Domestic Violence Action Research Collective Housing Study

Abstract

A group of researchers and practitioners—including Ms. Odongo and Dr. Nnawulezi—came together to design and implement a community-based, participatory research study led by the Domestic Violence Action Research Collective (DVARC). This DC-based collective brings together victimization researchers, advocates, and practitioners to generate an evidence base that increases survivor-responsive care with multiple systems across the city....DVARC spent the duration of the funding period designing and implementing the first phase of a multi-phase exploratory-sequential (qualitative-quantitative) mixed method, community-based research study. The aim of this study was to: (a) identify the specific assessment questions that Virginia Williams (VW) [a governmental housing entry point for families experiencing housing instability] staff used to assess whether violence was the primary cause of current homelessness; (b) understand survivors’ perceptions of the screening process; and (c) determine how the screening process influenced survivors’ future decision making. [CVRL Note: The Center for Victim Research (CVR) funds and supports local-level Research-and-Practice (R/P) Fellowships. DVARC was part of the 2018 cohort] (Author Text)