Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances (DELTA)
Oct 2011. From www.cdc.gov. Purpose of the Program
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem in the United States. Research indicates that IPV
exists on a continuum from episodic violence—a single or occasional
occurrence—to battering (Johnson, 1995). Battering is more frequent and
intensive and involves one partner who develops and maintains control
over the other. See our web site for additional information about the magnitude and consequences of IPV.
All forms of IPV,
from episodic violence to battering, are preventable. The key to
prevention is focusing on first-time perpetration and first-time
victimization. Knowledge about the factors that prevent IPV is lacking.
CDC is working to better understand the developmental pathways and
social circumstances that lead to this type of violence. In addition,
the agency is helping organizations evaluate the effectiveness of
existing programs to reduce both victimization and perpetration.
The Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership
Through Alliances (DELTA) program seeks to reduce the incidence (i.e.,
number of new cases) of IPV in funded communities. The program addresses the entire continuum of IPV from episodic violence to battering through a variety of activities.
Learn about other activities that CDC is engaged in to prevent IPV.
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History of the Program
The Family Violence
Prevention Services Act was amended in the 1994 Violent Crime Control
and Law Enforcement Act to support the work of Coordinated Community
Responses (CCRs) addressing IPV at the local level. Chapter 6 of Title
IV (Violence Against Women Act) of the Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act funded nonprofit organizations to sustain IPV intervention and prevention projects (CCRs) in local communities.
In 2010, the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act was
reauthorized. The community demonstration projects were officially
replaced with the DELTA name. The reauthorization continues to direct
CDC to fund state domestic violence coalitions for the purpose of
funding and supporting local efforts to prevent intimate partner violence.
A CCR is an organized effort to prevent and respond to IPV. These
efforts can be organized formally (e.g., nonprofit organization) or
informally (e.g., group of concerned citizens). CCRs typically involve
diverse service sectors (e.g., law enforcement, public health, and
faith-based organizations) and populations. Historically, CCRs have
focused on providing services to victims, holding batterers
accountable, and reducing the number of recurring assaults. Few have
concentrated on stopping initial IPV, otherwise known as primary prevention.
CDC was given the responsibility of administering the federal
funds provided by this legislation. The monies were first used to fund
10 CCR demonstration projects. To facilitate primary prevention at the
community level, CDC began funding the DELTA Program in 2002. Nine state domestic violence coalitions were initially funded; five more were added in 2003.
The federal legislation is intended to support community level
efforts. CDC funds state-level domestic violence coalitions to provide
prevention-focused training, technical assistance, and funding to local
CCRs. A local nonprofit organization serves as the fiscal agent and
receives DELTA Program funding to support the local CCR's adoption of
primary prevention principles and practices. CCRs integrate prevention
strategies through increased cooperation and coordination among
participating sectors.
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Program Concepts
Primary prevention is the cornerstone of the DELTA Program. Prevention strategies are guided by a set of principles including:
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Preventing first-time perpetration and first-time victimization;
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Reducing risk factors associated with IPV;
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Promoting protective factors that reduce the likelihood of IPV;
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Implementing evidence-supported strategies that incorporate behavior and social change theories; and
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Evaluating prevention strategies and using results to form future plans.
Prevention requires understanding the circumstances and factors that influence violence. CDC uses a four-level, social ecological model
to better understand violence and potential strategies for prevention.
This model considers the complex interplay between individual,
relationship, community, and societal factors, and allows us to address
risk and protective factors from multiple domains.
 The DELTA Program
encourages the development of comprehensive prevention strategies
through a continuum of activities that address all levels of the social
ecology. It is important that these activities are developmentally
appropriate and are conducted over several life stages. This approach is
more likely to prevent IPV across a lifetime than any single strategy or policy change.
Individual-level influences are personal history factors that increase the likelihood of becoming an IPV victim or perpetrator. Examples include attitudes and beliefs that support IPV, isolation, and a family history
of violence. Prevention strategies at this level are often designed to
promote attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that support intimate
partnerships based on mutual respect and trust. Specific approaches may
include education and life skills training.
Relationship-level influences are factors that
increase risk because of relationships with peers, intimate partners,
and family members. A person's closest social circle—peers, partners,
and family members—influence their behavior, and contribute to their
range of experience (Dahlberg and Krug et al., 2002). Prevention
strategies at this level may include mentoring and peer programs
designed to promote intimate partnerships based on mutual respect and
trust.
