All of the core faculty within the Violence Against Women Research and Outreach Initiative share a strong commitment to engaging in outreach activities.
Outreach involves generating, transmitting, applying, and preserving knowledge for the direct benefit of external audiences. It means working directly with
community members to create a mutually beneficial relationship between the University and the public. Outreach and engagement involves the co-creation and
application of knowledge, a relationship that increases both partners' capacity to address issues. Such new knowledge can sometimes be incorporated into
future research and teaching and applied in new settings.
Electronically linking domestic violence shelter programs in Michigan, and with MSU faculty,
students, and support services
Professors Lori Post and Cris Sullivan are Senior Fellows within
MSU's Office on Outreach and Engagement. Their first outreach project at MSU involved obtaining
a grant from MSU's All-University Outreach in 1995 to electronically link domestic violence shelter programs in Michigan with each other and with MSU faculty,
students, and support services
(1). They worked closely with each participating agency, providing them the technology and information needed to access the
internet (which most domestic abuse agencies could not do at this time). This project also funded equipment and internet connections for the
Michigan Coalition
Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV) and the
Michigan Domestic Violence Prevention and Treatment Board (MDVPTB). This initial effort was a tremendous
success. Nonprofits increased their ability to communicate with each other and with government funders, and further collaborations with MSU researchers were
initiated. The success of this pilot study allowed the MSU VAWROI faculty to garner trust and develop a strong rapport with shelters, crisis centers,
state agencies, and advocacy groups across the state. This outreach effort led to Dr. Post being appointed to the technology advisory board for the State of Michigan.
She wrote a proposal with the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence that resulted in a $650,000 grant to purchase computers, printers, and
internet services for every shelter program in the state of Michigan.
OTHER OUTREACH ACTIVITIES
Surveillance system in Michigan & community response
Drs. Lori Post and Chris Maxwell have developed a surveillance system in Michigan (now in its tenth year) to study the trends and characteristics of sexual violence,
as largely this is still an invisible population. They have also partnered with key stakeholders in Marquette and Iron Mountain to develop and evaluate a coordinated
community response to domestic violence that would better hold batterers accountable while providing services for battered women. This project included a large number
of Native Americans, and services were modified to be culturally relative and sensitive to the different tribal communities.
Examining how recent advances in medical forensics are influencing prosecution of sexual
assault/abuse crimes
With funding from a MSU IRGP Multidisciplinary Incubator grant, Drs. Rebecca Campbell, Celia Wills and Deb Bybee are examining how recent advances in medical forensics are influencing prosecution of sexual
assault/abuse crimes. Their collaborative partner in this work is
Turning Point, Inc., a Macomb County domestic violence-rape crisis programs with a nationally-recognized
forensic sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) program. This research project is the first in the country to examine if and how the medical forensic services
provided by a SANE program contributes to increased prosecution rates for child victims of sexual assault/abuse.
Collaborating with mental health services to create a community-based research infrastructure
Drs. Cris Sullivan, Rebecca Campbell, and Deb Bybee received a a five-year NIMH infrastructure grant ("Interventions and Practice Research Infrastructure Program")
in 2007 that involves collaborating with a well-established domestic violence-rape crisis mental health services organization
[Turning Point Inc.] to develop a
research infrastructure in a community setting that is supportive of collaborative research on mental health services for battered women and rape victims.
The five-year project will result in a community-based research infrastructure able to support and sustain a wide variety of research studies pertaining to the
mental health consequences of intimate and sexual violence.
Evaluation of advocacy
services for battered women significantly impacts survivors, MSU students, national policy, other states, and intervention research
Drs. Cris Sullivan, Rebecca Campbell, Deb Bybee and Lori Post all worked on an NIMH-funded project that included an experimental, longitudinal evaluation of advocacy
services for battered women. This study has had significant impacts at the local, state and national levels. It resulted in (1) hundreds of domestic abuse survivors
receiving advocacy services, (2) hundreds of MSU students gaining invaluable community outreach experience in the area of violence against women, (3) national policy changes,
(4) replications across numerous states, and (5) influencing the direction of future intervention research in the field of violence against women.
(1) She obtained this grant with Drs. Merry Morash (Criminal Justice), Jan Bokemeier (Sociology), and Diane Levande (Social Work), who with Dr. Sullivan
founded MSU's Violence Against Women Research and Outreach Initiative (VAWROI). Over time, as Dr. Levande retired and Drs. Bokemeier and Morash moved into more
administrative roles, VAWROI became inactive. However, the other interdisciplinary efforts noted in this document developed.
Current Projects
