; and Baptcare and Berry Street’s +SHIFT Program in Melbourne, Australia. To encourage discussion and resource sharing among practitioners and scholars involved in the lives of women who have used force, in 2007 Lisa launched and moderates the international “W-Catch22” listserv. She is also an editorial review board member of the international, interdisciplinary journal Violence Against Women. As a joint University of Michigan doctoral candidate in Social Work and Sociology, Lisa’s dissertation research focuses on the complex experiences of women who have had antiviolence programming contact.