The community level of the model examines the
contexts in which social relationships are embedded-such as schools,
workplaces, and neighborhoods-and seeks to identify the characteristics
of these settings that are associated with victims or perpetrators of
violence. Prevention strategies at this level are typically designed to
impact the climate, processes, and policies in a given system. Social
norm and social marketing campaigns are often used to foster community climates that promote intimate partnerships based on mutual respect and trust.
Societal-level influences are larger,
macro-level factors, such as gender inequality, religious or cultural
belief systems, societal norms, and economic or social policies that
influence IPV. Prevention strategies at this level typically involve
collaborations by multiple partners to promote social norms, policies,
and laws that support gender and economic equality and foster intimate
partnerships based on mutual respect and trust.
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Current Activities
State domestic violence coalitions that receive DELTA Program funds are working to build IPV prevention capacity within their organization, state, and local communities. Within each DELTA Program
state, evaluators are working with the state domestic violence
coalitions and local CCRs to assess changes in state and local capacity
to prevent IPV and the impact of each CCR’s effort to prevent IPV.
Between 2005 and 2009, the 14 state domestic violence coalitions
worked with a diverse group of people from within their state to
develop a 5-8 year IPV Prevention Plan. For most of these states, this was the first time a primary prevention plan for IPV had been developed. These plans focus on the strategies needed to build the infrastructure required to prevent IPV
as well as the strategies needed to prevent first-time perpetration or
first-time victimization. Currently, the 14 state domestic violence
coalitions are implementing and evaluating these plans. The success,
challenges and lessons learned by DELTA Program grantees in developing,
implementing and evaluating their state plans will provide a wealth of
information to CDC and others on how to develop an IPV primary prevention infrastructure and address IPV
to achieve programmatic goals. Each state domestic violence coalition
is also working to integrate primary prevention principles into their
own operating structures and processes, develop primary prevention
resources, and deliver primary prevention training and technical
assistance to various partners throughout their state.
At the local level, state domestic violence coalitions are
supporting more than 45 local CCRs. The activities of these CCRs are
quite diverse due to the differing needs and circumstances of each
community: some CCRs are working with schools to prevent teen dating violence,
some are working with the faith community to support healthy
relationship development, and others are working with men and boys to
prevent first-time male perpetration.
By focusing on multiple levels within each state, CDC is supporting comprehensive efforts to prevent IPV. Many believe that IPV is a community problem requiring a community solution.
DELTA PREP Project
DELTA PREP (Preparing and Raising Expectations for Prevention)
is a 4-year project funded in 2007 to support an additional 19
state-level domestic violence coalitions and is a collaborative effort
between CDC, the CDC Foundation and the project’s funder, the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation. DELTA PREP project staff provides training
and technical assistance to build DELTA PREP coalitions’ organizational
capacities to address IPV primary prevention.
With peer coaching support and lessons learned from DELTA
coalitions, DELTA PREP coalitions are integrating primary prevention
into their organizational structures and partnership work, and building
leadership for IPV primary prevention in their states. Through
participation in DELTA PREP, state domestic violence coalitions will be
better positioned to serve as catalysts for promotion and
implementation of primary prevention programs, policies and practices
at the state and community levels. Project accomplishments include:
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Coalitions have documented over 200 organizational changes to build their coalition’s internal capacity for IPV primary prevention work
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Cross-site evaluation using multiple methods and data
sources to explore the links between building organizational
capacity and engaging in primary prevention activities at the
state and community-levels
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Opportunities for shared learning between DELTA PREP
and DELTA coalitions, as well as other national partners doing
primary prevention work
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Data-to-Action Process Improvement Framework to inform
technical assistance, coaching activities, and product
development for dissemination
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National Leadership Committee with representatives from
federal agencies, national domestic violence groups, academia, public
health departments, and prevention practitioners
Publications
DELTA Program: At-a-Glance
References
Johnson MP. Patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence: two forms of violence of against women. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 1995;57(2):283–294.
Dahlberg LL and Krug EG. Violence – a global public health
problem. In Krug EG, Dahlberg LL, Mercy JA, Zwi AB, Lozano R, editors.
World Report on Violence and Health. Geneva: World Health Organization;
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