Delta Prep

Abstract

We are social animals, and the quality of our relationships with each other lies at the heart of our health and well-being. The relationships we have with our spouses and domestic partners are perhaps among the most central in shaping our lives. Violence with our partners, of course, severely undermines and, in many cases, can destroy these relationships so important to our health and well-being. Unfortunately, intimate partner violence (IPV) is all too common. In 2011, over 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 of men had experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner sometime in their lifetime (Breiding et al., 2014). In addition, almost 1 in 10 women and 1 in 200 men had been raped by an intimate partner in their lifetime. These statistics, however, only tell part of the problem. The women, men, and children exposed to IPV are vulnerable to a broad range of public health problems and risk behaviors including, for example, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), chronic pain, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular disease, stroke, smoking, binge drinking, and HIV risk factors (Breiding, Black, & Ryan, 2008). Because of its prevalence and many health impacts, IPV must be considered an urgent public health problem deserving the same level of attention and investment we give to problems of similar magnitude and impact.Given the urgency of addressing IPV and an associated increase in the demand for evidence-based IPV prevention innovations, building an infrastructure that can more effectively move innovations from research to action is increasingly important. This infrastructure requires attention to the capacity of state and local organizations to be successful in scaling up effective programs with fidelity (Flaspohler, Meehan, Maras, & Keller, 2012; Wandersman et al., 2008). It also requires a reach beyond traditional health agencies to partners with deep experience and expertise in IPV and social action. The four articles in this focus section describe the DELTA PREP Project, an initiative to build infrastructure to support IPV prevention and accelerate prevention efforts within 19 states through state domestic violence coalitions. The project (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) was initiated through a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention, state domestic violence coalitions, the CDC Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which provided funding for the project.As the four articles describe, local agencies emerged around the United States in the 1970s to provide services for IPV victims. These local agencies and associated local movements eventually developed into state domestic violence coalitions, which brought greater visibility to the Violence Against Women Movement (http://www.nnedv. org/policy/issues/vawa.html) and intimate partner and sexual violence in particular. With the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 (Laney, 2010), the U.S. Congress appropria...