INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY WELL-BEING
Network
Leadership
NETWORK CO-LEADS
Richard Barth, PhD
Professor
University of Maryland
rbarth@ssw.umaryland.edu
Patricia Kohl, PhD
Associate Professor
Washington University
pkohl@wustl.edu
Shanti Kulkarni, PhD
Professor
UNC Charlotte
skulkar4@uncc.edu
Jill Messing, PhD
Professor
Arizona State University
jill.messing@asu.edu
STEERING COMMITTEE
Melissa Jonson-Reid, PhD
Washington University in St. Louis
Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, PhD
The Ohio State University
Megan Holmes, PhD
Case Western Reserve University
Todd Herrenkohl, PhD
University of Michigan
Samuel Aymer, PhD
Hunter College - CUNY
Dexter Voisin, PhD
University of Toronto
LOOKING BACK
Over the past five years, members of Build Healthy Relationships to End Violence
network and their colleagues have:
• Published two working papers on ending
gender-based violence and reducing child
maltreatment
• Convened over 200 practitioners, researchers,
and advocates at Arizona State University for
a conference on Promoting Just and Effective
Solutions to End Gender Based Violence
• Worked with the Jim Casey Initiative to
identify gaps in child welfare research and
early intervention work
• Hosted a one-and-a-half-day workshop at
Washington University in St. Louis which
included a systems dynamics analysis exercise
related to mainstreaming gender
• Secured a $6.5 million grant from the
National Institutes of Health to create The
Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment
Policy, Research and Training (CICM) at
Washington University in St. Louis as well as
a $1 million grant from the National Institute
of Justice to study intimate partner violence
among youth at the University of Washington
• Contributed to a special issue of the journal
Social Work on "Mainstreaming Gender in the
Grand Challenges"
• Delivered two webinars on the implications of
COVID -19 for children and families
• Contributed to the development of myPlan,
an online tool designed to help students who
may be experiencing dating violence evaluate
their safety, make decisions, and connect to
campus and community services
• Directed the AmeriCorps Survivor Link
Program at Arizona State University, where
members have engaged in over 186,000 hours
of service across 70 community partner sites,
earned $1,190,000 in scholarship funding, and
implemented 961 risk-informed safety plans
with domestic violence survivors
• Evaluated an anti-human trafficking initiative
in Colorado (Innovate Colorado)
• Participated in ongoing research projects -
DataSMART and SURROUND - at the Center
for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy,
Research, and Training
LOOKING AHEAD
Over the next five years, the network
to Build Healthy Relationships to End
Violence will focus their work to:
1. Scientifically ground the Grand Challenge
to inform future research and support other
Grand Challenge goals
2. Advance the field's understanding that
healthy relationships are a major factor in
ending multiple forms of violence
3. Develop a toolkit for researchers and
practitioners with relevant healthy
relationship definitions and interventions
4. Position themselves to approach funders
to support research, policy development,
and practice
5. Better prepare social workers (practitioners,
students, educators, policymakers, researchers,
advocates) to promote healthy relationships
and intervene in violence across practice
areas and social ecological levels
6. Provide a forum to discuss the re-visioning of
systems that bridges research to practice and
practice to research
In addition, they intend to:
• Continue to advocate for their policy
recommendations:
1. Increase federal funding for prevention
and intervention activities, including
efforts to reduce the structural
inequalities that perpetuate genderbased violence (GBV)
2. Increase research funding for evidencebased interventions that strengthen and
enhance safety in families victimized
through abuse and violence
3. Link data systems to identify
opportunities for preventive services
• Collaborate with other Grand Challenges
around mainstreaming gender and developing
approaches to violence prevention that are
less carceral and more relationship-based
(e.g. Promote Smart Decarceration)
An Impact Report at Year 5 of the 10-Year Initiative | 15