N.Y. Pioneers Tougher Approach to Batterers
By Francesca Levy - WeNews correspondent

NEW CITY, N.Y. (WOMENSENEWS)--Phyllis B. Frank founded a program in 1978 to counter domestic violence through workshops for men. It was the first batterer-intervention program in the state and among the first in the country.

Thirty years later, the director of the VCS Community Change Project, located in New City, a suburb about 45 minutes north of New York, finishes off the opening paragraph of a grant application and spins in her chair to face a
reporter's question about such programs.

"Batterer programs are a dumping ground," Frank says flatly. "We send men here, and we think we're doing something. I decided at one point the best possible thing I could do would be to close."

But Frank did not shut down the program.

Instead, during the 1990s she redefined its goals -- aligning it more with sentencing and court-order enforcement than rehabilitation -- and began to develop what would become known as the New York model.
(...)

Rather than trying to address the behavior of the individual men, trainers discuss key tenets of the battered women's movement. The uniting principle of the curriculum is that domestic violence is couched in a history of oppression and male privilege; the sessions are dedicated to unpacking and presenting that history.

The program also imposes its own rules, requiring, for example, that men arrive on time, with full payment for the session (no change is made), and stay awake throughout the sessions. (...)

For more information: New York Model for Batterer Programs : - http://www.nymbp.org/

Check out this portal of great, original articles on this issue! Women's eNews series, Dangerous Trends, Innovative Responses : -
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2906/

[ 09 April 2008: Message edited by: martin dufresne ]