District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic

Trainings and Technical Assistance: The Coalitions professional training programs are trauma-informed, survivor-centered, culturally responsive, and center accessible service provision. Our semiannual Domestic Violence Advocate Core Competency Training (DVACT), held in June and November each year, grounds new advocates in these guiding principles. DVACT is a 40-hour interactive training that covers topics including the dynamics of domestic violence, trauma informed care, crisis intervention, personal safety, risk management, criminal and civil court processes, and resources available to victims and survivors. The course also offers in-depth information on intersecting issues such as homelessness, cultural humility, working with LGBTQ+ survivors, and survivors who are deaf. This fundamental training is one of the three key components for advocates to obtain advocate privilege statute in DC that ensures all advocate and survivor conversations are privileged and confidential. All workshops are facilitated in American Sign Language, Spanish, and English using simultaneous interpretation. Responses to the training were universally positive and post-training evaluations showed substantial knowledge gained in target areas. Our three-hour advanced trainings, or professional development opportunities, for domestic violence advocates this year included workshops on the intersections of financial abuse and teen dating violence, supporting survivors navigating the child welfare systemto increase the understanding of mandated reporting requirements, supporting men who have experienced domestic violence, and online tech abusefocusing on the misuse of artificial intelligence and tech abuse in abusive relationships. The Coalition also convened monthly advocate calls which are one-hour community building opportunities for client-serving advocates from across the multiple service areas working with survivors, to come together and share knowledge and needs. DCCADV facilitated community education trainings in 2024, addressing how to identify and support survivors navigating cases related to financial abuse; improving a teams training facilitation skills; Domestic Violence 101; and trauma informed care.

Community Education and Public Awareness: The DC Coalition works to engage district residents in the movement to end domestic violence. We communicate through regular updates to our website and social media platforms, highlighting issues that impact survivors of domestic violence including gun violence, sex trafficking, homelessness, access to safe abortion, legislation, and other pertinent topics. Our website also serves as a clearinghouse of local resources and information, including online training modules. Our social media platforms highlight the different awareness months such as Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) in October, Stalking Awareness Month in January, and Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in February. For DVAM, DCCADV staff and member programs held our annual Paint The Town Purple event, chalking about healthy relationships at fourteen metro stops around the city and sharing domestic violence awareness information with community members. We also participated in DVAM tabling events at local small businesses For Purple Thursday, we held our annual photo challenge, asking DC business and residents to dress in purple to honor survivors on the 3rd Thursday of DVAM and post to social media, tagging the Coalition. We also participated in tabling events at local businesses. DCCADV engaged with community members through other outreach events including, Dawn Dalton was invited as a keynote speaker to open the National Coalition Against Domestic Violences Annual Conference, DCCADV also hosted a panel discussion on the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Rahimithe SCOTUS case where DCCADV led the development and filing of an amicus brief centered on survivor experiences. Other outreach events included presentations and/or tabling at the U.S. Department of Labor, DC Womens Bureau, Internal Review Service, and the United States Citizen and Immigration Services at the Department of Homeland Security.